- By Curtis Silver
- October 29, 2009 |
- 5:44 pm |
- Categories: Advertising, Social Media
Viral marketing — the technique of wrangling word-of-mouth to create a buzz around your product or idea — has been a powerful tool ever since the first caveman started the first rumor. Spreading the word person to person is the stuff of Avon dreams — and Bernie Madoff nightmares. And it requires the confidence to lose control of the message by setting it adrift.
The modern age of viral marketing began in the mid 1990s with (of all things) a cultish, childish cable TV show that defined “guilty pleasure” way before Beavis and Butthead. The producers of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (the premise of MST3K is almost too ridiculous to articulate) knew immediately they had both something viable/new/remarkable and that their best marketers were the show’s smallish but loyal audience. In those dark days before streaming media they encouraged the show’s viewers to videotape their copyrighted shows, and pass them along to friends — creating that sought after word-of-mouth buzz.
Marketing agencies took note, realizing that in order to have a successful viral marketing campaign they would have to give something away gratis. They also had to give people a reason to recruit others to their cause. But how!
In 2002, three years before YouTube, BMW ported this revelation to the internet. Over 11 million viewers initially tuned in to watch the web-only short film series The Hire, starring Clive Owen. Of those, 2 million registered to the BMW website. We don’t know how may of those clicks were converted into sales, but here’s the big number: In four years it’s estimated that the videos were viewed over 100 million times.
Viral marketing was now a proven method — so good in fact, that many thought it couldn’t possibly be replicated. Enter YouTube, which introduced viral marketing to social media. The courtship was quick and the relationship was more than anyone could imagine it would be. Now, with tools such as Ning, Twitter, Orkut, PayPal, YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Digg and Flickr, viral marketing has become a true virus, spreading across the social media landscape like the Black Plague in the 14th century.
Chaos Squared knows social media trends inside and out partnering with one of the largest online marketing companies, CPX Interactive. Through the use of online contests, Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, online banner ads as well as traditional marketing elements, Chaos Squared is influencing the right people to purchase Blood Night: The Legend of Mary Hatchet. The key to having a successful viral campaign begins with a good product. Fortunately, the horror community has embraced the film and there is quite a bit of excitement surrounding the release.
The power of influence is ever present in this discussion, which is what social media tools add to viral marketing. The crowd mentality is heavier within a social media community, which makes it easier for viral marketing to do its job. Honestly, it really seems like marketing via social media is the new form of viral marketing. That’s the wave of the future in marketing, a new and improved marketing platform. More from Jamie in relation to film and when to claim success:
The company that is successful at driving niche groups to films online will be profitable in this new digital world of film. But, you can’t just put a film up online and expect people to watch it. You still have to get the message to the people. We sent out 25 million ads and had 1.5 million visitors to the Blood Night website. That’s a response rate of 6%. Starting on October 26th, we plan on serving close to half a billion ads in support of this film. If we apply similar response rates, we anticipate having close to 20 million visitors. If we convert even 1% of these visitors, then this film is doing very well. These ads will run on social media sites, horror sites, film sites, as well as other targeted publishers. For us, we’re relying on social media to introduce the message and reinforce the message.
We feel as though we know where the consumer is located now we just need to prove it. If our response rates are high then sales will be high. Of course, all of the online marketing we are doing will be complemented with a traditional marketing plan as well for consumers that have no plans on making online purchases. We believe very strongly at proving the consumer with options. The Burger King approach. What you want, when you want. Today’s consumer isn’t going to be bullied by corporations telling them where to watch something and how to watch something. You tell us, we’ll listen.
Like Pac-Man and Mrs. Pac-Man, social media and viral marketing have fallen in love and become one. They are virtually indistinguishable these days and follow the same basic principles as early forms of viral marketing. Tell your friends. Tell your neighbors. Call someone. Now it’s tweeting and leaving comments on Facebook pages. Viral marketing is the concept, social media is the tool.
A great example of recent use of what I’m calling “viral social media” is the release of the recent online rock opera, The Battle for Milkquarious. Released exclusively online, it was pumped up using an aggressive YouTube and social media campaign. The California Milk Processor board (responsible for the Got Milk? campaign) listened to its core audience and created a rock opera about milk. A bold move, but completely feasible in this age of minute by minute entertainment and attention spans. I asked the Executive Director of the CA Milk Processor Board, Steve James, for his thoughts on the impending marriage of social media with viral marketing and the challenges that lie within.
Social media and viral marketing are virtually interconnected (no pun intended). The success of social media — in allowing people to gather in groups of mutual interest and to share what’s meaningful in their lives — is really the foundation of viral communication. In terms of viral marketing, we’ve seen that people will happily pass along your marketing as long as: 1) the content is entertaining and 2) the message is genuine. In the case of milk, I believe we’ve been successful in both respects.
The first challenge is to create outstanding content — without that to stand on, nothing else you do will work. Next is to identify the right “neighborhoods” where your message will find the desired “crowd.” In our case, the crowd was teens and tuned-in parents, and the neighborhoods were social networking, entertainment, and music sites. Next, using all sorts of analytics that abound on the Internet, is to choose individual sites for their traffic and demographics. Finally, using many of those same analytics, engagement needs to be quantified to determine the success of our communication and media strategy and to tweak it as necessary. Put all of these elements together, and you’ve got a winning viral marketing program; if any one is missing, you’ll miss the mark.
One of the most interesting developments in the new trend is that it’s not limited to the expertise of a corporation marketing a product. With social media, anyone can run at least a mildly successful viral marketing campaign. Bloggers are even getting into the act, using social media outlets to market themselves across all platforms, with no product to sell besides sage advice and videos of their families. However, readership and attention is just as important to bloggers, as financial gain is to a production company or advertising agency.
One such blog is Everyotherthursday.com. The focus of this blog is family and fatherly values, but promoting their blog has been more complex than just a quiet father/son talk in the garage. Full disclosure, I’m one of the founders of that blog. Therefore, by linking it here I’m proving a point about viral social media. From fellow EOT founder David Binkowski, Senior Vice President, Word of Mouth Marketing at Manning, Selvage & Lee:
Dads are really underrepresented in the blogosphere, for starters, understanding that it takes time to build a following, we really wanted to focus on great content and building credibility online by getting the word out organically. To date the blog has driven its comments and following purely through word of mouth without any advertising. The blog plans to introduce more video content and frequently feature guest contributors to keep things fresh. Dads want to know that they’re not alone in this and if we can help provide even one Dad with some good advice, well, then we probably failed. But a few hundred Dads would be great.
So what does the future hold now that viral marketing has evolved to utilize social media tools? It started out as a cheap and viable way to spread the word about a product or idea, and it continues to do the same. The method has been altered to accept new tools and processes and we’ve adapted along with it to use those tools and respond to them. Viral social media is what it’s become. Twitter, at first a place to tell everyone what you ate for breakfast is now a place to promote yourself, your company or your product.
So while viral marketing has evolved to include social media tools, social media tools have evolved to include viral marketing. It may seem confusing and chaotic at times, it’s the wave of the future — for now.
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