If we wanted to exaggerate a bit, we’d say that amongst marketers, it looks like something out of Star Wars, but where they wish each other “May the online be with you.” Nobody underestimates the importance of the online environment today. Let’s look for example at such events as the death of Michael Jackson, or the French airbus crashing into the Atlantic. In the latter case, the social-networking channels became the fastest source of information about the fact that something’s gone wrong, whereas in the former case, the entire Internet transformed into one big wailing wall over the loss of the (former) king of pop.

The saying “every cloud has a silver lining”, works the other way too. Every good or popular thing sooner or later runs into some beady-eyed weasel, who misuses it for personal gain. The onset of Word of Mouth marketing brought with it certain crooked, unethical campaigns. What is ethical and what isn’t?

Facebook, Twitter, blogosphere – three terms that you hear constantly upon any discussion regarding social media. Facebook has left everybody in the dust in being a client network that bears one’s heart and soul. But beyond our borders, if you don’t have a Twitter account, people may look at you didn’t even exist, and blogs were actually what started all this years ago**. Today, nobody underestimates the power of social networks, and companies are slowly but surely becoming interested in using all available tools, intending to maintain their finger on the pulse of the times. Andy Sernovitz recently offered three simple steps for engaging in this phenomenon.

Stock Plzeň and Pivovary Staropramen – two companies that gave Outbreak the chance in 2007 to implement its first Word of Mouth Marketing activity. Two years later, seasoned by a number of projects including plenty of these alcohol-related WOM events, we’re now starting with a somewhat different target group – the housewives. And it’s fine, so fine.