In an increasingly technological age, the need for new methods of marketing is all too apparent. An immensely popular, not to mention successful, means of promoting brand awareness is through the medium of viral marketing.
Viral Marketing – What is it and how does it work?
First things first, viral marketing is a technique used to promote brand awareness, predominantly through the use of social networks. It is referred to as viral as it proliferates itself through self replicating viral processes in the same way as pathological viruses. In terms of viral marketing, this can take a number of forms. Most notably, word of mouth. Viral marketing is increasingly becoming an internet phenomenon and is unparalleled in its capacity to create a buzz about a brand or product.
The aim of viral marketers is to get people to pass on their marketing message voluntarily based on a principle that a customer will tell 3 people about a product or service they like and 11 people about something they don't like. Viral marketing hinges upon natural human behaviour. Just some of the methods of viral marketing include:
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Video clips
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False social network profiles
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Flash games
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Text messages
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Brandable software
The Unstoppable Spread Of Viral Marketing
In an increasingly connected world, predominantly centred around the internet, it is of little wonder that viral marketing has undergone an explosion in popularity. Internet users all over the world can tell others about something they've seen at the click of a button and so the ‘virus' begins. The mysticism of many viral marketing campaigns only increase the buzz which is why they are a key tool in brand awareness as people will actively seek them out.
Popular Examples of Viral Marketing
There are many forms that viral marketing can take and they each have their various merits. Some of the most popular, and therefore successful, viral campaigns witnessed recently include:
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Cadbury's Gorilla Advert – The image of a gorilla playing a set of drums, of course, has very little to do with chocolate but the popularity of this video exploded on social network sites like Facebook and MySpace which, in turn, led to an increase in sales.
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Lost TV Show – Lost is one of the most popular TV shows of all time and this is largely due to their ingenious viral marketing methods. They made websites purporting to be authentic, made video clips and news stories about the plane crash in the show and even went so far as to release the manuscript that one of the characters finds washed up on the beach.
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Cloverfield – A 2008 Blockbuster movie, built on the back of a well planned, and intricate, viral marketing campaign. In the first instance, the trailer was released without a title and instead just had a release date. This created an immediate buzz around the movie and this was followed up by the movie's marketers with a number of viral marketing techniques including fictitious company websites and authentic looking MySpace profiles for the characters in the movie.