Viral Campaign

With e-mail making communication between friends, family, and associates as quick and easy as pushing the Forward button, viral

campaigns have become a hot topic in marketing circles.

Viral campaigns are attractive due to their potential for high visibility rates

and their relatively low cost (when compared to other forms of mass media advertising).

In short, a viral campaign is one in which the marketer deliberately creates aspects of the campaign in such a way that the audience will be compelled to pass the message on to others.This is typically done in one of two ways:

• The marketer can offer an incentive to a consumer to pass a message

on to others.Often called a “refer-a-friend” program, marketers who use this tactic will offer existing customers anything from a free t-shirt to reduced rates to cash if they refer a someone to a site who then signs on and becomes a paying customer. The consumer

who passes the word along is happy, because they stand to

profit from passing on the name of a brand to which they already

feel connected. The person who receives the information is comfortable

that the recommendation of the brand is coming from a

trusted, reliable source and not directly from the brand itself. The

brand is happy because they have set the referral price at a reasonable

cost per each new client acquisition.

• The marketer will try to create a marketing piece that can capture

someone’s attention—so much so that they feel compelled to

pass it on if for no other reason than to show it to other people.

Typically, these tend to be videos that are either heavily comedic,

extraordinarily shocking, or both.

According to Jupiter Research, over 60% of all Internet users have

passed along an e-mail to a friend or colleague that they found interesting

or funny. However, with new content infiltrating the Web every

day, marketers are finding it more difficult to capture consumers’

attention and are increasingly pressed to push the envelope to attract

attention.

While the term “viral campaign” refers to any portion of a campaign

that gets passed from one person to another, savvy marketers seek to

create campaigns that are more complex than single, outrageous videos.

Effective viral campaigns

Truly effective campaigns that can maintain audience interest for

longer periods of time need to tie back to a single creative concept that

helps to reinforce the brand message. In 2004, a campaign considered

by many to be one of the greatest examples of a successful viral eff ort

was launched. Only 20 people were initially told about the Subservient-

Chicken.com Web site when it first launched—friends of people at the

ad agency that created it. It wasn’t long before the site had registered 20

million people according to the Wall Street Journal. The site,

shows a man in a chicken suit standing in a rather unassuming

living room. Visitors who log on can tell the chicken what to do.

A command of “Do three pushups” results in the chicken doing three

pushups. Although otherwise pointless, people found the site fascinating,

spending an average of six minutes with each visit. Throughout the

campaign, rumors swirled as people tried to find out who was behind

the site (although the site today has a brand logo clearly visible, it was

not as obvious when the site first launched). Ultimately, it was revealed,

to much publicity, that the site was part of Burger King’s marketing

effort, underscoring its long held “Have it your way” brand promise.

effects of viral marketing.