As we celebrate this milestone, we are also close to celebrating our 5-year anniversary (Brant and I founded Bazaarvoice on May 2, 2005). With 80% of consumers now looking for customer reviews, it is hard to appreciate now just how few U.S. retailers offered customer reviews on their websites in May of 2005. Would you believe only four? Today we serve more than 50 of the top 100 U.S. retailers, more than 25 of the top 50 U.K. retailers, and similar numbers in Australia, France, and Germany. And we serve many clients outside of retail, from health care to manufacturing to financial services. We have rapidly grown into a company of 750 clients and 515 employees globally, operating across 25 international languages. I do not take our success for granted one bit and I'm very proud of and thankful for our partnerships with our clients. I'm also proud of the culture we have created here. We spend the majority of our waking time at work, and we strive to make that time as fun and meaningful as possible. Our passionate culture impacts the way we serve our clients and also give back to the community.

As I look back to my first Bazaarblog post, I think back to my analytical roots, spending seven years building Coremetrics, and reflect on how much we have achieved on the analytical front at Bazaarvoice. The "hidden" impact of 100 billion impressions is how we are writing the new marketing and merchandising textbook together with our clients. In a world of increasingly fragmented media, a dramatic shift to time spent in the online channel vs. other channels, and a rise in the prominence of the voice of the customer, the "hidden" impact is felt in how marketers and merchandisers adopt new practices based on user-generated content. And, to be totally frank, I underestimated the impact in how Bazaarvoice would change the world in this way. The Bazaarvoice School of C2C Marketing Seal to the left is from our first Social Commerce Summit in 2008, which quickly sold-out and was a magical event, full of clients speaking about writing the new textbook together (our fifth Summit is coming up in Austin April 19-21 and is almost sold-out already).

So this blog is dedicated to some of the most dramatic changes I have seen on the path to 100 billion. Here is a look back on just a few of them:

• Oriental Trading's CEO, Sam Taylor, leads a radical organizational change to reform merchandising based on user-generated content and wins the prestigious Gartner Group Customer Experience award (read the Bazaarblog post on the award, and another on specifics).
• The customer reviewer becomes the spotlight for campaigns (Free People example, and Urban Outfitters too). At that time, I believe this was an industry first. With 80% of reviews usually coming from the top 20% of your customers by lifetime value, this campaign technique will be adopted rapidly.
• Sephora uses in-store signs to get customers to read reviews via their mobile devices, and trains in-store associates to promote it. [Note: the sold-out Shop.org (NRF) and RAMA Retail Innovation & Marketing Conference in San Francisco this week will feature Julie Bornstein of Sephora - read her interview by NRF on the ROI of social media, a special Mobile Boot Camp, and me moderating a panel of rockstar venture capitalists.] Related to Sephora, Intuit's TurboTax did the same with their in-store displays, and made an impact at every Best Buy, Office Depot, OfficeMax, Staples, and Walmart store in the U.S.
• The broad multichannel marketing implications of user-generated content, from print, to TV, to online. I'll never forget the first time this reviews were promoted on in-store receipts and by whom.
• The transformation of channel advertising with BrandVoice and BrandAnswers. With 80% of consumers searching for reviews, the implications for channel advertising are huge and user-generated content in the channel is quickly becoming a business imperative for a supplier. And it isn't just UGC. BrandAnswers and Ask & Answer now bring in supplier-generated content as well as retailer-generated content to answer user-generated content in the form of product pre-sell questions.
• TurboTax partners with us to launch the "Friendalyzer", where you can see TurboTax reviews written by your friends on social networks, including Facebook (which now has 400 million users). Seth Greenberg of Intuit will be presenting the great results on this live at our Social Commerce Summit this April 19-21 in Austin. The implication for technologies like Facebook Connect are profound for user-generated content at large and we are in Inning One for these innovations.

It has been an amazing 4 years, 10 months, and I want to take this opportunity to sincerely thank all of our clients, employees, partners, investors, and advisors. We promise not to take our success for granted, and we are ramping up R&D and Client Services like never before. This quarter alone, we are attempting to hire at least 80 people, but our very high bar makes this difficult indeed (we have 14 full-time recruiters working in our office at Bazaarvoice today and there is nothing more important for our culture than its foundation: our people). If you know of someone that may be interested in joining us, see the many jobs available here and note our referral incentives.

The next 100 billion impression milestone will no doubt be achieved much faster than the first, but I expect our impact to be no less profound than with the first (see our many case studies, webinars, or whitepapers for more). Thank you, thank you, and thank you again for your support. And stay tuned to this blog as we continue this exciting journey. As I said in my first-ever blog post on Feb. 3rd, 2006 (and remains just as true today):

Welcome to the age of customer empowerment in our hyper-connected global village! We look forward to being your tour guide in this wild, wild ride.

This statistic illustrates the amount of previously untapped passion that customers have in sharing their story. Stories tap customer feelings on a deeper level than A&A or R&R, and customers have experiences that may not fit into an A&A or R&R setting that they would still like to share with others. James Avery’s “Love to Share” Mother’s Day campaign generated over 1,000 user-submitted stories of a mother’s love – and helped drive a 28% increase in online sales over the Mother’s Day season the previous year.

Brands can use Stories to evoke responses that A&A and R&R might not inspire. Apart from emotional experiences like philosophy’s “Your Mom’s Philosophy” campaign, brands can solicit user-generated how-to guides or product use tips. Asking questions like “What makes this product your ‘secret weapon’?” or “What is your favorite recipe?” can both increase brand loyalty through customer engagement and increase product consumption by presenting new usage situations.

Like all UGC, Stories content delivers authentic customer sentiments that can be used to influence future marketing and drive in-store sales. And the longer length of Stories means they provide a greater volume of content.

Bazaarvoice Stories is part of our comprehensive approach to managing the customer voice. Each of our products serves a unique purpose, and together they help your brand drive new visitors, increase conversion, and retain customers. Check out our related blog posts to see how other clients have used Stories to build customer engagement in their brand.

The Love to Share site received nearly 30,000 visitors in the month leading up to Mother’s Day, and James Avery posted a 28% increase in online sales over May 2008. “People come to James Avery to purchase special gifts for cherished loved-ones,” said James Avery’s Sr. Director of Marketing, John McCullough. “We wanted to allow our loyal customers to share their real-world stories about the amazing moms in their life this Mother’s Day season.”

Read more about James Avery’s Love to Share campaign in our press release, and check out our related blog posts to see how other clients have used Bazaarvoice Stories to drive customer engagement for their own brands.

A couple of weeks ago, Bazaarvoice hosted a business luncheon for 40 attendees from companies such as M and M Direct, Hamleys, and Lands' End at the Century Club, an exclusive central London media club in the Soho district. Opening speaker Justin Crandall, Managing Director of Bazaarvoice, emphasized the importance of optimizing user-generated content through four phases of maturity:

• Content Generation
• Online Amplification
• Multi-Channel Diversification
• Business Transformation

Ashley Friedlein, CEO and co-founder of Econsultancy, elaborated further on multi-channel marketing and business structure transformation in his keynote presentation. 

"The battle [for credibility] has already been won," Friedlein said. Consumer feedback has become the norm, not a novelty. Seventy-eight percent of consumers believe that customer recommendations – whether in review, Q&A, or story form – are the most credible form of advertising, according to a 2007 study conducted by Nielsen Media Research. Products with 20+ reviews lead to nearly 84 percent higher conversion rates, on average. Bazaarvoice Ask & Answer clients saw a 22 percent increase in conversion for products with more than two answered questions, as well as a 28-81 percent decrease in call center volume. 

Yet with 92 percent of the UK’s Top 25 online retailers implementing ratings and reviews for their products, forward-thinking companies must set their content apart by innovative means. 

"Most interactions with your brand online aren’t on your main site," Friedlein said. "Can you take your shop to them?" After retailers have maximized their online usage of their consumers' feedback, the next step is to take that content offline and into stores to deliver further value. The implications for marketing, positioning, and packaging are endless. Friedlein cited Sephora's sales spikes in its most reviewed beauty products as an example; other companies are using reviews in direct advertising, call centers, public relations, catalogues, in-store displays and mobile media. 

Some brands have gone one step further to collaborate with other companies for user-generated designs. H&M allowed Sims 2 players to design their own H&M-inspired outfits; the winner’s creation was made available for purchase in nearly 1,000 H&M retail locations for $14.90. Other retail sites have implemented federated commerce, linking up products to social networks, allowing customers access to their products from anywhere – Facebook to Paypal, eBay to widgets customizable for different Web sites, Dell to Twitter. 

The key to the final phase of social commerce lies in brands utilizing their content for business insight —what's known as "operationalizing user-generated content." Smart companies use their product feedback not only to drive sales, but also to make merchandising decisions, improve product functionality, and drive business intelligence. 

This blog was guest-written by Jen Renola, Bazaarvoice Community Manager.

PETCO “Tails” save lives…and the next life may be my own!  PETCO recently launched Bazaarvoice Stories by inviting its customers to share “The Moment Your Pet Changed Your Life.” Now I’ve been tossing around the idea of getting a pet for quite some time, and reading PETCO’s “Sentimental Tails” may be just the motivation I need.  These stories are incredible!

Stories about how people’s pets saved their lives…figuratively:

“I would like to tell you a story about a wonderful dog who saved my life in so many ways…So here is the introduction.”

Stories about how people’s pets saved their lives…literally:

“He helped me to get back into my home and then proceeded to walk me very slowly and carefully inside to a bed. I sat down and used the phone. I believe he saved my life, as I was otherwise alone and I would have been stuck there in the freezing, zero degree weather without anything to keep me warm.”

Stories about the tremendous role that PETCO has played in their lives:

“We buy all of Mercury's food, treats, (his Charlee Bears, yum!) toys, and supplies from PETCO, and although he comes with me everywhere and is welcome in every store, PETCO is, by far, his favorite place to go! He even gets to make new doggie friends sometimes. Thanks, PETCO for supporting Mercury and all service animals, and for opening your doors to animals to become a dog's social ‘hot spot!’”

These Stories have to make all of us non pet owners wonder if there is indeed something missing in our lives. And if the Stories themselves aren’t enough to make us think twice, all the photos of these adorable pets certainly are.

Once again, PETCO has proven to be a leader in leveraging user-generated content to meet the needs of its customers at every level. And as we’ve come to expect, PETCO launched Stories by incorporating Bazaarvoice’s recommended best practices: a contest promoted through a homepage banner, category page banners, and email marketing, resulting in over 80 stories submitted in the first four days of the campaign.

I can’t wait to see what’s next.  If I read many more of these, I may find myself at PETCO soon, shopping for supplies for my new pet.  Maybe by then they’ll have Stories with helpful tips for new pet owners…or suggestions for fun toys!

James Avery wanted others to hear these meaningful stories and to share the spirit of the brand without bragging. Their perfect solution was to collect “Real Stories” from their customers online and allow customers to speak for their brand. As a result, the company has increased sales, increased site traffic, and more quickly engaged new visitors with their brand . . . all by using their customers’ voices.

If you’re interested in hearing more on how James Avery and other great brands are reaping big benefits through customer engagement, join us August 19^th for a webinar with John McCullough, James Avery’s Director of Marketing, and Brett Hurt, Founder and CEO of Bazaarvoice.

You will discover:

• How brands create community and drive the bottom line through shared customer experiences
• How consumers’ stories help brands uncover the “why” and “how” of product experiences to get to the heart of what’s truly important to them
• How user-generated content increases online traffic and fueling multi-channel marketing
• How to engage your most loyal, active, and influential customers online

Title: Customer Engagement through Personal Stories: How James Avery enabled passionate clients to speak for their brand

Date: Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Time: 1:00PM – 2:00PM CDT

Click to reserve your webinar seat now!

In the meantime, check out Helzberg's home page and see if you are drawn in. I think it is much more engaging than the normal "marketing speak". It tells customers, "this is how much we believe in our products" and "we want your voice front and center, not ours".

I recently saw a Subway ad congratulating Jared “Jared from Subway” Fogle.  It’s been 10 years since Jared now-famously lost almost 250 pounds by eating his self-crafted “Subway diet". That got me wondering how this story came to light in the first place.

According to Jared’s page on Wikipedia, an old dorm-mate that hadn’t seen him in a long time ran into the new, skinny Jared and wrote an article about his amazing weight loss in the local university paper.  After a reporter for Men’s Health saw the story, the magazine wrote their own article, which was in turn noticed by a Chicago-area franchisee.  The franchisee took the story to Subway’s Chicago area advertising agency, who finally contacted Subway’s overall marketing director.

Whew!  By my count, the Jared story had to be told five times until it reached Subway corporate’s ears.  At each point, the story could have easily died, never to be heard from again.  Only through the persistence of the regional ad agency did the commercials we’ve all seen, which have dominated Subway’s marketing message for the last 8 years, even make it to TV. In the end, they found Jared and used Jared to become one of the most successful marketing stories told.

A decade later, many companies are starting to let customers tell their stories directly on their site, next to their brand, and to the rest of the customer community – at the same time.  More and more websites are providing an easy outlet for customers to stand up and declare their own success stories. 

At Bazaarvoice, we’re excited about a new product of ours that, among other things, helps you "find your Jared". It's called Bazaarvoice Stories which allows customers from companies like David’s Bridal share their stories.  Not only can prospective customers read these stories, but David’s Bridal found their own "Jared's" and promotes them here. I'm sure they can do a lot more with these incredible customers.

How would you find your Jared?  Maybe more importantly, how would he or she find you?