Posts filed under 'Viral Marketing'
Posted February 6th, 2008 by Kristin
So it’s no secret that I’m a Brookers fan. This morning I watched her latest vlog in which she questions the authenticity of YouTuber Magibon. Magibon claims to be 21 years old on her account. No way. Maybe she’s 13. Her videos are short and quirky. I’m guessing she’s speaking in Japanese. The language doesn’t matter – her eyes and innocent yet somewhat revealing tops do the communicating. What’s really creepy is a site supposedly created by a fan of Magibon’s: www.magibon.com. Like Brookers, I suspect this is a marketing set up for an upcoming film a la Blair Witch meets LonelyGirl17. If it’s not a marketing set up, that Frank guy should be hunted down and arrested, because hello, that’s no fan site.
Which leads me to the question, when do these hoaxes cross the line? Right now this Magibon set up seems like something straight out of Law & Order SVU. How do we know when to legitimately be concerned?
Posted January 10th, 2008 by Char Lyn
Last night at about 9 pm the Facebook app SuperWall had 3,090,929 “daily active users.” As I write this post, it has 3,551,493. That’s an increase of almost half a million users in less than 24 hours.
Why?
Some time in the last week or so, the SuperWall developers added a new feature: Forward (fast). Clicking this link at the bottom of a SuperWall post automatically posts the wall message onto the SuperWall of all of your friends.
A picture of a husky puppy dog has shown up on my SuperWall three times with the exact same message, “click forward….to see what happens!” Fortunately, I was warned by an office mate before clicking forward.
While this is will likely be a very successful campaign for increasing SuperWall installation and usage, it feels a little like a con. It’s to close to that bad type of virus that proliferates without the infector’s knowledge. The good viral campaigns are only passed with the infector’s full knowledge.
Posted December 28th, 2007 by Kristin
On December 13, ad agency Arnold announced the start of “a viral video series which gives the agency’s perspective on current trends, happenings and important issues in the world of advertising.” They call it Arnold On.
It amuses me that they’re calling it a “viral video series.” A viral video is one that is passed along from user to user (usually because it’s funny or really cool). However, it’s immediately apparent how un-viral the Arnold On videos are, without any regard to the content. There is no “send to a friend” or “forward” functionality. You can’t embed the video on your blog or profile page (not that I imagine the demand to do so is high). Users are instead asked to keeping coming back for updates, which for now involves going to www.arnoldworldwide.com and finding Arnold On under the Our Agency section of the nav. Sure… that’s likely to get tons of repeat traffic.
What should they do with Arnold On? For starters, turn it into a video blog. Allow and encourage comments and feedback. Give it a unique url and/or feature it more prominently on the website. Oh, and if they want it to be “viral,” make it easy for users to pass it along. Duh.
Posted September 12th, 2007 by Char Lyn
The NY Times Bits blog outing of John Ordover’s Marry Our Daughter prank site made me recall the hour I spent at work horrifically fascinated by the male pregnancy site. In both cases I was relieved when they were confirmed hoaxes. From a social media perspective, sites like these are the accidents on the side of the road during rush hour traffic. One can’t help but slow down to gawk, then talk about what was seen around the water cooler. Unfortunately the Britney debacle wasn’t a hoax, but it received the same type of viral reaction.
As a group here at DIG brainstormed campaign ideas for a current client after having seen the Marry Our Daughter site, I was once again reminded of what makes media viral. Like the virulent germs they are named after, explosive campaigns need a little bit of shock to create a pandemic. The shock can take many forms: disbelief that requires verification from all your friends (Marry Our Daughter), unexpected craziness (Carlsberg beer and Will It Blend?), remarkable/silly but useless talent (Stride gum), and yes, sexy still sells (do you really need links to prove that?).
Fortunately, campaigns don’t have to be virulent to work, and going viral doesn’t guarantee revenue. There are many campaigns which promote steady growth over time without shocking or offending potential customers such as the Coke Zero campaign, Cisco’s Human Network and Visa’s Fan with a Plan. They provide reliable information to quality customers and still provide entertainment.
What people often forget is that the product or service being sold must have customer value. If the product doesn’t live up to the value proposition, the most viral campaign in the world can’t guarantee product success.
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