Posts Tagged ‘brett-hurt’

Sam Decker Brett Hurt interviewed at Forbes.com

June 26th, 2009 by Sam Decker Chief Marketing Officer

forbescom-video-networkbretthurt1We recently went on a national press tour, and one of the highlights was Brett’s video interview with Taylor Buley at Forbes.com. Brett talks about how Oriental Trading Company uses customer reviews to transform their internal culture – internal teams work together to improve all aspects of their products and customer service. They’ve improved more than 700 products so far! You can read the full case study for all the details.

He also talks about how GEICO uses reviews to improve its products, too. Three years ago, who would have ever thought you’d use reviews to buy insurance?

Brett talks about how all types of companies are using reviews and other input to change all areas of the business – reducing return rates, improving service, etc. – and how online reviews create focus group-like information that helps companies determine exactly what they can improve. All without adding a huge new department in the company.

Brett also talks about how Twitter and Facebook will never have the impact of customer word of mouth on branded sites. Read the Forbes article in its (I love this) “Disruptions” section, “Where Social Networking Cashes In.”

Brant Barton Brett Hurt, Our CEO, Founder & Friend, Named Austin’s Entrepreneur of the Year

May 31st, 2009 by Brant Barton Co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer

It’s been an exciting couple of weeks at Bazaarvoice. First, on May 21st, Bazaarvoice was named the #1 Best Place to Work in Austin. We got a great photo of our entire team, including international team members who were in town for our quarterly company offsite at the Alamo Drafthouse, in front of our massive 52-inch Sabian Chinese gong in the Austin Business Journal.

Second, just one week later, our very own Brett Hurt was named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in Austin – one of four regional winners. The E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year awards recognize entrepreneurs who demonstrate extraordinary success in the areas of innovation, financial performance, and personal commitment to their businesses and communities.

Bazaarvoice CEO Brett Hurt named Austin Entrepreneur of the Year

I can’t think of anyone who deserves this honor more than Brett. In the description above, the word that I would emphasize most in describing Brett’s motivation as an entrepreneur is community. An Austin native, Brett is very mindful of the positive, profound, and multi-generational impact that a single entrepreneur and business can have on the prosperity of a community. He sees Bazaarvoice’s success and his own as a win for all of Austin, and he sincerely hopes that Bazaarvoice’s success will bring prosperity to our community not just in terms of job and wealth creation but in the form of many future companies that our team members will one day start.

When I worked for Brett at Coremetrics, the company he founded prior to Bazaarvoice, he was expecting his first child and was in the process of shopping for a new stroller. Like many first-time parents (I recently went through this process myself), he did a ton of online research, finally landing at Amazon.com and finding an extremely long and detailed review contributed by an aerospace engineer who had methodically deconstructed and reconstructed the stroller in question, documenting the process and his observations on the stroller’s design, materials quality, and workmanship at every step. This experience had a profound effect on Brett, as he imagined the power of this content for every shopper and purchase decision if it were available for every product and website. The idea for Bazaarvoice was born a few months later. Fast forward four short years and here we are – we have served 50+ billion reviews for 525+ global brands in 36 countries and we continue to grow (and hire!) like wildfire.

Please join me in congratulating Brett for his many accomplishments as an entrepreneur (Bazaarvoice is his fifth start-up company!), for the positive impact he has had within the Austin business community, and for being a genuinely sincere and humble person. He never fails to show his appreciation for the team at Bazaarvoice, our customers and partners, and the many supporters that have helped the company and Brett personally along the way.

So far, 2009 has been a big year for us – and there’s still six months left to go!

Sam Decker Bazaarvoice CEO wins Austin Under 40 Award

March 5th, 2009 by Sam Decker Chief Marketing Officer

Bazaarvoice CEO Brett Hurt won the Austin Under 40 2009 award in the Technology and Services category on Friday!

Mayor Wynn celebrates Brett\'s Austin Under 40 win with him, represented by Amber Quist

Although Brett was out of town with his family for the awards ceremony, he was there in spirit – and in cardboard cutout – thanks to Bazaarvoice Marketing Manager, Amber Quist, shown here with Austin Mayor Will Wynn.

Congratulations, Brett!

Brett Hurt RISE Presentation: Establishing the Foundation of a Great Company Culture

March 4th, 2009 by Brett Hurt Founder and CEO

Here at Bazaarvoice, company culture isn’t just an afterthought – it’s our foundation.

As part of RISE – A Relationship & Information Series for Entrepreneurs, I’ll share answers to questions entrepreneurs should consider regarding culture:

  • How do you prioritize culture within the company?
  • How exactly is it built?
  • How can you sustain it as the world around you feels uncertain?
  • What role do founders, executives, and managers play?
  • How is this different when you are just starting out?

My speech, entitled Establishing the Foundation of a Great Company Culture, is part of this week’s RISE series of events, and I’ll be speaking this Thursday, March 5, at 2 p.m.

RISE is an annual conference series dedicated to providing a free forum for entrepreneurs to connect and exchange ideas that inspire the entrepreneurial spirit. RISE is a non-profit initiative with no cost to participate allowing entrepreneurs from multiple industries and backgrounds to exchange successful ideas. Unlike traditional conferences, RISE Sessions are limited to 25 participants and take place all over the city in areas where entrepreneurs naturally congregate.

The session, on Thursday, March 5 at 2 p.m., will be hosted here, in the Bazaarvoice office. Registration for this event is free, but act quickly – only a few slots are available. I look forward to seeing you here!

Brett Hurt TechCrunch’s Post on Obama’s Use of Social Media

November 15th, 2008 by Brett Hurt Founder and CEO

TechCrunch logoLast Sunday, I wrote a post on the Obama campaign’s use of social media.  I guess I’m less busy than TechCrunch (hard to believe), but they just posted a more comprehensive social-media analysis than me, including good detail of his win, voter turnout, and suggestions about how he uses social media going forward, and it is definitely worth reading.  This is an especially important read considering that Obama announced he will be employing the nation’s first Chief Technology Officer.

TechCrunch also wrote about Obama’s plan to host fireside chats on YouTube, reminding me of FDR’s fireside chats during another challenging time for our nation.

We live in a very historic time, and I’m trying to soak it all up to learn for the long-term.

Update 11/17: Just noticed Francois Gossieaux’s post on the subject of cause marketing in the Obama campaign in his Facebook status update.  A good read.  Let’s hope that Obama leverages the Millennials for civic causes, given his social momentum.  BTW, Francois does some good interviews, so it is worth following his blog.

Update 11/19: Twittermaven writes about Obama’s success on Twitter being copied by the G7.

Brett Hurt Andy Sernovitz’s Video Interviews from Our Social Commerce Summit

July 6th, 2008 by Brett Hurt Founder and CEO

Andy Sernovitz is a Bazaarvoice Advisory Board member and the founder of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA)*. Andy is also a fellow Wharton grad, the author of Word of Mouth Marketing, a serial entrepreneur, and a prominent keynote speaker at many conferences, including our own Social Commerce Summit.

I was happy to see Andy leverage the valuable community we assembled at our first-ever and sold-out Summit in May by recording five video interviews. It was truly an amazing group of individuals, charged with word of mouth marketing at many of the largest companies in the world, from Bank of America to Wal-Mart. It was humbling to be in the presence of so many smart industry leaders, sharing best practices with each other in our rapidly emerging field. Because of them (as well as the hard work by our team), we have set a very high bar for our Summit next year.

Andy recently published his interview of me. We discussed how user-generated content is changing the merchandising culture at companies, helping them become more customer-centric and successful as a result.

YouTube Preview Image

Read on to see more interviews by Andy.

(more…)

Brett Hurt A Son’s Story of His Father

June 20th, 2008 by Brett Hurt Founder and CEO

My father, Brian Douglas Hurt, passed away last night at 3am.  He passed in his sleep from a sudden heart attack and, fortunately, it seems like it happened almost immediately.  I got the call from my sister around 3:15am, and I have been ever up since, holding my mother, her, and my niece after it happened.

This is an incredibly tough call to receive, and I have been through a wide range of emotions in the last 12 hours.  One way I am dealing with this is by writing this post, which I realize is more personal than my previous Bazaarblog posts, and you will not offend me if you stop reading now.

(more…)

Sam Decker Mitch Joel Podcast Reveals Key Stats on User Generated Content

April 17th, 2008 by Sam Decker Chief Marketing Officer

Mitch Joel, President of Twist Image, saw Brett (CEO of Bazaarvoice) at Shop.org and did his 99th "Six Pixels of Separation Podcast". In this podcast, Brett reveals many of the key statistics and findings we've had over the years, both from research and analyzing the data from user generated content from our client base (190+). This was really well done and wanted to share it with you. Click to hear the interview…the interview starts just about half way into this podcast.. 

Brett Hurt My Interview on World Talk Radio

August 26th, 2007 by Brett Hurt Founder and CEO

World Talk Radio logoYesterday, I was interviewed by Lisa Morgan on World Talk Radio.  She recently launched a radio program named "Innovation & Ingenuity".  This is more of a personal interview about my background as an entrepreneur, and I really enjoyed doing it.  You can download it here.  I also encourage you to check out her program archive if you are interested in this topic. 

Sam and I will also be speaking at the conference Lisa is organizing, Online Market World, this October 3-5 in San Francisco.  I will be speaking about driving customer acquisition and conversion through word-of-mouth marketing.  I hope to see you there, and I'll probably see you at Shop.org's Annual Summit in Las Vegas first.  It is rumored there are well over 2,500 confirmed attendees at this point, making it the largest online retail conference in history!  I will be speaking about monetizing Web 2.0 at the Summit with Pinny Gniwisch, founder and EVP of Marketing at Ice.com, and Matt Corey, VP of Marketing at Golfsmith International, one of our earliest clients who has recently started to leverage ratings and reviews content in their print catalogs.

Sam Decker Summary: Word of Mouth Webinar with Andy Sernovitz

July 18th, 2007 by Sam Decker Chief Marketing Officer

[post from Lisa Roberts, Director of Marketing]

Tuesday we hosted a great webinar with Andy Sernovitz, author of Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking. As one of the pioneers of "word of mouth marketing", it was especially interesting to hear him define the term. As Andy says, word of mouth marketing is "giving people a reason to talk about your stuff and making it easier for the conversation to take place". We all know that word of mouth is not a new concept, but it has historically been generated by "experts" or celebrities in a very controlled way. Peoples' buying habits have evolved, and the "experts" are now simply "people like me". Companies today must re-focus their marketing strategies to promote good products, evolve them in a way that is most useful to customers, and give customers the tools to spread the word about their experiences. As Brett said, "The barrier to converse has been significantly reduced." The permanent record that your customers create can make or break your product and brand.

We also talked with Andy about the "5 T's" that he suggests companies think about when implementing or improving their word of mouth strategy. There were two points that really stuck with me:

  1. The first step is to find "Talkers"; people who will talk about your product. As Andy points out, this is not generally your regular customer that interacts with your brand/products all the time. This is often your new customer. This is someone who has just experienced what you have to offer and is excited to share their opinions. Of course, it can also be your regular customer experiencing something new about your product. If so, you want to make sure it's something they have asked for and that further supports all the reasons why they're already one of your loyal customers.
  2. Negative reviews provide many opportunities for a very positive user experience. This is something Sam wrote about a couple weeks ago. Negative reviews can help another customer make a more satisfactory purchase decision, can help a manufacturer improve a product in a very distinct and focused way, or can provide the opportunity for a company to "Take Part" and simply say "we hear you and we're going to try to improve". 

Check out all of the webinar slides on Slideshare. We're also happy to share the full webinar with audio if you email lisa @ bazaarvoice.com for the download link, username, and password.

Andy also covered this on his blog.