• by Larry Dobrow , Featured Columnist, January 26, 2006

As proven by a recent headline in the satirical weekly The Onion -- I'd Love This Product Even If I Weren't a Stealth Marketer" -- buzz marketing isn't known for its transparency. But fueled by a study correlating word-of-mouth campaign performance with full disclosure, Boston-based BzzAgent has toughened its own disclosure policy.

BzzAgent CEO Dave Balter says the study, which showed that full disclosure drives trust and deepens product-related discussions, frames disclosure as a business issue, not an ethical one. "Saying 'be transparent' is nice, but nobody had articulated what 'being transparent' meant to the bottom line," Balter says.

The firm's 120,000 volunteer "agents" now must check a box in their reporting forms to indicate familiarity with what Balter calls the "disclosure boot camp," part of BzzAgent's site, and another to indicate that they disclosed their marketer affiliation to all subjects.

"Online, there should be an upfront statement along the lines of 'I'm a volunteer, I received this product as part of a program.' Offline, there have to be reminders during the course of a conversation. These campaigns work... they don't have to be run in nefarious ways."