What's the Bzz?

A few months ago, I discovered a company called BzzAgent. By just about any measure, these guys are a Purple Cow. I found them because their “FOR THE MEDIA” section of the site said, “If you’re from the media, please don’t write about us.”

Huh?

Why would a company ask the media to not write about them? I, Seth Godin, journalist on a mission, had to find out.

Turns out that Dave Balter and his crew in Boston had observed that consumers are overloaded with messages [about 2400 brand hits per day they say], and realized that most folks were automatically tuning out over 95% of what they see. (I actually think the numbers are much higher). They also recognized that the best way to interest a consumer is by letting another consumer tell them their honest opinion.

What if there was a way to jumpstart word of mouth? What if you could build a profitmaking company that helped creators of Purple Cows get the word out to the right sneezers, right away? In addition to making a lot of money, you’d be able to save your clients a ton on advertising. Advertising, after all, reaches almost no one who’s actually interested or able to spread the word.

Their team identifies the stories, ideas and hooks that their people want to hear (and spread), and then they deploy their network of volunteer brand evangelists to spread the word. Volunteer? Yep. That’s a key part. The people who spread the word do it because they love new things and they love talking about those things. The Central Hive (BzzAgent’s communications staff) keeps them honest and motivated by giving them points they can use to earn prizes, but the bottom line is that people do it for the joy of it. The network reports all their activities back to BzzAgent to allow for tracking and measurement of how Word of Mouth is moving through the marketplace.

So, why no media?

Because if too many reporters write about them, they’ll end up attracting the wrong bzzagents. That, and the retailers they so marvelously prime will get wary and jaundiced. Under the radar is just the right place for their company.

For the book Purple Cow, BzzAgents around the Nation helped individuals find their Purple Cows, spread Purple Cow ideas and added “Purple Cow” into the everyday lexicon. They did this by embracing Purple Cow, and sharing the concept and book with their friends, family and acquaintances. Thousands of people with influence, all talking about a new book because they thought it was cool.

Maybe a BzzAgent introduced Purple Cow to you?

If you want to find out if BzzAgent can help you (either by being an agent or being bzzed), email them at purplecow@bzzagent.com