Author Emanuel Rosen discusses nine ways to build buzz at first Mobium New Paradigm Event

2002-07-25

Grassroots buzz cannot happen unless you have a great product. Advertising and traditional marketing communications can be integral to the buzz generation. And a great way to get a buzz involves going to a cocktail party. (No, it’s not what you’re thinking.)

These were only a few of the ideas served up by best-selling “Anatomy of Buzz” author Emanel Rosen at the inagural Mobium New Paradigm Series seminar July 25.

Speaking to a capacity crowd of more than 150 at the Mobium offices in downtown Chicago, the best-selling author covered nine ways business marketers can create grassroots buzz, citing extensive research and real-world business examples.

Rosen’s prescription for building buzz starts with building a noteworthy product. When you have that, you can attempt to leverage the interactions within human networks and “hubs” via a wide range of techniques, from stimulating interaction on chat rooms to holding sneak-preview events to “seeding” the market by giving away free samples to select groups.

A wide range of examples were cited, including Microsoft’s introduction of Windows ’95 (which was based on the pre-release “seeding” of hundred of thousands of preview copies); the nNote software release; AOL, which uses its ubiquitous disks as a pass-along tool; and Palm Pilot, which broke down corporate IT resistance by infiltrating a Gartner Group meeting.

Mobium is adding complete coverage of the event to its Web site, www.mobium.com. This includes rich video of the presentation and a special conversation between Mr. Rosen, Mobium partners Gordon Hochhalter and Guy Gangi and BIGfrontier executive director Steve Lundin. The informal roundtable chat explores the use of networks inside and outside of companies to align brand promises, expectations and delivery.

In addition, a transcript of an interview with Emanuel Rosen is available on mobium.com.

The next Mobium New Paradigm event will be held on November 1 and will feature Al and Laura Ries, the esteemed marketing gurus and authors of “The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding,” “The 11 Immutable Laws of Internet Branding” and a new book, “The Death of Advertising and The Rise of PR” which is scheduled for release in September. Reservation information will be announced soon.

About Emanuel Rosen

Emanuel Rosen has had more than fifteen years of experience in marketing, both as an award-winning copywriter and as a marketing executive in the software industry. During most of the 1990s he was VP Marketing at Niles Software in Berkeley, California. There he was responsible for launching and marketing EndNote, the company’s flagship product that spread largely by word of mouth. Since 1998, when he sold his share in the company, he’s been dedicating his time to studying and writing about buzz. His book The Anatomy of Buzz that examines word-of-mouth marketing “has managed to generate quite a bit of buzz itself” as BusinessWeek Online noted. The book, which is based on 165 interviews with marketing executives and consumers, hit The Wall Street Journal's business best-seller list and is available in eight languages.

About the Mobium New Paradigm Series

The Mobium New Paradigm Series is a forum to explore the paradigm shifts that are revolutionizing business branding and communications. We hope it will stimulate dialogue among business marketers on how to convert these revolutionary changes into a competitive advantage in their markets.

About Mobium Creative Group

Mobium Creative Group is a full-service, integrated business branding and communications firm specializing in integrated communications, branding, relationship marketing, interactive media, and information architecture. Clientele include MeadWestvaco Corporation, NEC-Mitsubishi, Motorola GTSS, CNH Global, NovaMed, Farm Progress, Tellabs, and Ondeo Nalco Company. In January of 2002, Mobium launched its new web-site (www.mobium.com), which is an interactive book that helps business marketers, communicators, brand builders and change agents, as well as its own employees, better define revolutionary paradigm shifts and explore ways to take advantage of them.