Are you a Womble? Did you tweet, like, post, tag during Wimbledon?

If you did, you’re a bit of an expert, or rather, just one part of a greater strategic puzzle of a sporting brand’s strategy.

WOM, stands for Word Of Mouth. It’s a fairly new way of advertising, to some of us. The general concept of WOM advertising is to create unpaid spread of positive marketing from person to person. It’s powerful, and brands are investing huge amounts of money into this ‘unpaid’ promotional tool.

Social media has of course enabled this way of advertising to flourish, to spread a brands story, further and faster. The aim is to talk to people, and get people talking about you. Whether it be multimedia, digital or viral, the best way of getting your brand, new product, or for everyone one of us, opinion out there, is through the organic spread of WOM.

The speed of which we consume just about everything, from strawberries and cream, to the latest Batman trailer, has meant that the WOM phenomenon must be controlled and thus, big brands spend money on getting their message heard first, and last, via as many people as possible.

To the everyday person, someone not attached to a brand, or acting on behalf of a product or launch, we still feed into the WOM philosophy, quite simply by talking to our ‘friends’ through any communicative platform.

We’re all part of it, whether we’re aware or not. The speed of how quickly new products or opinions travel is astonishing, but it is also how quickly they can change. Back to you Wombles – your ambivalence towards Andy Murray during his emotional final at Wimbledon actually improved by 60% (yes, everything can be measured), and, deservedly so.

Whether it be Andy Murray, chocolate, Batman, or the iPhone, WOM advertising plays a big part of a brands story, and not only do you read it, but you write it too.