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100 Companies Join Word of Mouth Marketing Association in Just Five Months; Rapid Association Growth Reflects Emerging New Priorities for Marketers
CHICAGO --(Business Wire)-- March 28, 2005 -- The Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), the official trade association for the word of mouth marketing industry, announced today that it hit the 100 member milestone, only five months after it was founded. Member companies have joined WOMMA to build a prosperous word of mouth industry based on best practices, effective standards, and ethical leadership. This is an extraordinary growth rate for any association.
"WOMMA's growth is exceeding all expectations, and we're delighted to hit the 100 mark on the eve of our Word of Mouth Marketing Summit this week," said WOMMA CEO Andy Sernovitz. "We greatly appreciate the support from our charter members."
More than 350 marketing professionals will assemble in Chicago on Tuesday for the first-ever conference on the topic of word of mouth marketing. Demand was so strong that WOMMA had to shift locations late last week. Information about the summit and audio recordings are available at http://www.womma.org/summit.
Association Focus
"WOMMA's amazing membership growth is proof that word of mouth marketing is more than a fad. When we started WOMMA, we knew we were addressing a new reality for brand stakeholders. It is an important shift that presents both opportunities and challenges for marketers, and this is why WOMMA is critical," said Pete Blackshaw, co-founder of WOMMA and CMO of Intelliseek.
WOMMA members are mastering the art of honest, authentic two-way communications with customers. Blogs, communities, viral marketing, buzz, evangelism, word of mouth, and other new techniques are creating a fundamentally more open relationship between businesses and the people they serve.
"The world of marketing is rapidly changing, again," continued Sernovitz. "But this time, it's not about bits and bytes. It's about learning to talk to each other."
A growing number of marketers are testing and qualifying word of mouth marketing techniques. When WOMMA was founded, it provided an instant home for all of the experts in the field. Many marketers are joining to participate in WOMMA's best practices and standards-setting programs.
"When we founded WOMMA, we knew it would be big -- but not this quickly. There's a growing recognition that if we can speak a common language around critical areas like measurements and ROI, this industry will bloom," said Dave Balter, WOMMA co-founder of WOMMA and CEO of BzzAgent.
Last month, WOMMA published the first draft Ethics Code for word of mouth marketers, and more than 50 companies subsequently joined.
"The first thing WOMMA did was take a strong stand on ethics, and the marketing community has shown its support for ethics by supporting our process," said WOMMA co-founder and BuzzMetrics CEO Jonathan Carson. "We couldn't be more proud that this vital issue is being validated by industry-wide support." -0- *T WOMMA Charter Members Alloy Arnold Worldwide Beck Ag Com BigChampagne Biggs-Gilmore Bolt Media Brand Autopsy Brandimensions Buena Vista Home Entertainment Burson-Marsteller Buzzmarketing BuzzMetrics BzzAgent The Cartoon Bank CEI-Star The Clorox Company ComBlu ComScore Networks Conference Calls Unlimited Conkling Fiskum & McCormick CRM Metrix CTSG and Kintera Customunity DDB Issues & Advocacy Decision Analyst DEI Worldwide Dell Dewey Square Group Digital Cement Discovery Communications EchoDitto Echopinion eCRUSH Edelman Electric Artists FanPimp FieldWorks Fila Online Fleishman-Hillard FreeSuper Friendster GasPedal Genuosity Ground Force Network GSD&M Harvard Business School Hass MS&L Intelliseek Interpret-Her Intuit Keith Bates & Associates Ketchum Communications Kraft Foods Lemon Foundation Liquid Intelligence M80 Marketing Technology Solutions Matchstick Mediaedge:cia UK MotiveQuest Motorola NOP World Northlich Omotion 1QuickReferral.Com OnMessage Communications Organic Oslo - Inteligencia de Mercado Paterno Wines International Pearson Education The Phelon Group Presslaff Interactive Revenue ProFlowers Pronto Communication The Prostate Net Public Relations Partners Reach Media Renegade Marketing Group Richards/Gravelle Rowland Communications Worldwide Ruxton Ventures S.C. Johnson Schneider Associates Scott Kay Slack Barshinger Soapbox Marketing Sprint Starcom MediaVest Group StartSampling TaylorMade-adidas Golf TechSmith Corporation Texas Arts Marketing Network Tickle Trendum Tribe Networks The Tweedy Group The Vandiver Group VantagePoint Venture Partners Verizon Wireless Visible Path Vocanic The Well Advertising Zondervan *T
About WOMMA
WOMMA is the official trade association for the word of mouth marketing industry. Its members are committed to building a prosperous word of mouth marketing profession based on best practices, effective standards, and ethical leadership. The association has more than 100 corporate members and more than 3,000 active participants in its email discussions. Learn about WOMMA at http://www.womma.org.
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