Molly Flatt and Benn Achilleas from WOMMA UK created this workshop for the Royal Mail about how to bring word of mouth to direct mail.

1. Direct mail, meet word of mouth
Make love, not war
10th
November 2010, Mail Media Centre, London
Molly Flat and Benn Achilleas

2. Warm up
What the **** is WOM anyway?

3. Fantasist (in D&D), Snow boarder (goofy),
University (revolutionary), new tech hacker (old
skool), forum moderator (too nice), forum owner
(too much admin), gun for hire, hippy (not
enough hair) and now…?
Co-founder @neoco.
@mrbennbenn

4. Fantasist (in wellies), Vandal, Violinist (badly),
English Lit Student, Comic Book Lover
(geeeek!), Product Junkie (hello, Veria),
Summer Holiday Bartender (rubbish), Actress
(only mildly less rubbish), Corporate Coach,
Online Journalist (art and tech), and now…?
WOM Evangelist @1000heads. Yes, really.
@mollyflatt

7. “word of mouth is
the best medium
of all”
William Bernbach, American Advertising Executive, 1911-1982

12. 27,000,000
Number of Britons expected to be a member of a social network by 2012
3.5bn
More than
Pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, etc.)
shared each week on Facebook
1,300,000 tph

13. 37 yrs old
The average social network user is
Of social network
users are aged 25+
75%
Average ratio of
male/female on social
networking sites47/53
50%
Almost
Of Facebook users
earn more than
£30k

17. “Through understanding we
have better and more
creative ideas that help foster
relationships between
people and brands”

19. Understanding
2. What the brand wants
Grassroots authenticity,
global, challenger,
transformer
1. What the brand has
3. What the people have
4. What the people want
Visibility, advocacy, sales,
global traffic
Passion, ambition,
communities, influence
Exposure, experiences,
self-improvement,
networking

20. Ideas
BRAND PEOPLE
Visibility Exposure
Tour de FranceTour de France
Advocacy Experience
One man and
his SKINS
One man and
his SKINS
Sales Self-improvementProduct trialsProduct trials
Global
traffic
NetworkingParallel global
journeys
Parallel global
journeys

21. Relationships
Emotionalindex
NASCENT ADVOCACY
LOW LEVEL OF EMOTIONAL
INVESTMENT
MATURE ADVOCACY
HIGH LEVEL OF EMOTIONAL
INVESTMENT
Time
First post
about a
brand in an
online
conversation
WOMProfiling /
understanding
Advocacy, peer
recommendation,
purchase strength
Personal and
relevant
conversational
marketing
Spark
(advertising, in-store,
launch anticipation,
digital campaign)
Ignition
Ongoing
Fuelling
(WOM / advocacy
stream)Direct
engagement
phase

23. Traditionally
Anticipation, excitement
Ongoing gratification
Product launch
Reasons to join
conversation
More energy needed

24. Word of Mouth
Higher spend per capita
Recommending products & services
Embracing future activity
Building passion
Developing offline following
Respected
WOM
Themes & Campaigns
Product launch

25. Round 1
DM and WOM: worlds apart?

26. direct
mail
vs
word of
mouth

27. direct vs indirect

28. personalised vs personal

29. individual vs social

30. isolated vs sustained

31. traditional vs disruptive

32. Round 2
Working together

34. http://www.chrisbrogan.com/my-death-notice-from-frenzied-waters/

36. http://dailymobile.se/2010/05/12/the-golden-ticket-and-the-nokianav-challenge/

41. 4 big WOM triggers
(whatever your media)

42.
Authenticity
WOM Spark 1

43.
Insight: I love you, man

44.
Guru: Bill

45.
Case study: Starbucks
“Authenticity is what we
stand for. It’s part of who
we are. If we compromise
who we are to achieve
higher profits, what have
we accomplished?
Eventually all our
customers would figure it
out…
Let’s get back to the
core”
Chairman Howard Schulz
First for Fairtrade
coffee and loyalty
cards
YouTube videos
highlighting
Seattle origins
Ideas in
Action blog
My Starbucks Idea
social network
Local
design cafes
Staff remember
regulars’ names
and orders and
give freebies

46.
Disruption
WOM Spark 2

47.
Insight: the Hudson plane crash

48.
Guru: Anderson

49.
Case study: The $73,000 bar tab
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PiL6sJ325Q

50.
Gaming
WOM Spark 3

51.
Insight: we’re all gamers now
 Nearly one-half of US social network
users now play social games, making it
the fifth most popular social
networking activity, ahead of watching
videos or searching for new contacts
 28% of all female internet users play
games such as FarmVille and Mafia
Wars
http://www2.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007665

52.
Guru: McGonigal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n37v-rDqhEU
 Connect with others in a collective experience
 Be part of something bigger than ourselves
 Actively do something concrete
 Feel we’re good at something

53.
Case study: Lego Click
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OinrOnjzH_A
Celebrates light-
bulb moments
when things just
CLICK
Brings together people
of all sorts in a
community to develop
new ideas
iPhone app: 2mill
downloads in
launch month
Award winning
short film on
YouTube
Kids of all
ages get to
play
Build world’s
biggest
lightbulb in
Smithsonian
Posters
around New
York

54.
Observational learning
WOM Spark 4

55.
Insight: baaa

56.
Gurus: Rogers vs Vejlgaard

57.
Case study: Mehndi
Clare Ramsey
Trendspotter, Youth
Intellligence, NYC
1990s “I was travelling in
India and saw Indian women
decorated with mehndi
everywhere”
1996 Finds henna in local
store, paints minimalist
mehndi
1996 Others in her
regular café start asking
about them and emulating
1997 Book on street
culture mentions mehndi
as a trend
1997 Ibiza cafes start
offering mehndi
1998 Prince and Madonna
seen with mehndi
1999 National Geographic
mehndi is “a very cool
thing to do”
1999 LA artist Paolo
Giacomini “now it’s hugel
popular – in Japan, Argentina,
Sweden, Greece, My
Guatemalan maid does it”
2000 Estee Lauder offers
mehndi kits

58. Round 3
Knuckle down

59. In pairs, look at each piece of direct mail in turn.
1. Are you using any WOM triggers in your
existing DM? If so, list the ways
2. For each piece, pick one of the WOM triggers
you think could work best (authenticity,
disruption, gaming, observational learning)
and identify specific ways in which you could
integrate that approach into the DM. Think
design, tone, takeaways, method of delivery,
packaging, call to action etc etc.
WOM optimising your DM

60. Thank you
Molly Flatt
molly.flatt@1000heads.com
@1000heads
+7788 746642
www.1000heads.com
Benn Achilleas, Neoco
benn@neoco.com
@neoco
+7951 673785
www.neoco.com
www.wommauk.org
@wommauk
julian@wommauk.org