Airborne - My personal WOM case

You may have heard of Airborne by now, or maybe not. But I definitely have, and I've told just about everyone I know about it. Within my personal circle, I've got the Airborne Word-of-Mouth airborne. And for those who are clueless, Airborne is a cold-fighting health formula in effervescent form. It's more of a preventative measure against airborne nasties, but I use it when I'm already sick and it still works wonders.

Based solely on word-of-mouth, let me briefly tell you about my experience with the Airborne brand. I learned of this amazing product from my friend Gregg in college last year. Around the late Fall, sick season was approaching. My friend was from NY, where I assume this product took flight before coming down south, since I had never heard about it yet, nor was it carried in any retail outlets down here. It may have begun in CA first, then gone to NY, but not sure. Suffice it to say that my friend introduced it to me from up north, shortly before it became nationally known. In fact, I heard (more WOM) that the creator, Victoria Knight-McDowell, was featured on Oprah. True or not, I took it for fact; I mean, that's huge.

Well, my first encounter with this formula was great. Gregg offered a tablet because I had some cold symptoms. I dropped in the tablet, waited a minute for it to dissolve, and drank up. It hardly tasted bad. In fact, it was pretty tasty. Much better than Nyquil. Anyhow, the next day I was feeling fine. I was already convinced, and now a brand advocate/loyalist. I took a few more throughout the winter months, and every time I felt much better much quicker. Finally, I asked Gregg to have his mom buy me my own tube of Airborne tablets. My loyalty grew, and so did my desire to spread the good word.

It's been a little over a year since I first found out about Airborne, but now I'm telling everyone. It's being sold in numerous locations nationally, and they're going international soon. How, or more accurately, when, do I spread the word? Every time I talk to someone who is sick, that's when. I suggest Airborne, sing its praises and assume they will give it a try, only to have good results and continue the WOM cycle.

Ok, maybe not so brief, but let this be my lengthy post for the month.

Marketing Messages Gone Wrong

You may have read or heard stories about brand names, taglines or advertisements that translated improperly to another language, or meant something different to another audience. Well I came across a site about marketing translation mistakes that's pretty interesting. Some aren't completely true, but they're fun to read about. However, a number of them are indeed factual. Notice how the web's lack of cultural boundaries made such mistakes more prolific in the past four or five years. This is a lesson that we should consider all, or as many, possibilities for confusion or mis-translation of a marketing message across various languages and cultures.

CBS Does It Again

Ok, so CBS apparently knows how to capitalize on the Internet when it comes to sports. They've done it again with The Masters Golf Tournament in Augusta, GA. This is the golf tournament of the year. Ad Age wrote about CBS' online Video On Demand of The Masters. In similar fashion to the NCAA Tournament (MMOD, or March Madness On Demand), they're using CBS Sportsline and www.masters.org to broadcast live coverage of holes No. 11, 12 and 13, also known as Amen Corner. And CDW is the sponsor of Amen Corner Live. They have a short commercial before the live broadcast begins, and they have exclusive branding within the video player. Maybe the other networks should look in the direction of CBS when it comes to utilizing the full potential of the Internet. Regardless, CBS now has my attention. I'm already signed up to receive email notification of next year's March Madness On Demand.