Word of Mouth Marketing Expert Andy Sernovitz Joins Bazaarvoice Board of Advisors

Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) Founding CEO Brings Deep Expertise in How Consumer Experience Builds Business and Brand Visibility

Austin, TX – April 4, 2007 –  Bazaarvoice, an innovator in helping brands use online word of mouth to build their businesses, today announced the appointment of Andy Sernovitz to the company’s board of advisors. Sernovitz, founding CEO of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) and influential author, speaker, and consultant in the field of interactive marketing, is one of the nation’s leading authorities on word of mouth marketing. He recently authored the book Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking (www.wordofmouthbook.com), which was called “a quick, practical, and extremely useful guide to word of mouth marketing” by Advertising Age and has received widespread rave reviews in the business community.

“We’re delighted to welcome Andy to the Bazaarvoice board of advisors,” said Bazaarvoice founder and CEO Brett Hurt. “Andy’s extraordinarily compelling presentation on the power of word of mouth at a past Shop.org event was one of the key reasons I decided to found Bazaarvoice. He brings unparalleled insights into word of mouth marketing to our team, and his guidance will be invaluable in helping us to expand on our vision of helping the world’s top brands use word of mouth and social commerce to build their businesses. We look forward to his guidance and leveraging his deep industry expertise.”

Sernovitz has been working with top international brands for 16 years to help them develop effective word of mouth strategies. As founding CEO of WOMMA, Sernovitz has successfully spread the word about the importance of word of mouth marketing in building businesses and increasing brand visibility. Sernovitz has also been a Visiting Scholar at the Wharton School, where he taught Internet Entrepreneurship, and is the Founder and President Emeritus of the Association for Interactive Marketing (AIM). Under Andy’s leadership, AIM grew to represent more Internet companies than any other organization. In 1999, AIM was acquired by the Direct Marketing Association.

“Since 1993 when I started AIM, I’ve been focused on helping companies leverage the Internet to build their brand and improve their businesses, but word of mouth marketing is by far the most exciting and promising aspect of interactive marketing I’ve ever seen,” said Sernovitz. “Bazaarvoice is leading the charge to help brands harness the power of the customer voice to better their businesses, and I look forward to being part of the Bazaarvoice board of advisors as it continues to help companies find new and innovative ways to engage customers.”

After leaving WOMMA last month, Andy resumed his role as CEO of GasPedal, a strategy consulting firm that helps companies focus their Internet operations to be more efficient and effective, advising CEOs on the role of eCommerce in their companies and specializing in email marketing best practices. Clients included TiVo, Sprint, AIG, Polo, ClearChannel, and Kimberly-Clark. Also, as the de facto Washington representative for the Internet industry, Andy was involved in the formative policy debates surrounding privacy, spam, and other key Internet issues. Andy holds degrees in marketing from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania.

About Bazaarvoice
Based in Austin, Texas, Bazaarvoice offers outsourced technology, community management services, analytics, and syndication to encourage and harness word of mouth marketing, and bring it closer to a company’s brand and customer experience. The company’s flagship hosted and fully managed customer ratings and review service allows businesses to enable, encourage, and analyze customer ratings and reviews on their website. With Bazaarvoice, companies can empower their customers to share honest opinions and influence each other to make more informed and rewarding purchase decisions. Clients like Bass Pro Shops, CompUSA, Overstock.com, Macy’s, and PETCO benefit from a credible and reliable customer-to-customer community, without having to delve into complex IT work or the laborious process of community management. Bazaarvoice was named Marketing Innovation of the Year in the 2006 ClickZ Marketing Excellence Awards and received a “Red Herring 100 North America” award by Red Herring magazine. For more information, please visit the company’s website at www.bazaarvoice.com or email .

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