RIPPLE100 Micromarketing

From Amy, the guys, and I - 10 things to share before we open The First 100 Ripples in 100 Metros worldwide:

1. What’s a ripple?
2. Why bother? (why, of gazillion things to do, do this?)
3. Who can ripple?
4. What can I ripple?
5. What’s The First 100?
6. Where are the 100 Metros?
7. Why “metros” (they’re not)?
8. So how do I ripple?
9. What’s a Metro Ambassador Social?
10. So what?

1. What’s a ripple? Ripples are word of mouth campaigns. Marketing made easy, accessible, human no matter how big or small you are.

2. Why bother? Let’s start with the holidays. You’re already prepping your campaigns - ads, promos, websites, blogs, etc. Try a ripple  - it’s built precisely for word of mouth, the most powerful marketing that runs entirely on simplicity, and love. Ripples help you keep it real, short and to the point (thus easy to digest and share), and actionable.

3. Who can ripple? If you can read and write, you can ripple. If you can read and write and don’t have time, you can ripple. If you can read and write, but can’t or won’t or don’t even know where to start to blog, twitter or facebook you can still (and have all the more reason to) ripple. And what’s more, by rippling you’ll benefit from blogs, twitter, facebook and whatever’s next in digital media - without having to track, learn or use them.

4. What can I ripple? Anything. Products. Services. Causes. Events. Places. People - heroes, villains, political candidates. Name it. You can even ripple your ads and websites, turn any marketing into instant word of mouth. Here’s an entire thread we call 100 Ways to Ripple.

5. What’s The First 100? The First 100 Ripples™ is a limited edition software and media bundle designed to launch 10,000 word of mouth campaigns - 100 in each of 100 metros worldwide - all at once.

6. 100 Metros?

• 50 US States + DC
• 21 European countries - Austria; Belgium; Czech Republic; Denmark; Finland; France; Germany; Greece; Hungary; Ireland; Italy; Netherlands; Norway; Poland; Portugal; Romania; Russia; Spain; Sweden; Turkey; United Kingdom
• 14 Asian countries - Australia-NZ; China; Hong Kong; India; Indonesia; Japan; Korea; Malaysia; Pakistan; Philippines; Singapore; Taiwan; Thailand; Vietnam
• 6 Latin American countries - Argentina; Brazil; Chile; Colombia; Mexico; Peru
• 4 Canadian provinces - Alberta; British Columbia; Ontario; Quebec
• 2 African countries - Morocco; South Africa
• 2 Middles Eastern countries - Israel; UAE

7. Why “metros” (they’re not)? Start small with big. Instead of San Francisco, LA, San Diego, Sacramento: California. Wrap 4 into 1. As demand dictates, we’ll unwrap each “metro” into ever more defined metros. In short, we let the market (you) drive metro demand and definitions.

8. So, how do I ripple? The First 100 Ripples will be available (in a few days). First come, first served until we’re at 100 campaigns per metro. For you, it’s 2 steps. 1) Know your metro/s - where your customers are. 2) Reserve your ripples - be The First 100 in your metro/s. The rest is easy, just read and write. Be done in 1 hour or 1 month, it’s up to you. Be sure to complete your ripple by Nov 2009 (exact date to be announced). That’s when The First 100 Ripples launch  in 100 Metros worldwide. 10,000 word of mouth campaigns just in time for the holidays. After The First 100, we open to the general public. From then on: anyone can ripple anything targeting any audience anywhere in the world. As often as you want. Easy.

9. What’s a Metro Ambassador Social? We describe it in detail here. We’re looking for at least 100 metrosocials - one for each metro. What’s the one place you care about in the world? As a metrosocial you can help ensure that the people, products, services, causes, events that make your place are the same ones to stake their claim as The First 100 Ripples. Forever (once The First 100, always The First 100). By your media-strong ambassadorship, advocacy, and networks, you’ll be an influential force in how marketing creates winners and losers in your metro (see next point, So what?).

10. So what? How does this make the world, or my life, better?

Think about this. Wherever you are in the world, there are at least 100 people, products, services, events, causes and more worth supporting and spreading, worth rippling. They’re different, and they’re making a difference.

• Of these, few have enough marketing resources (time, money, skills) so that we hear about them through ads, blogs, tweets.
• Unfortunately, there are too many more impostors - products, services, brands, lobbies, politicians - that don’t deserve our minds, hearts, wallets, votes. Still and by far they are always marketing’s biggest winners. They have the resources, time, money, skills to get their spin and hype and ads and blogs and tweets IN OUR FACE. (You’d be shocked how many of them hire - PAY - others to run their twitter, facebook and social media presences).
• And then, there’s the biggest of the lot. The little ones who don’t have marketing resources. We don’t hear about them. They don’t get our support. Their endeavors don’t do as well as they should, as well as they would if only we’d known. Too many of them fail. End up a statistic.

We are, all of us, poorer. Marketing isn’t all business. Marketing determines winners and losers. And I’d be damned if it’s picking the right sides for the right reasons. It’s the tragedy of today’s commons that marketing media, even so-called social media, favors the loud and those who have resources to be consistently loud, over those who if they could only be heard would make lives better.

So what. By making marketing easier and more accessible, we’re going to level the playing field. By re-drawing the lines of who can play, we’re betting we can change how the game is played. As in any market, democratization is the key to disruptive innovation.

Soon we’ll be on. The First 100 Ripples in 100 Metros worldwide. This one’s for you, the smallest of you. Because then it’s for all of us.