In recent times the world has witnessed the profuse usage of buzz advertising, which is a viral marketing technique that attempts to make each encounter with a consumer appear to be a unique, spontaneous personal exchange of information instead of a calculated marketing pitch choreographed by a professional advertiser. Whether it is tagged viral, buzz or word -of -mouth advertising, the concept entails getting customers to spread the word about a product through their social or professional networks. Since the arrival of the Internet, viral marketing has become a very hot strategy in the marketing world. Its proponents insist that the technique whether online or face-to-face - is sure to boost a company’s return on investment (ROI).
Unlike advertising, which relies on purchasing power to get a message across, buzz publicity relies solely on the quality of content to persuade others to get the message out. The buzz happens when people start talking about your brand without you directly investing resources of any kind to directly propagate the discussion.
Even the latest Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey of over 25,000 Internet consumers from 50 countries shows that recommendations from personal acquaintances or opinions posted by consumers online are the most trusted forms of publicity.
Ninety percent of consumers surveyed noted that, they give the highest trust to recommendations from people they know, while 70 percent trusted consumer opinions posted online.
In the words of Jonathan Carson, President of Online, International, for the Nielsen Company, “The explosion in Consumer Generated Media over the last couple of years means consumers’ reliance on word of mouth in the decision-making process, either from people they know or online consumers they don’t, has increased significantly. In this new age of consumer control, advertisers will be encouraged by the fact that brand websites are trusted at that same 70 percent level as online consumer opinions.
 Most analysts believe if you are blogging or directly encouraging bloggers to talk about your brand, then it is not a genuine buzz.
Strong brands focus on the quality of the product to get people talking on their own. Strong brands generate grass-roots buzz. Strong brands cause people to talk based purely on the quality of the product.
Historically, buzz marketing campaigns have been designed to be very theatrical in nature. The advertiser reveals information about the product or service to only a few “knowing” people in the target audience. By purposely seeking out one-on-one conversations with those who heavily influence their peers, buzz marketers create a sophisticated word-of-mouth campaign where consumers are flattered to be included in the elite group of those “in the know” and willingly spread the word to their friends and colleagues.
Although buzz marketing is not new, Internet technology has changed the way it’s being used. Buzz campaigns are now being initiated in chat rooms, where marketing representatives assume an identity appropriate to their target audience and pitch their product. Personal Web logs are another popular media for electronic buzz marketing campaigns; advertisers seek out authors of the “right kind of blog” and trade product or currency for promotion.