Wed 2 Apr 2008
I had a conversation with Megan at BzzAgent this week. My interest was peaked, when a former IDC colleague, who now works at Iron Mountain Digital, mentioned BzzAgent.
BzzAgent claims to have 400,000 “buzz agents,” who have agreed to review products and services and to share with their friends and colleagues their honest opinion. BzzAgents get the products for free. They test them. And they create buzz. The buzz could be good, or it could be bad, but it’s buzz. I don’t know if Iron Mountain Digital uses BzzAgent, but I can see the fit, since, Iron Mountain offers desktop and server backup services to homes and businesses.
At the $80,000 entry price that Megan mentioned, you’ll want to get a lot of buzz for the investment, and you’ll want to have enough confidence in your product to expect that most of the buzz will be good. In the consumer products and services area, I see a great opportunity to leverage BzzAgent. It’s hard to see the fit for the kinds of enterprise IT infrastructure providers with whom we are working. But, Megan suggested I check out their Frogpond offering, which I will do when I get a chance.
In the meantime, after listening to the pitch from Megan, I decided to sign up myself. I am now officially a BzzAgent. I’ll let you know how it goes. For now, I’ve just filled out a bunch of surveys about my drinking habits (softdrink and otherwise). Fortunately, the fortunes of Coke and Pepsi don’t depend much on my soft-drink habits. If they did, the companies would be broke.
April 2nd, 2008 at 8:55 am
I’ve been a BzzAgent for about 4 years or so now and have really enjoyed it. Some campaigns are better fits than others. Once I got over the intial excitement about doing every campaign that was offered to me it’s been more fun and manageable.
I agree with your consumer vs business comment, but think that at least for web-based services buzzing for business can be done well (like jott.com on FrogPond). I had a chance to do a small business charge card campaign, but passed - the motivation to test that one just wasn’t high enough.
All in all I love what they’re doing and the openness they promote when suggesting ways to buzz (e.g., letting people know you’re a BzzAgent when buzzing).
April 2nd, 2008 at 9:18 am
Michael,
Thanks for the comments on web-based services. That makes sense, and I think it also applies to hosted services, which is why someone like Iron Mountain could use it. Again, I don’t know if they are, but it would make sense. It might also make sense for someone like EMC, with their Mozy managed desktop backup service.
John
April 4th, 2008 at 7:38 am
Integrity Research Names Evalueserve Circle of Experts 2008 Top Pick as Asia/ Emerging Market Specialist Expert Network
New Delhi, 26 March 2008: Evalueserve Circle of Experts has been selected as 2008 Top Pick for Boutique Asia/ Emerging Markets Expert Network Specialist by Integrity Research, one of the most influential firms analyzing the investment research industry. This honor comes one year after the acquisition of the Circle of Experts, formerly known as Nitron Advisors, LLC, by Evalueserve, one of the largest global providers of offshore investment research support services.
The Circle of Experts is strong in all industries in the Emerging Markets. We leverage the intellectual capital that Evalueserve has developed in executing over 10,000 projects for over 1,100 clients, including 7 of the top 12 investment banks and 10 of the top 15 strategy consulting firms.
April 4th, 2008 at 9:26 am
Balalsubramanyam,
Thanks for the post. Does Integrity Research utilize a model similar to BzzAgent?
John