Lubricating the social mechanics

Talking to others about your product can be the greatest form of influencer there is, (in some categories)

. As an example take mobile phones, according to Stephen Phillips Slide Deck at the WARC Consumers & Advertisers Conference:

We have to broaden our perspective on the whole concept of word-of-mouth, as it is today (I hope this is more than my personal perception :o) WOM is perceived as a set of tools you apply to enhance buzz as a part of the marketing mix
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But the broader view is that everything is word of mouth. Talking about a mobile phone, seeing others drink a Pepsi or joining a discussion talking about a Gorilla playing a drum set in an ad for a new chocolate, are one of the central principles and mechanics of society and the one advertising should allude to when promoting and informing about one of ones products:

Stuart Hall, Cultural Theorist, points out in some of his lectures that everything we know is shaped based on the conversation we have with others
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Dan Gilbert, author of Stumbling Upon Happiness, states that whenever we are synthesizing the future we do so with reference to what we already know.

Information is only useless data until we connect it with what we already know, can put it into context and create knowledge out of it.

“Columbia sociologists Lazarsfeld and Katz estimated that word of mouth was seven times more powerful that newspaper or magazine ads in motivating brand-switching as early as 1955.”
– Conversationagent

Now Mark Earls in one of his latest post writes that we need to reevaluate our focus on building communication. From talking to influencers to talking to influencies.

“It’s the followers and the following – those willing to be influenced – and NOT the Influencers we need to focus on if we want to have any “influence” over the behaviour of folk.” – Mark Earls

Which fits in well with Duncan Watts research saying that there are influencer’s, but we haven’t got a clue who they are, and they change from time to time

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– We can increase the possibility of making conversations happen, but to try to target the people who are supposed to starts them is almost impossible.

Advertising needs to lubricate the social mechanics, enhancing the reason that there will be a conversation (I guess we all have sat on a buss and heard the people behind us discuss an ad or a product), give people the tools to enrich the conversation and it’s direction, and supply the marketing needed to make action almost unavoidable as a result :o)

Isn’t this just what the Gorilla ad did?