Study: Pregnant Women and New Moms Chat It Up Online
April 21st, 2008With action in Canada around Bisphenol A, the last few days have been hopping with online activity among parents — parents worried about the safety of plastics their kids are using; parents looking for information and products that will help them avoid this threat to their children’s health. From what I’ve been observing, most of the discussions are taking place on sites like Z Recommends — a “mom and pop”-type blog, not affiliated with any major media company — where the information in the comments are as valuable as the posts themselves.
This is the phenomenon documented in a BabyCenter/Keller Fay study released today, which finds that pregnant women and new moms engage in 1/3 more word-of-mouth conversations than other women, and 2/3 of those conversations involve product recommendations. Though the study found that most of the conversations happened in person, the Internet was the #1 driver of word-of-mouth among media.
Stuff like this is one reason I’m so jazzed to work with the highly-influential authors in our BabyCenter Parenting Federation (which FM runs in partnership with BabyCenter). Well, there’s that and the fact that I’m both pregnant and a new mom myself, so I personally love immersing myself in this world. Luckily for me (and marketers), the folks in this world are making tons of buying decisions (and having lively conversations about these decisions) every day.
links for 2008-04-19
April 19th, 2008-
This ad unit is amazing.
links for 2008-04-08
April 8th, 2008-
Pete highlights a comment on Battelle’s blog that speaks to the changes needed in corporate marketing. Quite profound.
Yahoo! to MSFT: More $$, Please
April 7th, 2008I love the tone of Yahoo!’s response to Microsoft’s latest letter regarding the acquisition effort, which declines to up the ante, financially. It’s rare you see such personality in a corporate statement. My favorite graf:
We regret to say that your letter mischaracterizes the nature of our discussions with you. We have had constructive conversations together regarding a variety of topics, including integration and regulatory issues. Your comment that we have refused to enter into negotiations to conclude an agreement are particularly curious given we have already rejected your initial proposal, nominally $31 per share at the time, for substantially undervaluing Yahoo! and your suggestions in your letter and the media that you are considering lowering the value of your proposal. Moreover, Steve, you personally attended two of these meetings and could have advanced discussions in any way you saw fit.
links for 2008-03-22
March 22nd, 2008-
Best part, about roll-ups: “I’m not certain that that strategy doesn’t kill the…goose that laid the golden egg.”
“Sweaty people who drink” who do “voodoo bullshit”
March 11th, 2008I loved Kent Nichols’ (of Ask a Ninja) explanation of what we at FM — specifically our salespeople — do. Paraphrasing here, but the moderator asked how AAN has been successful courting brand advertisers. The secret, Kent said, is “sweaty people who drink” — aka hard work building real-life relationships with agencies and advertisers, sometimes with the lubricating influence of alcohol. It’s the non-engineerable aspect of advertising, he said, and it requires the sweat of people who do “voodoo bullshit” and “close deals.”
This panel has completely rocked — best of the SXSW interactive conference so far — and Kent Nichols is a great instigator. He totally gets it, and he expresses it in a laugh-out-loud hilarous way.
links for 2008-03-11
March 11th, 2008-
I loved this interview for the revolt element. I just thought she was too flirtatious/chummy.
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Agree.
links for 2008-02-29
February 29th, 2008-
I’m a bit behind on my RSS feeds, but this really struck me.
