Stephen Phillips expanded the notion of Word-of-Mouth on the WARC Influence Conference a couple of weeks ago. Discussing it as the ubiquitous notion of every conversation, interaction and “social participation” – not a mere “modern” marketing mechanism as it has a tendency to be presented as.

In his context Phillips stated that the effect of seeing someone consume/use a product will have a far greater impression/persuasion on the consumer than any form of marketing will. (And I can relate, seeing someone the other day drink a bottle of Solo at the gas station and then having to stop at then next one (45 minutes of painstakingly waiting) just to purchase a bottle myself :o)

In this setting the iBeer application from Carlings (currently one of the most downloaded free applications from Apple Store), which Faris links to and discusses on his blog. Would be the most perfect self-affecting word-of-mouth advertising yet :o) You don’t even have to see someone else drinking a Carlings, just watch yourselves…