Wolfstar to help launch WOM-UK

WOM-UK is a not-for-profit trade association aiming to represent brands, agencies and organisations using ‘virals, blogs and buzz’ to reach their target audience.

It is the UK offshoot of its US counterpart WOMMA and will attempt to mirror the success of WOMMA across the Atlantic.

‘The US is, arguably, two years ahead of us in terms of scale and skills development,’ said newly elected president and Barton Consulting chief Steve Barton. ‘Our aim is to fast-forward the growth of word-of-mouth marketing in the UK.’

WOM-UK’s board includes well-known PROs such as Frank PR chairman Graham Goodkind and ­Weber Shandwick VP of ­European brand programmes ­Richard Moss. Wolfstar director Stuart Bruce will act as treasurer as well as running a wide-ranging PR programme for WOM-UK.

The association will set up working groups to discuss challenges for word-of-mouth marketing, which ­increasingly takes place on ­social networks such as Facebook and MySpace. Members will discuss topics such as the measurement of ROI and market research.

WOM-UK president Barton said that he has yet to ­decide whether Wolfstar would be retained beyond the launch stage. Wolfstar was set up in May of this year by Stuart Bruce, Tim Sinclair and Susie Lawrence.