• by Lee Hall , February 21, 2006

For a new organization based on an old idea, the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) is using some mighty trendy tactics to get out the, er, word. WOMMA's Web site (womma.org) hosts blogs, podcasts, and e-mail newsletters to help teach marketers the basics on how to use the world's oldest form of advertising. WOMMA calls it "Word of Mouth Basic Training," or WOMBAT for short.

"WOMBAT is the definitive resource for anyone ready to learn how to do word-of-mouth marketing the right way," says WOMMA CEO Andy Sernovitz, whose resume includes stints at GasPedal Ventures and the Association for Interactive Media, a group he founded. In addition to WOMBAT, one of WOMMA's newsletters is called "The Womnibus."

Mainstream marketers appear interested. An eMarketer study found that nearly one-half (43 percent) of all advertisers plan to incorporate word-of-mouth programs into their marketing efforts this year. WOMMA, which boasts more than 200 corporate members, held its first national training conference in January.