Consumers share the vibe
Ballarat-based marketing communications company T-Garage has developed an Australian-first online community designed to engage consumers in innovative ways.
Launched nine months ago, Vibe Village has more than 35,000 members.
In many cases these members are the ‘first’ to trial the products and services of some of Australia’s leading brands.
They then provide powerful feedback to the companies behind them.
T-Garage director William Saxton said Vibe Village was about connecting consumers with brands via a two-way dialogue and harnessing the power of word-of-mouth.
“We started T-Garage, which consists of a team of former senior marketers and IT specialists, because we believed there had to be a more efficient and effective means of engaging consumers than the traditional method of one-way advertising.” Mr Saxton said.
“We call it social network communication or word-of-mouth. Intuitively everyone knows that word-of-mouth is the most persuasive means of advertising so we created a concept called Vibe Village.”
Vibe Village identifies ‘influencers’ to participate in Vibe Programs or Vibe Parties based on their demographics and ability to influence others.
Once selected, these influencers are given products or services to experience first hand; these can be anything from a TV series to skin care.
The influencers are asked to ‘share the vibe’ with their social networks and then report on the ‘sharing’ by completing online reports, posting photos or creating videos or links to other social networking sites.
This information is collated, analysed and reported back to the client.
No member of Vibe Village is paid. So why would anyone join? “Vibe Village influencers become involved because they are passionate about a particular area or topic, want the power of ‘kudos’ associated with being ‘in the know’ and in many instances also like the thought of influencing some of Australia’s biggest companies,” Mr Saxton said.
It is the power of influence and quality feedback in which large corporations see value and want to tap into.
“In essence Vibe Village is about real people, who really try and really recommend,” Mr Saxton said.
T-Garage is currently applying for patients for its member profiting tool.
The Courier, 12 May 2009
