What is buzz marketing, strategies and real examples

And you, have you heard of buzz marketing ? This marketing strategy is a classic, although today, thanks to social networks, its effects have multiplied and, therefore, it presents more advantages than ever.

That's why you should also know how buzz marketing works to increase your customers' commitment to the brand and promote your products and services. Below we explain everything you need to know about it, so keep reading carefully!

What is buzz marketing?

Buzz marketing is a viral marketing technique that consists of creating content that takes advantage of the potential of a product or a campaign to spread through social media platforms through word of mouth.

In other words, this type of marketing seeks to create conversation around a product starting with the consumer environment and then growing to a larger scale on social media .

Thus, by getting consumers to talk about their products and services, companies broaden the scope of their offer through an increase in online traffic , which results in increased sales.

Differences and similarities between buzz marketing and word-of-mouth marketing

Due to their similarities, buzz marketing is often confused with word-of-mouth marketing. Therefore, before continuing to talk about buzz marketing, it is essential to explain the differences between both strategies:

Pillars of buzz marketing

Buzz marketing bases its strategy on 4 pillars, which are:

1. Curiosity

As human beings that we are, when we are curious about a topic we always want to know more. Therefore, the content that is created must arouse the curiosity of the user.

2. Trust

Trust is essential for buzz marketing content to be shared, since people tend to share messages with people we trust if they come to us from someone we also trust.

3. Content

We are talking about the message that is transmitted, which must be interesting enough so that the user wants to not only consume it, but also share it.

4. Virality

The content must not only be interesting, but also easy to share, that is, viral on its own, without active intervention from the brand that creates it.

Phases of buzz marketing

With the pillars of buzz marketing in mind, it's time to move on to see what the 4 phases of buzz marketing are: teaser, disclosure, exposure, and analysis. Let's discover them one by one:

1. Teaser

This is the most important phase and the basis of the buzz marketing strategy, since it will be the one that will leave your target audience hooked on the idea .

Keep in mind that, at this point, your brand or your idea will not have been fully revealed to whoever is consuming it, so you must capture the attention of the public and generate as much interest and curiosity as possible.

In this way, the user himself will spread the content because he will want other people to experience the same curiosity . So the message will spread.

Of course, for this to work, your communication strategy must be very well directed at your target audience , since, otherwise, it will not capture the attention of potential clients, but of another type of audience that your message will not interest.

2. Revelation

This phase will be the one in which you finally reveal the product or service you want to promote.

In order for you to be able to carry out this stage successfully, it is important that you implement a correct distribution strategy for this revelation that allows you to control how you will cover the demand generated after the revelation.

For example, if it is a material good, this distribution phase must be well planned for this stage, and thus avoid not being able to meet the demand that the revelation generates.

The success of this reveal phase is deeply linked to whether the previous phase has had a valuable impact on your target audience, in addition to the type of product or service you are promoting.

3. Explosion

This is the final phase of buzz marketing and in which the level of virality of your campaign will play a crucial role.

Here you will expose the products and services that you are promoting to the whole world. For this reason, it is essential to rely on all possible means of communication that fit your strategy, so that the reach is greater, and carry out intense positioning work, since online searches are the main source of consumer conversion.

For this phase to be a success, it is also recommended that you follow these tips:

• Encourage users to communicate with each other , whether through social networks, such as forums, or through online messaging applications.
• Create content related to information that can be easily shared. In this sense, it is necessary to remove all the artillery of content marketing: blogs, posts on social networks, newsletters.
• Create communities that bring users into contact , for example, pages on social networks, forums and even meetings.
• Work with influencers who can share the brand's message so that it reaches more people.

Importance of FOMO or Fear Of Missing Out” in this phase

To give strength to the 3 stages of a buzz marketing strategy, it is important that you take advantage of your customers ' feeling of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out, or, in Spanish, 'fear of missing out') .

what is FOMO?

Good question: FOMO is a need that drives people to be continually connected , a need that derives from the popularization of mobile phones and social networks. It is, in other words, fear of missing out, of not knowing what is happening.

Have you ever felt it? It is about that feeling of being outside the global conversation or your close group of acquaintances, which can play a very important role in buzz marketing campaigns and increase their virality: your target audience will replicate what everyone is talking about. world, by the mere fact of belonging to the global conversation , and you can double or triple the reach of your buzz marketing campaigns.

To do this, it is advisable that in the development of your campaign you plan an element that everyone wants to feel part of or know about , and create that feeling of “not wanting to miss what is to come.”

Analysis of results

The last step of buzz marketing is, as always, measuring the results of the strategy in order to analyze and improve them. This way you will be able to know who you have reached, in which geographical areas they know you best, where and when the message was received.

However, keep in mind that the word-of-mouth effect is very difficult to measure, so you will have to choose the KPIs you will use very carefully.

Types of strategies for buzz marketing campaigns

Now that you know how marketing campaigns work, let's see the strategies that these campaigns can follow:

inspirational buzz

We are talking about those campaigns that revolve around stories that inspire or motivate, and that, due to the milestone they represent, the public easily shares.

comic buzz

This is the type of buzz marketing campaign that is not necessarily about the product, but is enough to get the public talking about the brand because it makes you laugh and is likable. His weapon, therefore, is humor.

controversial buzz

The communication strategy of this type of buzz marketing campaign is the most delicate, since it can turn against the brand. However, if it works, it works very well. It is a formula that serves to generate conversation and, even more, debate around a topic. Of course, be very careful not to offend anyone because of their identity or their morals.

outrageous buzz

Another way to generate conversation and debate is to provoke outrage among the public. But be careful! We are talking about a relative indignation, not caused by a grievance. An example of outrageous buzz would be BlendTec's Will You Blend? , which showed a man putting different valuable objects (collector action figures, Amazon Echo, Apple iPhone...) in a blender to ruin them.

secret buzz

Nothing works better to build buzz than using a secret. For this, the content must give clues about some exclusive information, but without revealing its content until the end.

Examples of successful buzz marketing strategies

To finish, here are a couple of examples of buzz marketing strategies launched by companies specializing in viral campaigns, which are very successful and show how well they can work if designed correctly:

Apple and the annual event to launch new technologies

It is not a surprise that Apple is an excellent example of buzz marketing strategies: from the beginning of the brand until today, it has known how to create strategies that generate expectation, create conversation and explode virally.

Not to be the exception, at the last Apple Event, the brand launched a series of innovative products: the new iPhone 14 and its additional models. Like every year, they present the differences between each of their versions (iPhone 14, Plus, Pro and Pro Max), but... they left something up in the air.

That little secret was revealed on September 7 under the name "Dynamic Island": a design component added to the front camera notch to use it as quick access to ongoing actions.

Netflix and the activations they carry out to promote new series

Another of the great connoisseurs of buzz marketing is Netflix. Their promotional stunts to prepare for the launch of a new series are a clear example of this type of strategy.

Recently, in the city of Madrid, they have prepared the area of ​​the Plaza de Callao where, apparently, a large crack had opened . Initially it didn't seem like something related to the series, so many people came to see what had happened: the teaser phase .

Days later, they surrounded the area with guards and protective suits made of toxic materials, asking people not to come near. Lava could be seen, and the situation seemed a little more related to the series: revelation. Lastly, they allowed people to get closer and take photos, already having given a lot to talk about and generating as much virality as possible, and they revealed that the protagonists of the cast would attend the premiere of the series in Spain: Explosion .