360DigitalInfluence

At WOMMA, we have worked with the great research firm - PQMedia -to release a comprehensive report on the financial state of the growing social media and word of mouth marketing field. This report has just been pre-released to members as part of the value of membership. There’s a lot in here. As a member, you would receive the report automatically. If you are not a member yet want the report, reach out to WOMMA and they can hook you up (not sure the fee)

UPDATE:  WOMMA’s chief WOM enthusiast, John Moore has distilled down some great highlights in his video.

So the big headlines are, well, big:

• “Spending on U.S. word-of-mouth (WoM) marketing increased 14.2% to $1.54 billion in 2008, as brands recognized the need to get involved in consumer and business conversations and allocate resources to WoM. Spending increased at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 37.6% from 2003 to 2008.”

• “Total spending on WoM marketing is expected to increase 10.2% to $1.70 billion in 2009 and grow at a CAGR of 14.5% during the 2008-2013 period, reaching $3.04 billion as more brands include WoM in their media mix and ROI metrics improve.”

• “The growing use of WoM programs that rely on “influential ambassadors” to share their knowledge and opinions about products and brands led to a 34.6% increase in WoM media to $109 million in 2008. Spending increased at a CAGR of 122.5% from 2003 to 2008, the strongest growth rate among all of the WoM categories.”

I am still digesting all of the great data in here. Two graphics that I find both revealing and insightful include the share of spend across categories and the relationship of traditional and alternative media share (at the top of this post). In the case of the former, I am surprised to see Health and Pharma placing ahead of Travel. Presenting this past week at the ExL Pharma conference at Pfizer, I was deeply encouraged by the progress made in pharma related to social media over the past year. Nontheless, I expect more out of the travel and tourism space. I am guessing travel will grow dramatically (3.3% to 8% - that’s my prediction) this year.

As for traditional vs. alternative media, I think we have all been seeing this and I would expect the trend gain velocity. I will dig in deeper to the report and hopefully share more later…..