Have you ever been standing in the freezer section of your local grocery store, trying to decide which brand of ice cream to buy, when someone walks up beside you and starts talking about how much she loves the Friendly’s brand?

Have you ever been sitting at your kid’s little league game and started talking to a nearby parent, only to find out he’s treating his son’s team to White Castle after the game?

Both of these are examples of cleverly placed ‘buzz agents:’ people whose job is to influence your opinion about a particular brand or product, all without your knowledge. If done correctly, buzz agents make potential customers stop and think, “If they’re doing it, maybe I should too.”

Anyone who knows anything about marketing is familiar with the concept of buzz marketing, stealth marketing, or what we refer to as buzz agents. At Zimmerman Advertising, we have used buzz agents for years. It’s a way to get consumer insight indirectly, or to pitch a product or service indirectly. Stealth marketing works well because people today have become extremely skeptical of companies, ads, product placements and endorsements. Consumers are now on constant alert. As a result, regular people have come to trust regular people just like themselves – people that have no hidden agenda. That’s why blogs and other social networking sites are enjoying so much success.

Take our client Party City, for example. Research has shown that people are 75% more likely to shop at Party City after visiting their Facebook page than from viewing a paid ad. Why? Because Facebook gives them the opportunity to talk with other people just like themselves, many of whom are already loyal Party City customers. They have the opportunity to ask questions, to participate in polls and surveys, to download coupons, to interact with other customers, and even to blog with people about related topics. Buzz marketing is a way to go under the radar and penetrate the force fields of doubt and skepticism.

So what’s the problem? Buzz marketing has been so successful that there’s a lot of, well, buzz about it. The very fact that everyone is now talking about stealth marketing naturally makes it less…stealth. And if it’s not stealth, it’s not going to be effective. Every big thing has a small window. And that small window is closing quickly for buzz marketing. The recently released film, The Joneses, is only going to speed up the process. In the movie, Demi Moore and David Duchovny star as a seemingly picture-perfect couple who, along with their seemingly perfect teenage children, move into an upscale neighborhood. This family has the best and newest of everything you can imagine. The only catch is that they’re really not a family at all: they’re a team of paid buzz agents working for a marketing firm. While it may be a great concept for a movie, it’s also going to make sure that your customers are more cautious than ever. Moral of the story? If you’re still talking about buzz marketing as “the next big thing,” you’re way too late.

The good news is that the idea of creating real value and authentic desire for products and services hasn’t changed. You must have something real to say to consumers to truly have long-term success. Many brands make the mistake of thinking they can make up for a lack of content with stealth style. They can’t. Nothing is that easy. Without authenticity, there can be no sustainability. And without sustainability, your brand will constantly be scrambling to “keep up with the Joneses.”