Monday, May 21, 2007
Viral Marketing New Era
I've read recently on what viral marketing is and isn't. My two cents: Viral marketing is simply a tool to be used. It can be employed in a guerilla marketing campaign, but isn't the same thing. It can be employed as disruptive marketing, but not all disruptive marketing is viral marketing. I think buzz marketing and word-of-mouth marketing are good synonyms. Media leverage might be a result of viral marketing, but isn't always included. The long tail has no connection to viral marketing except that viral marketing can be used to bring access to the long tail, but the same as viral marketing is a tool to bring any product to any group. No that that is cleared up...
Viral marketing may be one of the most difficult things to create for some people, but one of the most natural things for others. In the spirit of Freakonomics, I would go so far as to say that viral marketing isn't something that you contract out with a typical ad agency to create. We're entering an arena of marketing where what you do is far less important than what you are. Be something that's worthy of viral marketing or word-of-mouth spread. I do completely agree with Blake Snow in the above linked post that consumers really control the outcome of viral marketing campaigns or ads. And consumers are infinitely smarter, more clever, and more vengeful than some give them credit for. It's a new era where people don't want to be manipulated or coerced into buying something they don't want and (here's the new part) they're aware of when it's happening, despite the best disguise that money can buy. Of course there is a certain mindset, and even if you are viral marketable, if you're not thinking along those lines, you could miss out on opportunities. It's worth learning the tactics involved, but don't think that it replaces having a product or service that people want to talk about. Now, I know that there are some readers now thinking that I don't know what viral marketing is. There are two ways of looking at viral marketing and I separate them completely. Blake's example of Hotmail putting a tagline on the bottom of each email as advertisement is not the kind of viral marketing that I'm talking about. Mainly because that viral marketing is actually spreading the virus yourself. The marketing that I'm dealing with is where the virus is spread with or without you. Some people look at them as the same, but I would separate them as two completely different types of marketing: Proliferation tactics and Real Viral Marketing. This may not be the most well organized post, but like I said, it's just my two cents.
Update: I have changed my mind on some of the statements in this post. See Viral Marketing in Real Life
Viral marketing may be one of the most difficult things to create for some people, but one of the most natural things for others. In the spirit of Freakonomics, I would go so far as to say that viral marketing isn't something that you contract out with a typical ad agency to create. We're entering an arena of marketing where what you do is far less important than what you are. Be something that's worthy of viral marketing or word-of-mouth spread. I do completely agree with Blake Snow in the above linked post that consumers really control the outcome of viral marketing campaigns or ads. And consumers are infinitely smarter, more clever, and more vengeful than some give them credit for. It's a new era where people don't want to be manipulated or coerced into buying something they don't want and (here's the new part) they're aware of when it's happening, despite the best disguise that money can buy. Of course there is a certain mindset, and even if you are viral marketable, if you're not thinking along those lines, you could miss out on opportunities. It's worth learning the tactics involved, but don't think that it replaces having a product or service that people want to talk about. Now, I know that there are some readers now thinking that I don't know what viral marketing is. There are two ways of looking at viral marketing and I separate them completely. Blake's example of Hotmail putting a tagline on the bottom of each email as advertisement is not the kind of viral marketing that I'm talking about. Mainly because that viral marketing is actually spreading the virus yourself. The marketing that I'm dealing with is where the virus is spread with or without you. Some people look at them as the same, but I would separate them as two completely different types of marketing: Proliferation tactics and Real Viral Marketing. This may not be the most well organized post, but like I said, it's just my two cents.
Update: I have changed my mind on some of the statements in this post. See Viral Marketing in Real Life
