Toronto-based word-of-mouth marketing expert Agent Wildfire has joined forces with U.S.-based BzzAgent, a word-of-mouth marketing and researching firm. Agent Wildfire will deliver BzzAgent’s BzzCampaign and BzzBlast solutions to Canadian brands. An October survey of 700 Canadians by BzzAgent revealed:
* 62% say: ‘There are just too many commercial messages for me to be bothered paying attention anymore’
* Canadians place little importance on the mass advertising of brands: while 44% of Americans are influenced by mass advertising, only 17% of Canadians are
* Canadians are connected: 72% of Canadians are online, receiving 80 messages per day and averaging 13.5 hours/week in usage – all stats near or at the top of the world rankings
* Canadians are cosmopolitan and highly urbanized; most large Canadian cities outrank their U.S. counterpart cities on quality of life, with four out of five respondents living in urban areas
Some surprisingly non-sexy brands made the buzz list (survey says this is because it’s the stuff around us every day). The top five named were Mr. Clean (because of its new eraser product), Swiffer, iPod, Xbox and Tide. Apple came in at number six, followed by Tim Hortons. Pepsi was number eight, with communications giant Rogers and Coke at the bottom at number nine and ten, respectively. The categories were wide-ranging, covering everything from food to automotive to health and beauty.
