WORD OF MOUTH ADVERTISING WORTH $1 BILLION
Word Of Mouth (WOM) advertising is arguably the world’s oldest form of marketing, and it’s on the rise as advertisers pour even more into this discipline.
What’s consumer word-of-mouth advocacy worth to marketers? According to AdAge.com: try $1 billion. That’s how much marketers spent on WOM in 2006, according to an independent research report on the field that will be unveiled during a session at the annual
“Word-Of-Mouth Conference” in Las Vegas today. The analysis, believed to be the first in-depth look at word of mouth, reports that spending on the emerging discipline has increased from $76 million in 2001 to $981 million in 2006 and is expected to grow to approximately $3.7 billion by 2011.
Equally important to the success of WOM marketing may be the research suggesting it is more effective than other forms of advertising. For instance, a recent Nielsen Global Survey of over 26,000 people found that nearly 78% of respondents trusted “recommendations from consumers,” a total 15% higher than the second-most credible source, newspapers. And this trust; according to some, leads to more sales at the cash register.
When you compare WOM as a strategy [to other methods], trusting a friend or influential person is the most determining factor when someone decides to purchase a product.