DAY ONE:  WORD OF MOUTH ESSENTIALS
Thursday, January 19, 2006

Registration and Breakfast

The State of the Industry:  WOM Goes Mainstream -- Thanks to Best Practices, Measurable ROI, and Ethical Leadership

Andy Sernovitz, CEO, Word of Mouth Marketing Association

This is the year that word of mouth joins the marketing big leagues! Learn why and how word of mouth is maturing as a proven marketing tool, becoming widely accepted in the marketing mainstream.

WOMMA's mission is to help build this industry based on sound best practices, measurable ROI, strong ethical leadership. The organization's unprecedented growth in the past year demonstrates the interest marketers have in learning how to do WOM and performing in an ethical and open manner.

Come discover what we need to do to build a positive future together.

Download:
Andy Sernovitz presentation

Word of Mouth 101: Core Strategies and Tactics

Jonathan Carson, CEO, BuzzMetrics
Jim Nail, Chief Strategy & Marketing Officer, Cymfony
Idil Cakim, Director of Knowledge Development, Burson Marsteller

Take this crash course to understand the essential techniques and terminology of the word of mouth world.

• Learn what word of mouth is (and what it isn't)
• Gain insight into how and when word of mouth works.
• Hear about the different types of WOM and how you can use them to grow your company.

Download:
Shared presentation from all three speakers

Keynote: Don Peppers, "Return on Customer"

Founding Partner, Peppers & Rogers Group

Virtually every manager agrees that a company’s most vital asset is its customer base -- the lifetime values of all its current and future customers. Yet when companies track their financial results, they rarely take into account any change in the value of this critical asset. As a result, managers remain blind to one of the most significant factors driving genuine, lasting business success, and instead become preoccupied with achieving short-term financial goals.

Based on his book Return On Customer, Don Peppers' keynote will address today's most crucial business question: How do companies strike the right balance between maximizing current-period profits and building long-term enterprise value. The foundation of his findings is a customer-based value proposition that provides a practical and sound business metric to better manage your business – this quarter, this fiscal year, and for the foreseeable future.

Download:
Don Peppers presentation

BREAK

In-Depth Dialog:
How We Made WOM Part of Our Corporate Philosophy

Jonah Bloom, Executive Editor, Advertising Age
Maggie Colby, Group Manager, Corporate Marketing Excellence, Intuit
Zane Safrit, CEO, Conference Calls Unlimited
Dave Balter, Founder and President, BzzAgent & Author, Grapevine

Learn from companies that live and breathe word of mouth as part of their everyday business. You'll hear:

• How WOM can become a corporate lifestyle.
• Challenges involved in getting corporate buy-in.
• How WOM transcends departmental lines.

These will be stimulating, active discussions with people who are WOM pioneers talking what they've done and what you can learn from them. They've moved beyond word of mouth experimentation to something that fundamentally drives the spirit of their organizations.

Don't expect dry PowerPoint presentations here -- this will be real information from real people that you can use in your real-world business situations.

How To Do Ethical Word of Mouth Marketing And Perspectives From Washington

Rick Murray, EVP/General Manager, Diversified Agency Services, Edelman
Peter Waldheim, Senior Strategist, Word of Mouth Marketing Association
Thomas B. Pahl, Assistant Director, Division of Advertising Practices, Federal Trade Commission

Consumer respect and protection are essential parts of word of mouth.  Learn how consumers feel about the trust issue, and how marketers need to learn to respect consumers.

• Understand the right and wrong ways to do WOM.
• Learn how you can build ethics into the fundamentals of your WOM program.
• Learn the ground-breaking WOMMA Ethics Code.
• Know the Honesty ROI and how you can apply it to your company.

Download:
Shared presentation from all three speakers

Keynote And Activity:  Scott Ginsberg, "How to Invite Customers Onto Your Company's Front Porch"

Author, Speaker, "That Guy With The Nametag"
CEO, Front Porch Productions

Scott Ginsberg is the only person in the world who wears a nametag 24-7-365 (since November 2, 2000) to encourage people to become friendlier and more approachable. While only 25 years old, Scott is the author two books, an international professional speaker, a regular columnist for several online and print publications, the "World's Foremost Expert on Nametags” and featured in Ripley's Believe it Or Not.

Now, 1,905 days later, he will share 6 valuable lessons on building an unforgettable brand via word of mouth. These tips for MAXIMIZING brand approachability are:

• Do Something Cool
• Be That Guy
• Tell Your Story
• Fans, Not Customers
• Own A Word
• Market Yourself Daily

Are you ready to experience the power of approachability?

Download:
Scott Ginsberg presentation

Research Report: The Latest Data on WOM

Geoff Ramsey, CEO, eMarketer
Pete Blackshaw, CMO, Intelliseek

If you're looking for the latest numbers on word of mouth, this is where you need to be. Come here a detailed report of the latest research, including:

• How word of mouth is being adopted
• Who is using WOM
• How WOM affects consumer behavior

Download:
Shared presentation from both speakers

Measurement 1: Measuring the Impact of Word of Mouth

Laurent Flores, President & CEO, CRMMetrix
Howard Kaushansky, President & CEO, Umbria
Brian McRoberts, Senior Manager, AOL

Word of mouth directly affects all other marketing your company is doing. These measurement issues are keys to understanding how to track the impact of your WOM campaigns.

• How to quantify the impact of WOM
• How WOM impacts the brand
• Determine the value of a promoter or detractor to the bottom line
• How WOM impacts the rest of your marketing mix
• Introduction to WOMMA's Terminology Framework

Download:
Laurent Flores presentation
Howard Kaushansky presentation
Brian McRoberts presentation

WOM: Is It Marketing or Customer Experience?

John Moore, Marketing Medic, Brand Autopsy
Gary Stein, Director of Client Services, BuzzMetrics

Where does WOM live in your company? Is it a function of marketing or PR? Is WOM the result of a campaign, or is it the result of good customer experience? Come hear answers to these questions and more.

• The ongoing debate of organic vs. amplified WOM
• When is PR word of mouth?
• The role of customer service
• The role of "remarkable" design
• The role of product experience

Download:
John Moore presentation

How To Use Amazing Customer Experience and Product Design To Get People Talking

Eleanor Leger, Creative Good

Organic WOM occurs naturally when people become advocates because they are happy with a product and have a natural desire to share their support and enthusiasm. Learn how to use amazing product design and great customer service to start those conversations.

Download:
Eleanor Leger presentation

BREAK

Measurement 2: Why People Talk: Consumer Behavior and Word of Mouth

Walter Carl, Professor, Northeastern University
Kerry Stranman, Partner, Chief Strategist, MotiveQuest
David Fletcher, MEC MediaLab, Mediaedge:cia UK

Learn how consumers interact in a word of mouth world. Discover what gets them talking, why they get active in discussions -- and why they don’t. Learn how to understand their motivations and how to measure them.

Download:
Walter Carl presentation
David Fletcher presentation

Selling of WOM: How to Convince Your Boss (or Client)

Ann Moravick, CEO, Rowland Communications Worldwide
Dan Buczaczer, Vice President/Director, SMG Reverb

Everyone is suddenly mentioning word-of-mouth as an essential component of their marketing strategy. But how do you get people to actually put their money (or at least resources) where their mouths are? Learn the most common objections to leveraging WOM and how to overcome them.

Due to a last-minute conflict, David Binkowski, Director of Online Outreach for Hass MS&L filled in for Ann Moravick.

Download:
Shared presentation from both speakers

How To Create a Viral Marketing Campaign

Mark Kingdon, CEO, Organic
Virginia Miracle, Head of Word of Mouth, Dell

Viral marketing is the classic word-of-mouth technique. Learn from Organic how to create a complete viral campaign that will spread like wildfire. Enjoy a real-world case study on how Dell used a viral campaign to launch a new MP3 player.

Download:
Mark Kingdon presentation
Virginia Miracle presentation

Keynote: Fred Reichheld, "The Ultimate Question: Driving Good Profits and True Growth"

Founder, Bain & Company Loyalty Practice

Fred Reichheld is the founder of Bain & Company's Loyalty Practice which helps clients achieve superior results through improvements in customer, employee, partner, and investor loyalty.

In Reichheld's presentation about his new book, The Ultimate Question: For Opening The Door to Good Profits and True Growth (HBS Press February, 2006), he reveals new evidence that customer referrals proved the true driver of profitable growth.  By measuring a firm’s Net Promoter® Score this basic truth will become apparent to an increasing audience of corporate executives and investors. They will finally recognize the powerful bottom-line impact of WOM.

In his original bestseller, The Loyalty Effect, Reichheld developed the economic framework that underpins much of today’s analysis of customer loyalty and lifetime value. This work has become the foundation for justifying and evaluating investments to improve customer loyalty (ranging from customer acquisition campaigns to CRM software).

In his new book, Reichheld reveals another breakthrough by clarifying the micro-economics of Word-Of Mouth.  With this new framework, firms can begin to invest the appropriate level of resources in building positive word-of-mouth and referrals.  Like its predecessors, The Ultimate Question is written to convince Chief-Financial Officers as well as CEOs and Chief Marketing Officers.  Now, investing in word-of mouth can become more than simply an act of faith, it can be justified with the same financial tools as other strategic initiatives.  Now, WOM can be subjected to the same rational measurement and analysis that enables accountability and delivers bottom line results.

Download:
Fred Reichheld presentation

Day One Wrap-Up with Bob Mankoff of The New Yorker

Humor is probably passed around faster than any other form of word of mouth. Enjoy the end of a full first day at the conference with a laugh or two as Bob Mankoff, cartoon editor for the New Yorker, shares a light-hearted set of cartoons about word of mouth.

Get Ready for Dinner!

Run back to your hotel, change clothes, call your kids, and get ready for the feast.  Put away your briefcase. Throw your Blackberry in the toilet. (Attendees only, no guests.) The ONLY place to be on the night of January 19 is WOMMA's fantastic dinner adventure in Disney's Animal Kingdom. All attendees are invited to enjoy a truly magnificent African feast fit for a lion king (or wombat)! Banquet and round-trip transportation are already included with your registration. Buses will leave the Coronado Convention Center Porte Cochere at 6:15 pm SHARP.

Official Dinner Banquet