Zuberance Honored for Ground-Breaking Symantec Program That Energizes Thousands of Norton Advocates, Driving Positive Word of Mouth & Sales
Forrester Research, Inc. the highly-respected independent research firm, today announced that Zuberance, the leading Word of Mouth company that delivers sales now, is a winner of a prestigious 2009 Forrester Groundswell Award. Forrester honored Zuberance and other recipients of the Forrester Groundswell Awards today at a special ceremony at the Forrester Consumer Forum 2009 at the Fairmont Hotel in Chicago.
Zuberance's trail-blazing Brand Advocate program for Symantec's Norton consumer brand is the largest and most successful Brand Advocate program in the world. Via Zuberance, Norton is energizing its highly-satisfied customers to drive positive Word of Mouth and sales:
- Over 25,000 Norton customers to date have either joined or been identified as Norton Advocates, with this number growing rapidly.
- Norton Advocates have created and published thousands of reviews and testimonials, enabling Norton to double user ratings for its products on leading shopping and review sites. In addition, the Norton Advocates program has enabled Symantec to generate a significant amount of highly valuable user-generated content that Norton is now leveraging in multiple ways to drive positive awareness, leads, and sales.
- Norton Advocates have shared thousands of promotional offers with friends and colleagues, boosting Norton sales and generating five to ten times higher conversion rates than offers through other marketing programs.
Importantly, Symantec does not pay Advocates to recommend Norton products nor does it alter or edit in any way customers' comments. Via Zuberance's Word of Mouth marketing platform and analytics, Norton makes it easy for customers to share their opinions and for its marketing team to track program results in real-time.
Energizing the Advocate Channel
“Marketers today are facing diminishing returns from their marketing investments. As Symantec is showing, creating and leveraging a trusted Advocate Channel is the most cost-effective way for companies to reach and influence prospects, generate qualified leads, and increase sales now,” said Rob Fuggetta, Founder & CEO of Zuberance.
Fuggetta announced that Zuberance plans to share the 2009 Forrester Groundswell Award with Symantec. “This award belongs to Symantec and its millions of enthusiastic customers as much as does to Zuberance. Symantec has shown tremendous foresight and vision via its ongoing support and commitment to the Norton Advocates Program. The success of the Norton Advocates program is a result of a true partnership between Zuberance and Symantec,” Fuggetta stated.
In winning a Forrester Groundswell Award, Zuberance's Norton Advocates Program was selected from among more than 140 entries.
Creating & Leveraging Advocacy
“Symantec is honored that Norton Advocates has been recognized by Forrester Research with a highly-coveted Forrester Groundswell Award. At Symantec, we are focused on delivering customer experiences that create advocacy. We are delighted to be partnering with Zuberance to make it easy for our customers to share their experiences with our products with their friends, family, peers, and others,” said Erin Hintz, Vice President, Worldwide Marketing, Consumer Business Unit, Symantec Corporation.
Buoyed by the success of the Norton Advocates program, Zuberance and Norton are now providing additional ways for Advocates to share their enthusiasm plus expanding the Advocate program to France, Germany, and other regions across the world.
“The value and velocity of Word of Mouth is accelerating in the Groundswell. Zuberance's ground-breaking solution is enabling Symantec and other leading brands to harness the power of Word of Mouth to drive measurable business results now,” said Gordon Ritter, general partner of Emergence Capital Partners and member, Zuberance Board of Directors.
Excellence in Social Applications
Now in its third year, the annual Forrester Groundswell Awards honors companies for excellence in achieving business and organizational goals with social technology applications. The awards program was developed to support and recognize the principles outlined in the Forrester Research book Groundswell: Winning In A World Transformed By Social Technologies (Harvard Business Press, 2008).
This year, there were more than 140 entries to the Forrester Groundswell Awards. Winners were chosen in Business-to-Business (B2B) and Business-to-Consumer (B2C) divisions across a number of categories - Listening, Talking, Energizing, Supporting, and Embracing - that represent the strategic goals that Forrester Research advises organizations to consider when using social technologies to interact with their customers. Additional winners were selected in a special Employee and Non-Profit division to recognize outstanding social applications in management and social impact. Forrester named Zuberance the winner in the Business-to-Consumer Energizing category.
“Every year the quality of business social applications goes up, and marketers become more sophisticated,” said Josh Bernoff, Senior Vice President, Idea Development at Forrester and coauthor of Groundswell. “This year's winners stood out in a very competitive field; all of them demonstrate not just creative use of social technologies, but impressive, measurable results.”
Turning Word of Mouth into Sales Now
Zuberance is the leading Word of Mouth company driving sales now and a winner of a 2009 Forrester Groundswell Award. Zuberance's ground-breaking Word of Mouth marketing solution enables companies to identify and mobilize their highly-satisfied customers (AKA “Brand Advocates”) plus track results in real-time. Zuberance customers include Global 2000 companies plus growing companies. Headquartered in San Carlos, CA, Zuberance is backed by Emergence Capital Partners, the leading venture capital firm focused on early and growth-stage Technology-Enabled Services companies. For more information, visit Zuberance at www.zuberance.com, call 866.967.9746 or email Matt Elders, Vice President of Sales, at matt@zuberance.com.
Contacts:
Zuberance
Charles Orlando, 415-568-8161
charles.orlando@zuberance.com