Viral Marketing – It’s A Case Of Watch And Learn

The best thing about viral marketing is also the worst – in that it is impossible to control. Of course any business can create a viral marketing campaign. By definition this just means that your campaign has the capacity to be quickly and easily passed on. This can happen via email, social media, but most commonly takes place online (and takes off) via YouTube.

Once your campaign is out there, it’s in the hands of consumers. Only they have the power to spread the word about a campaign so it shifts from ‘viral marketing’ to those magical words: ‘it’s gone viral’.

If you’re keen on the idea of viral marketing the best thing to do is look at the most successful campaigns, which fall into three rough categories:

Elaborate, planned and carefully produced (often with huge budgets)

These are not for every company. By far the most successful campaign of this nature in the last few years was the Dark Knight ‘Why So Serious?’campaign. A live, interactive game was set up for followers to plan online and out in the real world, chasing clues and forming allegiances. By the end of the campaign, there were more than 10 million participants in over 75 countries interacting via mobile phones, internet, games and real events. The movie broke all previous box office records on its opening day.

TaxBrain created waves in 2007 with its stolen Nascar stunt. What do Nascars have to do with tax you may ask? The answer doesn’t really matter. The campaign went national within 24 hours (across news sites and free to air media), with an estimated value of over $1 million in TV advertising. It built huge brand awareness, resulted in massive affiliate marketing opportunities. And it was successful in grabbing the attention of a young, male demographic.

A simple and clever idea, well executed

Cadbury’s drum playing gorilla is a stand out campaign that crossed over online and TV, creating those ‘water cooler’ moments at work places that every brand dreams of.

GuitarMasterPro captured the essence of viral marketing. Show a young man playing guitar in a way that surely every student in the world wants to play like, put the video on YouTube and link it to your site. Cheap to make, entertaining to watch, spreads like wild fire.

Taking advantage of a chance occurrence or moment

Nike’s Touch of Gold campaign with star soccer player Ronaldhino capitalised on the natural talent of this man and the swell in popularity of the world game.

When planning your own viral marketing campaign, there is no silver bullet for success. There is an aspect of tapping into crowd consciousness. However it seems as though three key elements go into creating campaigns that at least have a chance of going viral:

• It has to be easy to be passed on. Anything more complicated than a ‘share’ or ‘forward’ button is too complicated for viral.
• It has to be fun, entertaining or engaging in some way.
• It needs to offer something tangible to your audience. What this is will depend on your brand and the goals of the campaign. As evident by the examples, it can be anything from a free product to the chance to get involved in a flash mob event.

The better you know your brand and target audience the stronger your viral marketing campaign will be.

iQuantum works closely with companies on social media marketing and branding. We can ask the questions that might help you find that new direction or tap into the market you already have. Essentially viral marketing is about understanding what makes people tick, or in the case of the internet, click.