A Twitter friend of mine working for a social media consulting agency in London told me today that he is leaving to take up a new position for a communications agency called 1000Heads.
As I had never heard of them before, I decided to check them out – and I am glad that I did. As ever, by a simple referral from a friend, I have discovered yet another business who make it THEIR business to help brands communicate with their customers, thereby forging and nurturing relationships with their existing (and potential) clients.
We also know this as Word of Mouth – something we can’t ignore, even if we don’t yet understand how to harness this and leverage it to affect our businesses bottom line.
1000Heads put this simply:
“It’s people talking. There’s no mystery.
What companies are finding mysterious is what to do with it. They know it’s happening whether they get involved or not, but they’re worried because they can’t control it (thank goodness). They know it has the potential to launch their latest product into the popular stratosphere, or drag it into the swamp of grassroots oblivion. It’s almost as if they’ve lost the art of being people, talking, and of giving other people something to talk about.
So, after ten years of hard work for some of the biggest and best companies across all industries in UK, Europe and the world, this is what we believe.
We believe that brands should make themselves better by listening to what that conversation is and using it to transform themselves from within. We believe that people should have access to exclusive information and trials, fantastic tailored experiences, and networks of likeminded others so that they can make a difference, and add value to their own lives, by expressing their passion and opinions about products, services and companies. We believe that brands should learn to talk and respond to those people across all those different platforms in authentic, exhilarating and effective ways.
Oh, and we don’t just believe this stuff. We do it. Let us show you how.”
Whilst this totally resonates with me on both a personal and professional level, what I TRULY love about this company is their ETHICS page:
Our Ethics
1000heads have something of a reputation for our rigorous ethics.
From day one we have been committed to helping brands and people engage in meaningful, mutually beneficial conversations that uphold five key values: transparency, respect, honesty of identity, relationship and opinion. We’ve elaborated on what this means, and a little bit more, below.
We also adhere to WOMMA’s internationally recognised Code of Ethics and our WOM Evangelist Molly is the President of WOM UK, the word of mouth trade association devoted to establishing best practice and ethics for the industry.
And finally, we keep up to date with all the latest legislation and issues around WOM ethics from across the world, and can often be found talking about them at conferences and workshops. If you want to know more, just get in touch.
1000heads Ethical Code.
Consumer Protection & Respect are paramount
Honesty: of Relationship, of Opinion and of Identity
We respect the rules of the venue
We manage relationships responsibly
We promote honest ongoing communication
We protect privacy and permission
Email communication
The reason I choose to highlight this in particular, is because this statement is what you are now seeing as the “norm” from companies like 1000Heads in the new media comms and SM industry.
But how many of the traditional agencies have you seen make any effort to even communicate, let alone clarify, their ethics and ethos?
This is one of the fundamental shifts from where we stand now with traditional agencies and new media agencies – they have nothing to hide, and aren’t afraid to stand up and say so. This creates an immediate sense of trust between client and agency, which in turn leads to a better working relationship, which further means the collaborative efforts of this relationship can only start from a point of trust, and build on that to help the client transfer that to their own client base.
I have waited a long time to see this happen within the traditional marketing space – all I can say is “Big Up 1000Heads” we need to see more businesses put their ethics out there loud and clear to pave the way for a more open, transparent way of working.
Check out 1000Heads here: http://bit.ly/dDcvW9