The Tom Cruise saga now has another chapter; he’s been fired! Sumner Redstone, parent company of Paramount Pictures, estimates that Mr Cruise’s ‘antics’ preceding the release of Mission: Impossible III could have cost Paramount Pictures up to $150 million in revenue.
By Redstone’s own admittance, Mr Cruise has the best word-of-mouth quality of any star in Hollywood, meaning he attracts fans to the box office by people simply talking about his new film. But the studios have realized word-of-mouth works in a negative way as well. So when your biggest star is making a mockery of himself, and in turn it costs you money, what do you do?
Studios spend an enormous amount of money marketing their films; it doesn’t help when you’re biggest star has become an overpriced, nightly Saturday Night Live joke…full story here
America’s largest brewer, Anheuser-Busch, has pulled their top creative executive off current projects and given him a new task: short films to be virally marketed.
With a $1.56 billion marketing budget, the beer maker can afford to do a lot of different things. It’s indicative of the times that they have decided their number one priority in marketing should be ‘humourous shorts and sitcom-type programs’ that can travel virally on cellphones and the web.
Once again, another major spender is redirecting their minds and their wallets to a new way of doing business…full story here
In yet another sign of the times, McKinsey & Co. is about to release a study with even more bad news for traditional marketers. The bottom line is scary for some: by 2010, traditional TV advertising will be one-third as effective as in 1990.
Those are shocking numbers for a lot of people, but are easily explained. Essentially, the younger generation of teens (oh so important to advertisers!) spend less than half the time of adults watching TV. And – get this – they spend 600% more time online than adults!
TV advertising is going down, Internet time is going up…and where are your dollars being spent?
See the full story here.
Here’s just a few numbers from the Word of Mouth Marketing Association in case you’re still not buying into the whole WOM thing…
-76% of people don’t believe companies tell the truth in advertisements
-68% of people trust other people ‘like themselves’
-92% cite WOM as the best source for product ideas
-76% of all Americans talk about at least 1 brand a day (and average 10)
-15% of every conversation in America includes something about a product or service
-positive WOM conversations outnumber negative ones, 6:1
-61% of conversations have an impact on the likelihood to buy a brand
That’s just a few snippets from the report…one last fact:
100% of conversations about WOM involve people talking about WOM…:)
Download wom_research.pdf
A rather humorous billboard in Manhattan blasts Steve for his infidelity. The writer? His ‘soon to be ex-wife’ Emily. Emily was soon famous, with invitations to appear on chat shows, and fashion magazines wanting to write about her.
The only problem? Emily was fictitious.
Court TV sponsored this stunt, in order to create a word-of-mouth campaign about their channel. Viewers of the billboard circulated the story, however, and Court TV was busted within 24 hours. Of course, even though they got found out, their message did exactly what they wanted it to do: create a buzz about Court TV.
The question now arises – where does the line need to be drawn? Court TV isn’t hiding the fact they are responsible for the sign. Yet, they made up a character in order to create buzz.
Is that right or wrong? I’m not sure. Full story here.
