Have a Splenda-ful day!

Recently I was selected as one of 75 women in Canada targeted by Matchstick for a word of mouth (WOM) campaign for the product Splenda, that zero-calorie sweetener made from real sugar. In exchange for my participation, I would receive a lovely basketful of baking tools, free coupons to hand out and Splenda products. Hey, I like freebies! Moreover, I was very curious and interested enough in the product to want to offer the company my own opinion. It was nice to participate in someone’s marketing program.

After an initial screening process I received my Splenda package in the mail along with some recipes to try. After a few weeks, I would be contacted again to give my thoughts and opinions on my baked goodies.

To start, I baked chocolate chip cookies and blueberry muffins. Both were recipes supplied by Splenda. The Splenda product measures exactly cup for cup to that of regular sugar, except for brown sugar, where you use only half. It was pretty easy to use in fact. The only weird thing about Splenda is the blending of butter/margarine and liquids. It blends fine, but when you add an egg or liquids, it does a funny separation thing and starts to resemble curdled milk. I checked the Splenda website and apparently this is a common appearance that does not affect the baking process.

The baked goodies both came out fairly well and consistent with the picture. But the real test was in the taste. And who better to taste chocolate chip cookies but my very own seven-year-old. She took one bite and exclaimed: “Mommy, these are AMAZING.” Verdict was in. The blueberry muffins were also a big hit. So was my banana loaf and my own cookie recipe. As for an aftertaste, there was none.

All in all -- I like the product very much and continue to use it today. It’s a wonderful alternative to sugar, especially if you are watching your weight or you’re a diabetic.

I enjoyed the process of being selected for this WOM campaign. I told Matchstick right from the start that I would only blog about the product if it passed the taste test. I would not diss the product publicly. I told them, I’m neither a journalist nor a paid blogger, so the last thing I would do is trash their product. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was. I was just glad I was able to help out in their program.

Now in case you’re wondering: I’m certainly not going to use my blog as a public forum to plug products. However, I am in the market for a new car. Soooooo… any dealers out there who want me to test-drive a 2009 luxury hybrid car? You know where to find me!

Sounding all too familiar

I’m getting a little worried about the state of marketing and social media conferences being held in Toronto. On any given week, I get at least one announcement about a “Must Register” conference I shouldn’t miss. I read each conference outline carefully looking for new information, new case studies and, yes, some new and refreshing speakers. But I keep seeing same old, same old. For such a burgeoning sector like marketing and social media, I’m surprised we aren’t seeing a slew of new best practices and case studies that the players are willing to share.

Our agency is earmarking a lot of dollars to attend these conferences and the last thing we want to come away with is: “I’ve heard it before.” I have two staffers at Mesh this week, so I hope to hear about some original new ideas they picked up.

Recently I received two conference overviews from the CMA. One was a word-of-mouth conference called From Mass to Grass and the other was a branding conference entitled Brand Navigation. Both conferences offer up some fine speakers, but frankly I’ve heard a number of the speakers before and not sure I would spend $745 to hear them preach the same gospel.

Here’s my suggestion. Maybe organizers can start implementing a “pay as you go” model. Let’s say you just want to attend the luncheon keynote and one plenary session. Well, you just pay for a pass for those sessions. I would probably attend more events this way. Case in point, there are two individual sessions at the aforementioned conferences that suit my needs. The closing keynote at the WOM conference by Douglas Rushkoff looks very promising and original, while Chris Staples is also giving a fascinating closing keynote at the branding conference. Actually, I could listen to Staples recite the phone book for $745 – he’s simply brilliant!

Right now there’s an insatiable appetite to learn and glean as much information and best practices from leaders who are pioneering social media against marketing, branding and PR. But I hope conference organizers don’t keep retreading the same solutions and faces just to sell tickets. After all, shouldn’t conference organizers be guided by the fact that they should produce great conferences with compelling content, than just use these events as a license to print money?

I do live in Wonderland, don’t I?

Best word of mouth ... came from on high

“Oh, it's the meek! Blessed are the meek! Oh, that's nice, isn't it? I'm glad they're getting something, 'cause they have a hell of a time.” From the movie - Monty Python’s Life of Brian

There is a ton of buzz out there about word of mouth campaigns. My friend Sean Moffitt, the guru on the subject, can fill you in on how companies design and implement WOM campaigns to support everything from free hugs on city streets to mobile phones. According to WPP Media Edge:cia 76 percent of consumers trust a friend’s recommendation; editorial comes in at 22 percent; ad placement -- 15 percent; website -- 8 percent (somebody better tell those corporate web guys).

But my personal opinion is this ... the world’s best word of mouth campaign, which started without the use of Internet, or any form of technology was started by just one Man, Jesus Christ and 12 of his closest buddies. OK…Judas is a bit of a stretch but he had a few good moments.

Imagine, you have a story to tell, a vision of universal hope, a message from your Father and a mission to save the world from its sins. And the only way you have to communicate all this, is through a word of mouth campaign sans technology and through multiple languages!

Your geographic reach is well, the world, and you have a short time to do it. No help from bloggers, no YouTube posting, no Flickr photos of His time in Galilee and no universal Wiki to get the masses scribing His teachings. Imagine a Wiki around this time, everyone contributing to the New Testament. Cool. I digress.

Jesus was the master of word of mouth proliferation. He told 12 guys, who told a bunch of other guys and gals, who told crowds and built legions of followers. And with each personal appearance (yes, He managed His own speaker’s calendar too) Jesus had standing room only on hillsides and mountain tops (thanks to pre-event buzz), and He had no PowerPoint support either. He spoke to crowds who didn’t Twitter, or pop open laptops to jot down his keynote address. You couldn’t Google anything about Him and yet the world became well aware of His inspirational message.

Now imagine trying to mount a word of mouth campaign today without the use of any social media. Without a doubt, we’d all say that would be next to impossible. More than 2,000 years ago, it seems the impossible was possible. This proves one thing: great storytelling and content is at the heart of a successful WOM campaign. We have plenty of newfangled tech tools to get the message out quickly but one thing they can’t do is make a story better.

Amen to that.