Moderated by Edelman Catalyst Group Strategic Consultant Jan Marie Zwiren, this session is the first of two AD:TECH session focused on word of mouth and viral marketing. The panel included VBMA Co-Founder and DMC CEO Justin Kirby, P & G Tremor CEO Steve Knox, New Media Strategies Founder and CEO Pete Snyder and BzzAgent CEO Dave Balter.:

The venue was, for once, conducive to conversation even if the lighting was such that significant squinting was required to see who you were talking to. Open bar had a way of making this irrelevant. The center of the party was DMC Founder Justin Kirby who was decked out, head to toe, in a shimmering white suit.

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Jeff Jarvis from Buzz Machine quotes DMC’s Justin Kirby from Ad:tech New York 04 session focusing on word of mouth and viral marketing:

Justin Kirby from DMC in England says that measuring what people are talking about is just more clutter. “It’s not just about people talking on blogs, it’s about people having influence.” Another smart line from him: “Not every product is an iPod.” Not everything is worth talking about.

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DMC’s eighth Virgin Mobile online viral and buzz marketing campaign extends Virgin Mobile’s celebrity feature clip.

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DM Weekly - mad.co.uk, 25 October 2004

Digital Media Communications MD and co-founder of the Viral + Buzz Marketing Association cuts through the confusion about what is and isn’t viral, buzz and word-of-mouth marketing

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PR Week (Diary) UK, 15 October 2004

PR Week mentions how the Viral and Buzz Marketing Association has unveiled a manifesto outlining the principles by which members, such as Frank PR, Cake and Burson-Marsteller, should conduct themselves in the buzz/viral world.

While acknowledging the irony of its attempts to both define and regulate an industry born out of lawlessness and without the need to limit itself, VBMA co-founder Justin Kirby insists: ‘Members have to abide by these rules and if they don’t we would have to consider ending their membership’… The manifesto offers differentiation between VBMA members and their enemies - spammers and marketers that hide their motives and act undercover in chatrooms, says Kirby.

NMK, October 12 2004

DMC’s Justin Kirby locked horns with the IAB’s Danny Meadows-Klue in NMK’s The Great Viral Marketing Debate. Among other things, Justin expained:

A lot of advertising doesn’t work – audiences are too fragmented, and there’s too much clutter. Consumer-to-consumer messages are becoming more influential than marketer-to-consumer messages. The advertising industry is moving from a traditional top down model to a new viral model. Viral has become not just a valid part of the marketing mix, but, increasingly, an essential part. Justin closed by pointing out that it’s been recognised by leading industry experts for years.

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mad.co.uk, 11 October 2004

mad.co.uk looks at three seminar sessions from the up and coming DM Show (Thursday 28 October) that offer an ideal way to get to grips with where the cutting edge is to be found, including the presentation by DMC’s Justin Kirby and Informative’s Gary Schwartz on ‘How online viral and buzz marketing can integrate with and kickstart CRM initiatives’.

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Weekender - mad.co.uk, October 8 2004

DMC’s MD is interviewed about how he fits the rest of his life in with his work as an expert in online viral and buzz marketing.

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PR Newswire, London, October 7 2004

Leading industry group, the Viral + Buzz Marketing Association, defines its first platform and announces a membership surge, with comments from co-founder DMC.

VBMA co-founder Justin Kirby of DMC in the UK states, “There are also almost 100 members of the new VBMA network, which brings together a wider group of practitioners, academics and end-clients who are interested in this field. The VBMA platform will help us all to further develop, validate and promote our industry within the parameters of a positive set of guidelines.”"

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Kevin Newcomb ClickZ, Oct 7 2004

DMC, co-founder of the Viral + Buzz Marketing Association, was interviewed about the thinking behind the Association’s first manifesto …

We took a broad approach on what was our first stake in the ground in an evolving association and industry. There will be other manifestos and new versions of older ones, so there’s no doubt that these principles will evolve too

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