Insert Foot in (Word of) Mouth

I was fortunate last night to be invited to a small meeting of the trustees of the Wang Center in Boston.  The Wang Center is far more than the Wang and Shubert Theatres, lovely as they both are.  They have community art programs, dance lessons, and all kinds of things going on that more people need to find out about.  Someone suggested I come up with a tagline for them that describes what they do in a nutshell, so here it is.  Culture: it's not just for snobs anymore.  I don't think they'd like it, honestly!  But it's true, that's what they're doing.  More power to them.

Anyway, so there I was at this lovely cocktail party, and the topic of Word of Mouth Marketing comes up, and a lovely trustee asks me if I have heard of, what's it called, BzzAgent?  Now, the truth is that BzzAgent is doing a great job spreading the word of mouth marketing meme, and they have some amazingly successful campaigns.  They've also been working really hard to dispel the notion that they're covertly turning your friends into walking advertisements, by pushing openness and so forth.  You could say tons of good things about them.  I would recommend them to a client, certainly.

But what do I pick to bring up?  The New York Times Magazine article, The Hidden (in Plain Sight) Persuaders, which I called "negative" and, I said, led several companies to refuse to do business with them.

Before I knew what hit me, the elegant woman I was speaking with was defending BzzAgent with a passion, and I was left sputtering cluelessly in her passionate wake.  And then, and then, after an eternity, she said she was Dave Balter's mom (he's the founder). I felt myself getting dizzy and blacking out... the next thing I knew, I woke up and it was all a dream.

I wish!  No, it really happened... and here I am, new in town and all, hanging out my Word of Mouth Marketing shingle at all the hotspots.  Why wasn't I thinking that BzzAgent was a Boston company?  Why wasn't I looking more closely at her nametag?  Turns out Mrs. Balter was leading the trustee's meeting, too.  Sigh.  I wonder if she will ever forgive me.  Your son's company is awesome, Mrs. B!  You should be really proud of him!  I really mean it.  Damn.

We finished out the evening attending a reading of Tennesee William's Night of the Iguana at the Shubert.  Absolutely incredible, on so many levels.  Too bad that was the only performance, or I would buzz it.

Comments

[Russell Nelson]

Never f*ck with a mother bear.