As VP of marketing at online retailer Half.com, Mark Hughes didn't have a huge budget for advertising. Yet he helped drive the number of Half.com users from zero to eight million in just three years. His secret? Making the company a magnet for media attention and word-of-mouth, by any means necessary. Most notoriously, he persuaded the town of Halfway, Oregon, to rename itself Half.com - called one of the greatest publicity coups in history by Time. In this breakthrough book, Hughes offers a practical guide to the art of successful buzz marketing - which many people talk about these days but few truly understand.
He draws on real-world examples of companies that got people to talk about their stuff - from Miller Lite during the Tastes Great - Less Filling era, to American Idol's stunning use of buzz to become a global phenomenon, to current companies that find creative ways to break through the ad-glutted marketplace.
Buzzmarketing explores the six secrets of great word-of-mouth campaigns and shows how any company can thrive by pursuing a buzz-driven strategy rather than just hoping for a lucky break. Readers who have enjoyed books like The Tipping Point and Purple Cow will find Buzzmarketing to be the ideal guide to applying buzz to their real-world business needs.
