Traditional advertising is becoming less effective with information overload and new technologies allowing consumers to avoid ads. Back in 2004, American companies spent over $235 billion on marketing - more than Mexico's GDP! It's not feasible to rely solely on conventional promotions anymore. Instead, generating media coverage and word-of-mouth endorsements can produce better results. Buzzmarketing captivates consumers and media by making your brand entertaining, fascinating or newsworthy. Getting people discussing your company drives more value from ad spends - typically 3-5 times more. In essence, buzzmarketing sparks conversations between customers, differing from old-school marketing. The key is initiating discussions, not just pushing one-way messages out.
In 1999, Mark Hughes, a VP of marketing, joined a dot-com startup named Half.com, which aimed to create a marketplace for books, music, movies, and video games. With the challenge to devise a marketing campaign in a week, Hughes humorously proposed that a town with "Half" in its name change it to Half.com. They found Halfway, Oregon, and offered the town $100,000, computers for the school, a community website, and job prospects. The mayor and city council were intrigued, and as the town embraced the idea, media attention skyrocketed. The Philadelphia Inquirer first reported the story, followed by USA Today and Good Morning America, creating a buzz for Half.com before its website launch. Time Magazine called it “one of the greatest publicity coups in history” when Halfway officially renamed itself Half.com for a year. This media exposure propelled the website to 8 million users in less than three years, bypassing traditional marketing. Just twenty days post-launch, eBay expressed interest, and within six months, acquired Half.com for $300 million. This case study exemplifies the effectiveness of buzzmarketing, which focuses on making the brand so engaging that people naturally want to share it, thus doing the marketing themselves. The Half.com story highlights the importance of creating contagious narratives that encourage audiences to spread the word. The company's association with Halfway, Oregon, provided a compelling story that captured media attention and generated organic interest. This approach to PR, which eschews large advertising budgets in favor of creating buzz, proved to be a game-changer for Half.com. Today's marketers need stories that stand out and self-propagate in a fragmented media landscape. Viral content is crafted by understanding what drives people to talk, share, and search, and by creating narratives that naturally generate hype. Buzzmarketing turns brands into conversational currency, engaging stories that are discussed and spread both offline and online. As brands move away from simply transmitting messages, the focus shifts to creating interactive stories that capture attention and encourage voluntary advocacy. Half.com's success with a single PR stunt demonstrates the power of buzzmarketing to get people talking and promote a brand organically.
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