Word-of-mouth marketers generate buzz on blogs

When food conglomerate Sara Lee Corp. wanted to generate buzz for its Hillshire Farm Entree Salads, it turned to a “twentysomething stay-at-home mom” in North Idaho who blogs under the name Shinie.

Shinie, who gave the salad fixings a mixed review at her Well, I Guess This Is Growing Up site, is one of 315,000 consumers in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom now participating in word-of-mouth marketing campaigns for Boston-based BzzAgent Inc.

Those agents share detailed demographic and lifestyle information with the firm, which uses the data to match them with client campaigns. Over the past four years BzzAgent has conducted about 300 marketing missions for 150 clients, pushing products ranging from Clamato to TV Guide.

Agents receive no cash compensation, although they can earn branded BzzAgent merchandise and other small rewards for participating in campaigns. They receive free samples of products to review but are told to offer honest opinions.

They also must disclose the sponsored nature of their reviews. BzzAgent added that requirement in 2005 after client Creative Commons cut short a campaign amid blogosphere buzz about marketing ethics. The company now polices the policy so zealously it cut loose 10,000 agents last year for disclosure violations, said BzzAgent spokesman Joe Chernov.

About 80 percent of BzzAgent marketing messages are literally delivered by word of mouth. The rest are relayed online, including via blog. As of last Thursday, the company boasted 7,103 buzz builders in Washington and 1,882 in Idaho.

That’s a lot of corporate-prompted conversation about TV Guide’s larger format and how well Listerine White Strips bleach teeth. But even with major ethical concerns addressed, the question remains: Does this kind of marketing work?

There’s evidence it does. BzzAgent recently launched a virtual community called the Frogpond to help Web site clients promote their properties. Some 7,500 agents forwarded site recommendations to contacts via e-mail in the first month. “Half of the people who received an invitation from a friend to visit a Frogpond site visited it,” Chernov said.

Without a financial incentive to spam (and alienate) their personal networks, agents likely only forwarded sites they enjoyed – and thought recipients would find useful as well. That suggests marketing firms such as BzzAgent, PayPerPost, ReviewMe and CREAMaid might help clients with winning products tap into the kind of natural viral marketing power that produces YouTube stars.

Still, I was dubious about how useful such reviews would be from a reader’s perspective. As I paged through Shinie’s site for her BzzAgent-assigned critiques, I prepared to be annoyed.

Instead, I found them interesting and useful. Her June 18 review of a Coppertone spray-on sunblock for kids pointed out that it goes on quickly and has a cool factor that makes youngsters more willing to submit to a slathering. However, she added, the button gets slippery after users rub the lotion in – and “the ‘sprays at any angle’ claim on the label doesn’t hold up to testing.”

Some bloggers’ sponsored product reviews are undoubtedly of poorer quality. And the honest ones can make clients nervous. “They sometimes ask, ‘What’s going to happen if people don’t like the product?’ ” Chernov said. “The response is, ‘People don’t need BzzAgent to say negative things about a product. This at least allows you to understand it.’ “

Indeed, clients tend to reap focus-group insights from campaigns. Franklin Foods added a blueberry flavor and bigger containers to its line of Hahn’s Yogurt & Cream Cheese spreads at the request of reviewers, for instance.

That’s the kind of result driving consumer participation, BzzAgent’s internal surveys find. “We anticipated people would want to do this to get free stuff,” Chernov said. “But it hasn’t worked that way. Their real payment is in social currency. They want to be the first person to try new things, they want to be insiders, they want to be the hub of a social wheel and they want to be heard from by the brands.”

Even, apparently, if that brand is pushing tomato-clam juice.