Notorious Beam Team

Hugh MacLeod, the man driving Stormhoek wine’s recent marketing initiatives through his blog, Gapingvoid, has been thinking about ‘ooze’; a word he has used to abbreviate the term ‘Objects of Sociability’. ‘Ooze’, he writes, ‘is the future of marketing.’

What exactly does this mean? Put simply, Ooze is something that ‘allows you to engage with another person.’ Hugh predicts that in years to come, having something which gets people talking will be more important for brands than having a ‘Message’.

"What is an Object of Sociability [OoS, or "Ooze" for short]? "Ooze" is simply something that allows you to engage with another person. It could be anything. It could a party. It could be a bottle of wine. It could be a hyperlink. It could be a social gesture. It could be social currency. It could be doodling a cartoon on the back of a business card at a bar and giving it to the cute barmaid. You tell me."

This all chimes well for a company that is determined to pursue a course of making sure all its marketing promotes the idea of talkability. Any widget is a good widget. We want as many things to enter the social lexicon as possible and touch people's lives in a powerful way.

Thanks to Ellie for this.