Welcome to the Word of Mouth Marketing Summit 2007

Brands: Grab a plate and join your fellow brand marketers for a closed-door breakfast where you can chat with other folks who "get" the day-to-day challenges unique to brand marketers working in the word of mouth marketing space. Talk word of mouth shop over breakfast, share stories, gain insights, and get a pulse on what other marketers are doing. (Brands ONLY -- This will be strictly enforced.)

Moderator: John Bell, Managing Director/Executive Creative Director
360° Digital Influence, Ogilvy PR Worldwide
Panelists: David Armano, VP Experience Design, Critical Mass
Kevin Dando, Director, Education & Online Communications, PBS
Linda Saindon, Marketing Consultant, Kraft

Join us for a big room discussion between brands about how we sell WOM programs at a time when the economy is in turmoil, marketers and consumers are hungry for alternatives to more advertising noise and real expertise developing and deploying WOM programs is at a premium. Hear from Kraft, PBS, Critical Mass, Ogilvy and ….you! This is an interactive session so bring your experiences selling in WOM programs.

Moderator: Ed Keller, CEO, the Keller Fay Group
David Witt, Manager, Brand Public Relations, General Mills
Jeffrey Graham, Executive Director, Customer Insight, the New York Times
Angela Proctor, Sr. Director, Communications & Field Marketing, Boston Market

The true roots of word of mouth marketing exist offline, in the "real" world, where people have been passing information, suggestions, tips, and ideas to one another since the first campfire was lit. In fact, research shows that today the overwhelming majority of word of mouth takes place offline, and that offline word of mouth brings with it higher credibility and impact than online. Find out how some brands are using creative offline techniques to fan the flames of their word of mouth marketing efforts from some of the biggest companies working in the offline WOM space.

Learn:

• Real world examples of offline word of mouth from major brands
• Creative ways that companies are doing to spread via offline word
   of mouth in tandem with online strategies -- finding the sweet spot
   where "word of mouth" meets "word of mouse"
• Offline WOM tactics that generate enthusiasm and get results
• How to implement and track your offline WOM efforts

Andrew Lynch, Community Consultant, Communispace
Kevin Hickey, InterContinental Hotels Group

With nearly 600,000 hotel rooms worldwide, the InterContinental Hotels Group is committed to being the number one hotel choice for travelers. In this session, attendees will learn how IHG's marketing team tapped its Communispace private online community as a vehicle to test advocacy within its Priority Club Rewards program and quickly and cost-effectively drive incremental business. As a direct result of the advocacy campaign, IHG reached customers whom they might not otherwise have been able to -- and did so entirely through word of mouth, without any of the advertising, marketing, or support costs associated with traditional promotion strategies.

Learn now IHG got results such as:

• A significant increase in incremental revenue in just six weeks with little
   investment from IHG (only Priority Club points)
• A 20-fold reach generated by participants passing on their promotion
   codes, yielding 4,200 room nights and 7.2 million points earned for
   PCR members
• Global spread into 30+ countries, even though the campaign only
   targeted U.S. members originally

Kitty Kolding, CEO, House Party
Jody Cook, Director of Product Publicity, Hershey

The Hershey Company conducted more than 10,000 in-home parties across the country through a select group of consumer advocates to help launch its new Hershey’s Bliss chocolate. Targeting female chocolate lovers, the bliss-themed launch parties gathered friends and family to sample Hershey's newest indulgence -- providing an exclusive hands-on experience with the brand that introduced the chocolate, supported the brand's positioning, and helped build brand loyalty and customer acquisition.

Learn some of the tactics that Hershey and House Party used to get more than 150,000 party-goers to attend their Hershey Bliss events, which generated more than 15,000 blog posts, 24,000 photos and videos, 4.6 million host WOM pass-alongs, 2.6 million guest pass-alongs, and more than 450,000 person-hours of hands of brand time on a single weekend. These tactics included:

• The creation and launch of the Party Program to introduce the
   product and activate WOM
• The implementation of a customized Host Aggregation
   Promotional Plan to locate 10,000 perfect target consumers
• The distribution of House Party Packs, which were filled with
   product samples
• Tracking of all activity (stories, photos, and videos) via Hershey’s
   Bliss House Party mirosite
• Development of community, excitement, and activation via the
   microsite and the programmed party activities

Sarah Hofstetter, Vice President, Emerging Media & Client Strategy, 360i
Dale Jolley, Consumer Marketing, HGTV

In its first two seasons on HGTV, "Design Star" became one of the highest-rated shows on the cable channel. The show's premise -- part reality show, part interior design showcase -- proved to be a hit with HGTV's target audiences. The network was looking to capitalize on this success and turned to 360i to develop a digital word of mouth campaign that would help make the third season their most popular yet.

Find out how 360i reached tapped influential bloggers to spark buzz and engage the show's target audiences -- an effort that was able to boost ratings by 12%, created more than 5 million online impressions, and drove traffi to HGTV.com, and learn:

• How HGTV treated targeted bloggers like an advocacy community,
   soliciting feedback for the show's content and offering them incentives
   such as interviews with the shows contestant to drive loyalty.
• How HGTV used on online game "Design Star Shuffle," which was
   available as an embeddable widget, to stimulate interest in interior design.
• How HGTV used syndicated video recaps and previews to encourage
   bloggers to share their views on the show with their readers.

Caroline Kerpen, VP New Buzzness Development, theKbuzz
Dave Kerpen, Chief Buzz Officer, theKbuzz
Damon Hemmerdinger, Owner, The Shops At Atlas Park
Elka Anstey, Marketing Director, The Shops At Atlas Park

Found out how The Shops at Atlas -- an upscale, outdoor shopping center that opened just two years ago in the middle of a working class area of Queens, New York -- used word of mouth to muddle through their most difficult season: The post-holiday winter months. To help generate WOM, theKbuzz  and The Shops paralleled a hot-button issue (the mailing of economic stimulus checks) with a promotion of their own. The concept was that Atlas Park would launch its own stimulus package.

Learn :
• How The Shops were able to use WOMM to garner an average 20%
   lift in traffic
• The unique ways that The Shops and theKbuzz used to generate
   word of mouth spread, including street teams that directed people
   to a "The Atlas Solution" microsite, a contest with prizes from $1
   - $1,000, the waiving of parking fees, etc.
• How The Shops leveraged online properties such as Facebook,
   MySpace, YouTube, and an online-video based contest to generate buzz.
• How The Shops garnered local and national TV and newspaper
   coverage via their buzz campaign.

Rick Wion, Account Group Supervisor, Golin Harris
Heather Oldani, Director; U.S. Communications, McDonalds

Chicken wasn’t the usual breakfast fare for most Americans, but McDonald’s sought to change that using a combination of online and offline word of mouth to build buzz about their newest menu item. It started by asking the eternal question: “What came first, the chicken or egg?” GolinHarris presents a case of consumers answering that question through a light-hearted debate including a user-generated dance website, buzz-generating Man on the Street interviews, and street team dancing in New York.

Learn:
• How McDonald's used word of mouth to generate nearly 1,000
   blog postings and more than 10,500 online discussions through
   blogs, videos, discussion forums, and Twitter
• How the company created enough awareness to make
   "McDonald's free chicken sandwich" the 13th most Googled
   search term on the May 15th sampling day
• How McDonald's integrated their online and offline efforts to
   create a cohesive word of mouth effort

Brad Fay, COO, Keller Fay
John Vail, Director; Digital Media & Marketing, Pepsi Co.

To drive volume, loyalty, and brand relevance at a time when carbonated soft drinks were in decline, Pepsi created a loyalty program, dubbed "Pepsi Stuff," and used a wide range of traditional and digital activation tools to generate participation and brand buzz. Pepsi Stuff which offers points that can be redeemed via Amazon.com for MP3s, clothes, prizes, and more, was promoted via a Super Bowl commercial starring Justin Timberlake and a special 2:00 edition and other behind-the-scenes footage created just for the internet. Following the Super Bowl broadcast, a year-long online ad campaign and emails to registered Pepsi Stuff participants have helped sustain buzz.

Learn how Pepsi:
• Used its loyalty program to create a sustained impact on WOM --
   with the brand's TalkShare versus competition rising by 4 points
   for the three months following the Super Bowl, compared to the
   three months prior
• Generated more than 23.8 million more conversations about
   Pepsi over the first three days after the Super Bowl compared
   to the average throughout the month prior to broadcast
• Gained more WOM than any other Super Bowl advertiser
• Increased buzz had a sustained impact on sales, with the company's
   volume trend improving by 2.2 growth points versus pre-period