Viral marketing

Viral marketing and viral advertising are buzzwords referring to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of viruses or computer viruses. It can be delivered by word of mouth or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet.^[1] Viral marketing may take the form of video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames, ebooks, brandable software, images, or text messages.

The goal of marketers interested in creating successful viral marketing programs is to create viral messages that appeal to individuals with high social networking potential (SNP) and that have a high probability of being presented and spread by these individuals and their competitors in their communications with others in a short period of time.

The term "viral marketing" has also been used pejoratively to refer to stealth marketing campaigns—the unscrupulous use of astroturfing online combined with undermarket advertising in shopping centers to create the impression of spontaneous word of mouth enthusiasm.^[2]

Contents 1 History 2 Notable examples 3 Methods 4 Social networking growth 5 See also 6 References 7 Bibliography

[edit] History

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There is debate on the origination and the popularization of the term viral marketing, though some of the earliest uses of the current term are attributed to the Harvard Business School graduate Tim Draper and faculty member Jeffrey Rayport. The term was later popularized by Rayport in a 1996 Fast Company article The Virus of Marketing,^[3] and Tim Draper and Steve Jurvetson of the venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson in 1997 to describe Hotmail's e-mail practice of appending advertising to outgoing mail from their users.^[4]

Among the first to write about viral marketing on the Internet was the media critic Douglas Rushkoff.^[5] The assumption is that if such an advertisement reaches a "susceptible" user, that user becomes "infected" (i.e., accepts the idea) and shares the idea with others "infecting them," in the viral analogy's terms. As long as each infected user shares the idea with more than one susceptible user on average (i.e., the basic reproductive rate is greater than one—the standard in epidemiology for qualifying something as an epidemic), the number of infected users grows according to an exponential curve. Of course, the marketing campaign may be successful even if the message spreads more slowly, if this user-to-user sharing is sustained by other forms of marketing communications, such as public relations or advertising.^{[citation needed]}

Bob Gerstley was among the first to write about algorithms designed to identify people with high Social Networking Potential.^[6] Gerstley employed SNP algorithms in quantitative marketing research. In 2004, the concept of the alpha user was coined to indicate that it had now become possible to identify the focal members of any viral campaign, the "hubs" who were most influential. Alpha users could be targeted for advertising purposes most accurately in mobile phone networks, as mobile phones are so personal.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Notable examples

The Ponzi scheme and related investment pyramid schemes are early examples of viral marketing. In each round, investors are paid interest from the principal deposits of later investors. Early investors enthusiastically recruit their friends, generating exponential growth until the pool of available investors is tapped out and the scheme collapses.^{[citation needed]}

Multi-level marketing popularized in the 1960s and '70s is essentially a form of viral marketing in which representatives gain income through marketing products through their circle of influence and give their friends a chance to market products similarly. Multi-level marketing is rarely as successful as the promises given at sign up, with many in the lower levels spending much more than they can earn.^[7] Examples include Amway and Mary Kay Cosmetics among many others.

Early in its existence (perhaps between 1988 and 1992), the television show Mystery Science Theater 3000 had limited distribution. The producers encouraged viewers to make copies of the show on video tapes and give them to friends in order to expand viewership and increase demand for the fledgling Comedy Central network. During this period the closing credits included the words "Keep circulating the tapes!"^[8] In 2000, Slate.com described TiVo's unpublicized gambit of giving free systems to web-savvy enthusiasts to create "viral" word of mouth, pointing out that a viral campaign differs from a publicity stunt.^[9]

Launched in 2002, BMW Films was among the earliest viral marketing campaigns. It attracted nearly 55 million viewers and helped to elevate the career of Clive Owen.^{[citation needed]}

Publius Enigma made a series of unusual postings in 1994 that relate to The Division Bell that went viral.^{[citation needed]}

Burger King's The Subservient Chicken campaign, running from 2004 until 2007, was an example of viral or word-of-mouth marketing.^[10]

Burger King's launched its "Whopper Sacrifice" campaign in 2009.^{[citation needed]}

"Evian Roller Babies" won a Gold Award at the London International Awards 2009 for Best Visual Effects.^{[citation needed]}

Cadbury's Dairy Milk 2007 Gorilla advertising campaign was heavily popularised on YouTube and Facebook.^{[citation needed]}

The 2007 concept album Year Zero by Nine Inch Nails employed a viral marketing campaign, including the band leaving USB drives at concerts during NIN's 2007 European Tour. This was followed up with a series of interlinked websites revealing clues and information about the dystopian future in which the album is set.^{[citation needed]}

In 2007, World Wrestling Entertainment promoted the return of Chris Jericho with a viral marketing campaign using 15-second cryptic binary code videos. The videos contained hidden messages and biblical links related to Jericho, although speculation existed throughout WWE fans over whom the campaign targeted.^[11][12] The text "Save Us" and "2nd Coming" were most prominent in the videos. The campaign spread throughout the internet with numerous websites, though no longer operational, featuring hidden messages and biblical links to further hint at Jericho's return.^[13][14]

In 2007 BigFix ran a business-to-business viral campaign, showing that viral advertising has application in areas outside of consumer marketing.^[15]

In 2007, Portuguese football club Sporting Portugal integrated a viral feature in their campaign for season seats. In their website, a video required the user to input his name and phone number before playback started, which then featured the coach Paulo Bento and the players waiting at the locker room while he makes a phone call to the user telling him that they just can't start the season until the user buys his season ticket.^[16] Flawless video and phone call synchronization and the fact that it was a totally new experience for the user led to nearly 200,000 pageviews phone calls in less than 24 hours.^{[citation needed]}

Avirginsplea.com claimed that a 25-year old virgin living in Toronto named Geoff needed five million hits on his website in 30 days in order for Jenn, one of his platonic female friends, to help him lose his virginity.

The 2008 film Cloverfield was first publicized with a teaser trailer that did not advertise the film's title, only its release date: "01·18·08." Elements of the viral marketing campaign included MySpace pages created for fictional characters and websites created for fictional companies alluded to in the film.^{[citation needed]}

The Big Word Project, launched in 2008, aimed to redefine the Oxford English Dictionary by allowing people to submit their website as the definition of their chosen word. The project, created to fund two Masters students' educations, attracted the attention of bloggers worldwide, and was featured on Daring Fireball and Wired Magazine.^[17]

The marketing campaign for the 2008 film The Dark Knight combined both online and real-life elements to make it resemble an alternate reality game. Techniques included mass gatherings of Joker fans, scavenger hunts around the world, detailed and intricate websites that let fans actually participate in "voting" for political offices in Gotham City, hidden phone numbers and websites in the queue lines of The Dark Knight roller coasters at Six Flags Great America and Six Flags Great Adventure, and even a Gotham News Network that has links to other Gotham pages such as Gotham Rail, a Gotham travel agency, and political candidate's pages. The movie also markets heavily off of word of mouth from the thousands of Batman fans.^{[citation needed]}

Both the second and third games in the Halo series were preceded with viral marketing in the form of an alternate reality game called I Love Bees for the second game, and Iris for the third game.^{[citation needed]}

In December 2009, podcasters of The Mike O'Meara Show launched a viral marketing campaign on Facebook to encourage others to download the show.^{[citation needed]}

Between December 2009 and March 2010 a series of seven videos were posted to YouTube under the name "iamamiwhoami" leading to speculation that they were a marketing campaign for a musician. In March 2010, an anonymous package was sent to an MTV journalist claiming to contain a code which if cracked would give the identity of the artist.^[18] The seventh video, entitled 'y', appears to feature the Swedish singer Jonna Lee.^{[19][20][21][22]}

On July 14, 2010, Old Spice launched the fastest growing online viral video campaign ever, garnering 6.7 million views after 24 hours, ballooning over 23 million views after 36 hours.^[23] Old Spice's agency created a bathroom set in Portland, OR and had their TV commercial star, Isaiah Mustafa, reply to 186 online comments and questions from websites like Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Digg, Youtube and others. The campaign ran for 3 days.^[24]

In April 2010, Pixar posted 2 videos to YouTube under the names MrCrazycommercials and GaikokujinJoe1' as a promotion for the release of Toy Story 3. They were made to look like 1980s toy commercials.^{[citation needed]}

THE NEW DORK - Entrepreneur State of Mind (Jay-Z featuring Alicia Keys spoof) | grasshopper.com This is a Pantless Knights tribute to our favorite entrepreneurs (who are all "new dorks"). It's a spoof of Jay-Z and Alicia Keys' "Empire State of Mind," from the guys behind Grasshopper.com ^[25]

In 2009, gittigidiyor.com’s creative viral video campaign called: ‘‘Fulya’nın İntikamı’’ was viewed by millions of people on YouTube.^{[citation needed]}

The Hero Movie did a viral campaign about their film. A web based viral application that allows you to upload a picture of yourself or someone you know and then have said picture rendered in a movie. In the movie you or your friend will then see the entire world celebrate you as a hero because you are paying your TV broadcasting fee (and by doing this you help safeguarding the free word in Swedish public service). After the movie has played you are given the option to apply for starting to pay your broadcasting fee and/or send your movie as a link to someone you know.^[26]

T-Mobile made a viral video in Liverpool Station that got a lot of attention in 2009. The video was called ‘‘T-Mobile Dance’’.^[27]

Berlitz Language School did a campaign for giving importance to international languages. That campaign raised the company profile much.^[28]

Heineken organized an event in Italy combining classical music and poetry during the UEFA Champions League final; Real Madrid vs. AC Milan.^[29]

[edit] Methods

• Internet search engines & blogs
• Target marketing Web services
• Social media interconnectivity
• Industry-specific organization contributions
• Television & radio
• Multiple forms of print and direct marketing
• Search engine optimization (SEO) web development
• Customer participation & polling services
• Outbound/inbound call center services
• Mobile smartphone integration

VMS target marketing is based on three important principles:

1. Social profile gathering
2. Proximity market analysis
3. Real-time key word density analysis

By applying these three important disciplines to an advertising model, a VMS company is able to match a client with their targeted customers at a cost effective advantage.

[edit] Social networking growth

Two thirds of the world’s Internet population now visit a social network or blog site weekly.^[30] 220+ million people visit the top 25 social networks each month.^[31] Facebook has 500+ million active users.^[32] Time spent visiting Social media sites now exceeds time spent emailing.^[33] 52% of people who find news online forward it on through social networks, email, or posts.^[34] 59% of adults polled state that they use their cell phone to remain connected with their social network.^[35]

[edit] See also

• Guerrilla marketing
• Viral video

[edit] References

[edit] Bibliography

• Seth Godin: Unleashing the ideavirus, 2001
• Emanuel Rosen: The Anatomy of Buzz, 2002
• Susannah Gardner: Buzz Marketing with Blogs For Dummies, 2005
• Mark Hughes: Buzzmarketing: Get People to Talk About Your Stuff, 2005
• Alfred Riachi: Zero Cost Zero Plus, 2009
• Ron McDaniel: Buzzoodle Buzz Marketing, 2006
• Stefano Calicchio: Pass the Virus! How to exploit the viral marketing to give an uproarious success to your own ideas, 2006
• Jack Barrow: Satanic Viruses - The fall of the Roman Empire and how to bring it about, 2008, 3rd ed. (first published 1989)
• Dario Caiazzo, Andrea Colaianni,Andrea Febbraio, Umberto Lisiero: Buzz Marketing nei Social Media, 2009