Buzz Canuck

Ding! Facebook Toronto Hits 1,000,000

On December 15th, Toronto officially landed it's One Millionth Facebooker...yeh! (can't you hear Kool and the Gang "Celebration" in the background and a big super group poke in your Facebook inbox)

We're so proud. Our little social network is growing up into adolescence...even though they sometimes pull off misguided teenage hijinx like Beacon, they always learn from their mistakes.  It seems like just yesterday, they were a fresh faced kid (wait a minute, it was almost yesterday). My how time flies.

It took only 8 months for them to double their Toronto cell. Perhaps we'll be sitting on two million Toronto Facebookers by next August!?

As the first North American City to hit the mark (unfortunately for us, London has the biggest title with 1.9 million Londoners already Facebooking) - let's look at our cousin North American cells over 300,000 people:

New York City - 607,000
Vancouver - 593,000
Chicago  - 463,000
Montreal - 425,000
L.A. - 385,000
Washington - 382,000
Calgary - 323,000    
Boston - 310,000

You can already hear the earliest of adopters thinking about jumping overboard...the interesting thing is that  they haven't left yet...why?  No suitable alternative. Twitter - fringe and a bit intense. My Space - low rent. Bebo/Cyworld - somewhere else. Second Life - technical issues. Plus, when a full 20% of the world around you is on the platform, it's tough to leave. Maybe Google OpenSocial will produce the next  evolution, but for the next year - expect growth and intrigue everywhere for Facebook.

In the meantime, everybody Facebooker sing:
"Let old acquaintances be sought,
and never brought to mind?
These new acquiantances,
drain on productivity and time.

CHORUS:

For social grapevine, my dear,

for social grapevine,

we’ll take an invite and vampire bite yet,

by our social grapevine.

And surely ye’ll be your Scrabbulous-stoup !
And surely I’ll be mine !
And we’ll take a cup o’ new friends yet,
via our social grapevine.

We wonder Microsoft investment mind,
as they paid a chunk in kind ;
But we’ll Facebook happily fit,
and worry later about Facebook's valuation line.

And there’s a super poke,  my trusty fiere !
And gies a Hot or Not o’ thine !
And we’ll tak a request for Are You Interested,
from our beloved social grapevine."

Happy 2008 Facebook!

Top 30 Words and Phrases of 2007

As a word of mouth company, we should have a handle on the words that are becoming part of the vernacular of our everyday discussions.

Based on Merriam-Webster's, Oxfords, Dictionary.com's and others , here's our aggegrated "words that were" for 2007:

1. wOOt - a gaming term for expressing joy after winning a contest
2. locavore - local eating foodies
3. klimakatostrophe - a climate catastrophie in German
4.  aging in place - aging in your existing residence
5. facebook - as a verb
6. bacn - a better received, more welcome version of spam
7. conundrum - a difficult problem or riddle
8. cloudware - online applications with massive data storage facilities
9. surge - part of U.S. souped up military strategy in Iraq
10. quixotic - capricious, foolishly impractical
11. colony collapse disorder - what's happening to the honeybee dropoff
12. blamestorm - sitting around as a group and trying to allocate blame
13. cougar - an older woman pursuing younger men for romance
14. brokeback - a synonym for gay
15. sardoodledom - an overly contrived pot, over-staged
16. MRAP vehicle - mine resistant ambush protected vehicle
17. apathethic - showing little interest, concern or emotion
18. mumblecore - independent film with low budgets, unprofessional actors and improvised script
19. Pecksniffian - haughtily hypocritical
20. previvor - not being diagnosed with something you are genetically predisposed to
21. hypocrite - a person who puts on a false appearance
22. social graph - the network of friends you have on social networks
23. charlatan - a quack
24. upcycling - recycling a "good" to give it a better use than its original  use
25. tase - to stun by a taser
26. Ninja loan - loans given to people with no income, jobs or assets
27. womenomics - the impact of greater purchasing power of women on the global economy
28. push present - a gift provided by a husband to a wife for giving birth
29.  fixie - fixed gear bikes
30.  coffee art - creative images in coffee

And now, what will 2008 bring? Predictions?

Paul Potts - Nice Guys Do Finish First

Perhaps I'm in the Christmas mood and have become a Canadian version of Jimmy Stewart but I've become transfixed about the Paul Potts story for the last two hours.

For those that don't know yet, Paul is a rather ordinary looking, crooked toothed salesmen from Wales who pulled off the best cinema I've ever witnessed on a reality show. Period. He became Britain's Got Talent 2007 winner in June and now best selling artist in Britain by a country mile. 13.5 million Brits caught his award-winning act, his tryout video YouTube video has been watched 18.7 million times and been favorited 54,000 times and elicited 42,000 comments. His performances of Puccini's Nessun Dorma (None Sahll Sleep) and Bocelli's Con te patiro (I''ll Go With You) are the stuff of legend.

The big reasons - he's just such a great story, he has an undeniably great voice and he's such a humble underdog guy. The secondary reasons - Simon Cowell's absolute turnabout (it's priceless to watch), my newest celeb crush Amanda Holden (she's priceless to watch) and the passion of British fans (say what you want about soccer hooligans but  they put  North American fans to shame by supporting  what they like and getting out of their chairs to mean it).

Back to Paul though - for a portly and ordinary man to make my hairs stand on my back, stir my emotions and leave me a bit choked up and make me even have an appetite for opera (not my normal passion play), now that's word of mouth virtuosity. Total and utter goosebumps on this end...some of which I can't explain why.

When I think about it, Paul Potts, he is a living embodiment of eight of the nine ingredients of great word of mouth storytelling:
- David vs. Goliath - the average guy who gets noticed by the world
- Avalanche about to roll - the turn from undiscovered nobody to bestselling star
- Contrarian/counterintuitive - how can a unknown guy that looks like this perform so well
- Aspirations/belief  - at least for me, the story and the music genuinely stirred my soul
- Anxiety - when I saw it for the first time, I was rooting for him not to miss a note... he didn't
- Personal Story - one of the videos above really tells the unbelievable and emotional story of a lump of coal who became a shiny diamond
- Glitz/Glam - the videos, the audience, the way this segment was shot, enhanced
my viewing experience
- Event-related - these performances helped Paul win Britain's most popular talent show

So do yourself a holiday favour--if you're reading this post...put everything you're doing away for 15 minutes - don't Twitter, don't Blackberry, don't pretend you're working - turn your volume up high on your computer, watch the videos above and I defy you not to be enhanced and moved by the experience (if not, then perhaps your heart may be two sizes too small). Magic exists and dreams do come true...

Word of Mouth...No Word of Foot

As a proud Blundstones wearer and a word of mouth practitioner, i just love this ad.

Makes me wonder, why is it all the buzzable products and ideas come from Australia?...

Do yourself two favours just in time for winter:
a) pick up a pair, they'll keep you comfy and dry
b) see Blundstone's user generated gallery of shoes produced through a worthwhile art and design event supporting homeless youth called Sketch

Word of Mouth Gaydar

And now for something completely different....in a 180 degree change in topic from my last post, let's talk about gay and lesbian word of mouth.

As we've witnessed in Canada, gay marriage has not been the most openly received news by traditional churches. Even though this chasm exists between gay lifestyle and church practice, gays and lesbians form an equally powerful word of mouth community as their religious peers, perhaps more so.

I still remember working in the early '90s and any kind of gay or lesbian affiliation was tantamount to controversy. Even though, most marketers recognized that gays and lesbians as a group, form a powerful, financially well-off and very influential portion of the population, routinely we played down these associations, with even one beer company at the time, going to the effort of delivering their beer in generic trucks to gay bars on Church St. vs. the heavily branded ones that delivered to the hetero bars. I, for one, am glad we've come out of the marketing closet...and for good reason.   

The research (from Harris):
- Gays and lesbians are 50% more likely to follow up on new trends
- Gays and lesbians are 30% more likely to ask for the name of a branded alcohol spirit when ordering a  drink
- the #1 and #4 influence for gays and lesbians impression of a company reputation "word of mouth" (45%) and "close friends" (29%) wedged in between the web (29% ) and magazines and newspapers (29%)

There is a huge economic windfall to embracing the gay and lesbian community with open arms. According to Community Marketing, Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto are the 4th, 5th and 6th ranked travel destinations for American gays and lesbians. Given new travel restrictions, it's also important to note - 84% of U.S. gays and lesbians hold a valid passport vs. the national average of 29% and they spend 50% more when they travel.

As head of marketing for Guinness, I uses to see a range of common sensical, gay-targeted proposals with my net registration being - they're wealthy, they're influential,  they entertain often, they rally behind gay-advocated brands, they talk to each other...a lot and they tend to concentrate as communities  within cities ...oh, and your competitors don't spend enough time with them given value-based concerns. Who wouldn't want that as an audience? and what a word of mouth goldmine?

In other interesting gay and lesbian tidbits:

-Commercial Closet has an interesting ranking of the most gay and lesbian positive advertisers. This year,  Amex and Absolut are being feted as the best (or maybe they're just going alphabetically).

- in something I full believe based on my own sometimes-challenged gaydar, gays have much better gaydar than straight individuals and some of it may be rooted in perceptible traits - counterclockwise whorl of hair, finger length, accent, lefthandedness (gays are 50% more lefthanded) and even body smell

The Religion of Word of Mouth

Discussing two topics, religion or politics, can be a powderkeg to conversation. Emotion, beliefs, tradition and symbolism are powerful ingredients on both fronts, and for all their foibles, these two professions have differentiated their offerings very well. Given their passion-inducing nature, both topics can bring down or dominate cocktail party conversation in a quick and polarizing way.

In the U.S., the appetite to talk about religion openly and then invite corporations to participate in what's been termed the "prosperity gospel" is alive and well.

And why not? Check out these stats:
- 190 million Christians in the US
- 70 million evangelicals in the US
- 1,600 Christian radio outlets that now constitute 5% share of the market
- $8.6 Billion in religious goods sales
- Christian book sales up +15% annually
- 320,000 Christian churches and an addition 1,200 mega churches that serve 1,000s of people at any one time

In a contrast to overall declining attendance in churches, these numbers cut across the grain. And it has not gone unnoticed among marketers. Boutique WOM firms like Ground Force Network, ChatterJam and  Motive Marketing have made a healthy business about connecting church to company and spreading the word about the Word. McDonald's, Disney, Kraft and DaimlerChrysler have all placed themselves before the altar with church-fed hits like The Passion of the Christ and Chronicles of Narnia.

Roper points to the fact that key influencers (10% of the population)  are 31% more likely to have a strong connection to a religious/spiritual group.

As Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee are now learning in their race for the Republican 2008 candidacy, religion is a powerful political juggernaut, particularly with the most fervent of evangelicals as they favor allegiance with the Republicans over the Democrats by more than a 3-to-1 ratio (59% to 16%).

Lest we think that this is strictly a Christian phenomenon, Anita Diamant's Red Tent is a well-documented example of how a small group of reform Rabbis turned a languishing book into a fast rising best-seller.

Interestingly, the church members most likely to evangelize about their faith are according to a study by Barna : Pentecostal (61 percent), Assembly of God, (61 percent), Baptist (43 percent), Church of Christ (35 percent), Episcopalians (14 percent) and  Catholics (10 percent).  Perhaps as a Catholic, maybe I just like the less in-your-face approach to religion .

Locally, Canadian firm Smith Roberts did a great job in my opinion recently promoting open discussion and addressing the United Church of Canada's waning attendance among the Starbucks-sipping population segment through Wondercafe.ca.

So the question is: it would appear that religion is a potent word of mouth vehicle but is using religion or religious affiliation an ethically and above-board manner to get your brand message through the grapevine?  Should religions be using a number of successful alternative marketing tactics that work so well in commercial arenas?  And what role should the pulpit be involved in the promotion and purveying of commercial interests?

Discuss...Amen.

Green Matrimonial Bliss

From the heart of Indonesia comes a great nuance to the  wedding ceremony. Couples in the Sragen district must contribute 5 seedlings of hardwood trees and hand them to whoever presides over the ceremony, who in turn hands them over to the government to plant. The program has served 400,000 trees back to the population.

It's a small vestige of the turnabout happening in Indonesia as they host the world summit on a new Kyoto, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono says preserving the nation's rich rainforests is now potentially worth more economically than cutting down the trees for profit. He notes Indonesia stands to benefit to the tune of potentially billions of dollars on an international carbon market by avoiding deforestation. He recently took part in a one day Indonesia-wide program to plant 80 million new trees in a single day.

In a presumed disincentive to breakups, the same process for divorces puts you back 25 seedlings.  Now that's some tough, green love. I guess the age old adage is true, easier to get into a good marriage than out of a bad one.

Operation Red Nose - Right Place, Right Time, Great Solution

On the heels of research from today's Globe and Mail that most Canadians would prefer cars to be enabled with breathalyzer-influenced ignition locks and  widespread agreement that police should be able to perform random spotchecks,  the Insurance Bureau of Canada has launched a timely cause named Operation Red Nose.

Not only is there a perfect fit for this program with Insurance, which at the best of times can be viewed as the begrudging monthly bill, but the program itself taps into and solves a key reason why people D and D - leaving behind their cars and fear of loss or property, face or next morning meetings.

The $2 million RedNose program recruits and insures volunteers to drive people in their own cars back safely to their homes. This weekend, Operation RedNose picks up people in Toronto's Distillery District and in 100 other communities across Canada. Context is everything in word of mouth and this is a wonderful solution in the right place at the right time. Nice fun integration of Rudolph avoiding any heavy-handed preaching. Bravo IBC.

And for those of you "tieing one on" with four wheels this weekend - please keep this number in mind 416-644-4964.

The Cool of Uncool and "Disassociative Reference Groups"

Dr. Darren Dahl and Kathleen White, marketing professors at UBC and Calgary respectively, have just released a research study in the Journal of Consumer Research about  "Disassociative Reference Groups"

In non-academic terms, their thesis - we oftentimes are driven to consume and buy products less for their own merits and more for being a brand that's not readily consumed  or adopted by the "out crowds" that don't fit our own self perception.

This is right out of marketing high school - we are tribal, even early in life, wearing the uniform and accessories of the "nerds", the "geeks", "the jocks", "the potheads",  "the drama clubbers", "the dropouts" or "the band mates" and going out of our way not to wear the garb of one of the "other people".  Watch "The Breakfast Club" of "High School Musical" for a brushup on high school tribalism.

Taken in a marketplace context, Dahl and White prove the axiom in marketing terms with 
important impacts on how we communicate, affiliate and engage consumers as marketers. Specifically, they concluded through an interesting "steak choice" exercise that men had a higher appetite to use diassociative groups in their purchase decision making, that the force was much more powerful in public vs. private settings and much higher with self conscious groups who might be inclined to agree with the statement  "I'm concerned with what people think about me" than people less sensitive to social consciousness. 

Brands that have effectively used this as a tool for generating affinity and group affiliation have tended to come from the underdog, challenger brand, cause-related, sponsorship or political categories.  Pepsi vs. Coke, Apple vs. PC (see two powerful examples of both sides above), Harley vs. European cycles, and Microbrews vs. Mainstream beers are all potent examples of this force at work. The U.S. political machine over the last few months has also focused on which candidates are the least associated with something (Clinton/old -Obama/inexperienced, Giuliani/big city-Romney/Mormon) . Yesterday, I spotted another example, an outdoor ad from Olympus cameras that takes a shot squarely at its competitor Nikon.

So next time (although overt comparative ads are decidedly un-Canadian) you're about to brag about all your own brand merits, you might want to stop and seed a message among your ambassadors less about what you are and more about the outcasts that purchase your competition.

Every brand fan put your hands together and chant "We're Not Them, We're Not Them".

Canada - Urbanized Word of Mouth

I've always referenced the 80-20 rule when it comes to where Canadians live - 80% urban/20% rural.

Roy MacGregor in The Globe and Mail takes an interesting step back and wades through the new census data muck and points to only 54% of our population living in communities above 100,000 people (which he argues is a better modern-day Mendoza line for a city).

The others stats - 18% live in 133 towns that number 20,000-99,000, 15% in 500 villages of 5,000 to 19,000 people and another 13 percent live in tiny burgs under 500 people.

The stats are interesting and accurate and his conclusion is right, Statcan should redefine what a city is using 2007 intuition not 1885 yardsticks. However, from a word of mouth influence standpoint. although Canada is made up of 5,000 towns, the centres of buzz and influence number no more than 5-10 cities and are heavily concentrated in three (Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto).

That's what makes Canada so interesting and viable for word of mouth marketing. Our influencer-driven word of mouth eminates from cities and those cities make up a huge part of the population, cultural, media and marketing backbone of Canada. Seed the right small numbers in these major centres and watch buzz fly throughout Canada.

From a strict population count, let's do a Canadian mega city vs. US mega city analysis.

Canada's Top 3 Metro Areas (Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver) - 10.9 million people
Canada's Population Count, 2007 -33.1 million people
% of Canadian Population in top 3 cities - 33% of total population

US Top Three Metro Areas (NYC, LA, Chicago) - 41.3 million people
US Population Count - 303.6 million people
% of US Population in top 3 cities - 13.6% of population

The reality is that if you run a localized word of mouth campaign in Toronto. Montreal and Vancouver and your grabbing a big chunk of the population and a majority of the emerging buzz.

Do the same thing in the US and you'll miss big pockets of important word of mouth in Boston (education), San Jose (tech), San Francisco (innovation), Detroit (auto), Dallas (energy), Washington (politics), Atlanta (southern  growth), Seattle (corp. tech) and Miami (latin culture)..never mind countless others.

As much as we talk about the two solitudes (French and English) in Canada and the havoc that can reap on running a business and dominate our media conversations, conversely, we are a country of 3 mega- word of mouth transmitting centres - sounds much more manageable , doesn't it?