Word-of-mouth is the crucial component of Web 2.0 advertising. Unlike conventional advertising, which was solely one way and largely interruptive, Web 2.0 advertising actually welcomes control by users and invites users to create and share their own messages. In that sense, Web 2.0 advertising is revolutionary.

However, the technology and the advertising tools being used are familiar and have been in use by people for a long time. Web 2.0 advertising can more accurately be described as a radical concept involving the innovative implementation of currently available tools.

This seemingly mild shift has opened up endless opportunities for consumers and marketers alike. Consumers play a role in the marketing conversation by creating reviews, adding entries to blogs and sharing photos. Every time a consumer makes a contribution to this conversation it shifts the balance of power back to the consumer. Marketers are aware of it and embrace this participation, improving the conversation even more.

Working in collaboration, consumers and marketers are moving from "interruptive advertising" to "invited advertising" thus making Web 2.0 advertising participative, mixed and scalable.

Participative Web 2.0 advertising

Word-of-mouth advertising presents lots of opportunities for two way conversations—with the consumer and the marketer being equally important. Marketers collaborate with consumers via structured feedback and word-of-mouth to genuinely contribute to the design, progress, and promotion of the services and products they think are important.

Re-mixable Web 2.0 advertising

Online conversations are essentially connected. This makes it possible to remix fragments from different reviews and different sources and come to one decision. This very feature of "re-mixability" allows users to generate powerful messages constructed from these fragments and disseminate them to those who are interested. One of the principles of word-of-mouth marketing is that it's impossible for a marketer to gain information on the inner workings of social networks without disturbing the network itself. However, remixing enables legitimate word-of-mouth to seep into the social networks that marketers wish to access.

Scalable Web 2.0 Advertising

Getting the message through is only half the battle with today’s tech-enabled information avenues. However, awareness by itself is insufficient and ineffective. To be truly convincing, marketers must be able to connect with the customers. Word-of-mouth offers convincing scalability; it goes on increasing until there is a real buzz. Everyone who has an opinion has the option to share it with anyone who is willing to listen.

Web 2.0 and Collective Intelligence

While word-of-mouth is a huge influencing factor, it can also be a disruptive factor when wrong information is spread by people who don't know better. However, an accurate picture based on knowledge and experience will eventually pervade interested networks and find its way to interested parties who’ll put it to good use.

Marketers especially can influence collective intelligence by offering superior products and marketing them in ways that encourage customers to talk openly and honestly. Using collective intelligence to fool people can backfire drastically.