That’s the bottom line from this Age Age piece (registration required) on BzzAgent’s new game plan. It’s surprising more people haven’t weighed in on this development. In what could be a big-time advance for the word-of-mouth movement, the company is shifting its model to become a media company versus a conversational marketing firm. According to Ad Age:

Turning WOM into a medium — as opposed to just a marketing discipline or tactic — could do wonders for its stature, allowing agencies to buy buzz alongside traditional media buys. There’s even a rate card forthcoming this week. BzzAgent will look to join up as many as six additional agencies as partners this year.

A semantic change can make all the difference in the world, especially when dealing with new concepts that challenge convention. This represents such a shift and could have major ripple effects on the marketing movement in progress. Why?

1. By making personal networks synonymous with media networks (at least from a investment perspective), it further legitimizes the word-of-mouth as an established medium.

2. It changes the word-of-mouth business model to focus more on the development of personal networks at the expense of creative programming (which remains an agency domain). Look for others to quickly follow suit in developing similar broad-based as well as niche networks.

3. Putting the creative power within agencies that embrace conversational marketing could result in really interesting offers to consumers to pimp products. It will be interesting to see how creative word-of-mouth can get and how ethical standards will evolve with more $$ behind these programs.

4. The conversational marketing movement seems to be tracking towards a secure place, at least in the near term, within media and ad agencies versus PR firms. Ironic, considering PR has always riled on people-to-people communication to get the job done.

If you want to hear more about their plans you can go right to the source. BzzAgent’s brought on a full time blogger to document the inner workings of the company for 90 days.

Technorati Tags: Buzz, word-of-mouth, BzzAgent, Marketing, PR2.0

Virgin has a seriously weird viral ad called Super Buff Grandma out on the web. It’s purpose – selling a new line of “super buff” mobile phones. Check it out through Viral Miester. Funny stuff.

Technorati Tags: Contagious Media, Viral Marketing

Cyber Monday a myth? Random Culture and Fast Company’s blog comment on the myth and marketing of Cyber Monday, a creation of Shop.org to create some excitement beyond Black Friday.

Flash mobs makes a comeback on Black Friday. PFSK links to the blog documenting the “freaks” who turned Wal-Mart, and later Target, into a dance hall.

Million Dollar home page becoming just that. The creator, Alex Tew, sells advertising by the pixel. He divides a computer display screen in 10,000 squares selling advertising by the pixel at $1 per pixel (100 pixel minimum). Brand Autopsy highlights current results – $ $712,000+ in advertising and 600,000 to 700,000 hits per month.

Colleges promoting anti-social behavior. Dan Pink writes about a NY Times piece on the emergence, and significance, of video game majors at Carnegie Mellon and Georgia Tech.

Banned X-Box Ad Making the Rounds. Screenhead links to a recent Xbox 360 Ad, called entitled Stand Off, now circulating online.

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Technorati Tags: Blogs, Social Media, Public Relations, Contagious Media, Video Games, Flash Mobs, Marketing

Corey Stringer writes in today’s Detroit Free Press about the auto industry’s use of contagious media tactics. As with other sectors auto companies are dedicating more marketing dollars to appeal to consumers via the Internet with nontraditional and often controversial clips.  Stringer labels these as viral ads, which would leave you to believe that ad agencies are taking the lead role is establishing this media format (enter Crispin Porter).  But BK ’s antics could also be viewed as online media stunts that drive press coverage and buzz through the web. If you look at it from that perspective shouldn’t PR people have a greater focus on this game?

Technorati Tags: PR, Social Marketing, Buzz, Contagious Media, Viral Marketing

Jaffe posted yesterday on the BK Crying Game film. According to Ad Age, this has been one of the most viral clips ever shown on Heavy.com, with over 4.1 million downloads since November 1st. Beyond talking about the role BK and CPB may have played in its creation, he makes a great point about “the 99.9% of us that don’t understand or get it,” that related to content spread on the web. What we do know, as Carls Jr. and more recently Napster show, sex is still the #1 sell.

Technorati Tags: PR, Social Marketing, Buzz, Contagious Media