Call it buzz or viral marketing...citizen marketing...or creating customer evangelists. By any name, word of mouth is the oldest, most trusted and, now, the fastest growing segment of last year's $254 billion marketing-services category.

Word of mouth marketing is anticipated to reach $1.3 billion this year, up almost 33% from $981 million in 2006, according to this study by PQ Media, an alternative media researcher. Spending on this emerging discipline was $76 million in 2001, PQ reports, and is expected to approximate $3.7 billion by 2011.

PQ Media defines Word-of-Mouth (WoM) marketing as "an alternative marketing strategy supported by research and technology that encourages consumers to dialogue about products and services."

Brand marketers have begun increasing their WoM media budgets, and are moving from test phase to implementations that support their integrated marketing campaigns.

Trends Driving Growth

A global study from Nielsen this month finds that "'Word of Mouth' is the most powerful selling tool," with 78% of respondents completely or somewhat TRUSTing the recommendation of other consumers.

Compared to various flavors of paid (vs. earned) media, the online study of 26,000+ consumers revealed that 63% of respondents trust newspaper ads, 56% trust TV spots and magazine placements, 34% trust search ads and 26% trust banner ads.

If you're seeking to integrate word of mouth (WOM) marketing into your plans, you may also find helpful this summary of the webinar "7 Key Insights for Joining America's Conversation," from the Keller Fay Group. Founded in early 2006 by two long-time senior execs of Roper & NOP World (now GfK), The Keller Fay Group is the first market research outfit to conduct a continuous study of both offline and online word of mouth from a nationally representative sample. Highlights from the session are below -- with our commentary in italics.

1. Decisions are Conversations