This past week, Miami and the Word of Mouth Marketing Association kicked off its first-ever WOMM-U formatted conference. The beautiful Intercontinental Hotel was the location and several hundred people, from some of the world’s strongest brands, attended.

Repping TVG was Kelly Ferrara (me) and Larry Cox from the Executive Leadership Team. The conference focused on how to add value in the message delivery process for a brand by using word of mouth tactics. What I learned is that WOM, while it can be described as a stand-alone practice area, really is part and parcel of all good marketing. Don’t we do media relations not only so that the reporter covers a story about a client, but also so that someone says to someone else: “I was listening to KWMU this morning and heard the most interesting thing…”? We want to give these messages life!

There are some intentionally crafted campaigns that were highlighted in the conference as WOM, yet I found it interesting that each one included tactics from direct mail, advertising, PR, facilitation skills, strategy, internal communications and research. We heard from Houlihan’s Restaurant on how they created HouliFans to assist in their entire rebranding process from menus to silverware. We heard how O.P.I. relied on She Speaks to generate conversation among a targeted group of influential women in an online community who have volunteered to receive client pitches and then pass along the information they get through samples or experiences. And we learned how Carnival Cruise Lines became The Fun Ships mainly because of a crisis experience when a ship ran aground, and the bars and clubs reopened to keep their passengers busy and happy. They now have shifted nearly all their traditional (TV) advertising to an online community-based marketing process to capture market share and help people plan “fun” trips.

My favorite part of the conference were those all-too-fleeting conversations between sessions when you could have a “real” conversation with other professionals who, like me, are trying to figure out how to provide the best counsel and the best value for our clients or our companies.

Oh, and in addition to all that, the conference actually inspired me to write my first entry on the TVG blog, and I’ve joined Twitter as well as started my own blog. Follow me at www.twitter.com/kellyferrara or at www.kferr.blogspot.com! Who knew!

I’ve got another conference in June – - I wonder what creative muse will appear there?

Contact us at tvg@vandivergroup.com or send comments to blog@vandivergroup.com.