Viral advertising uses consumer-to-consumer communication to spread marketing messages rather than direct company messaging. It aims to create an environment where consumers voluntarily market to each other by endorsing brands. Three key elements make content viral: humor, originality, and emotional impact. Successful viral campaigns are seeded through influencers and mass media to gain critical mass more predictably. While some claim influencers can engineer trends, research shows ordinary users are more responsible for starting trends if the social environment is conducive. Creating truly viral content is difficult to guarantee, but following best practices like leveraging memes and Internet celebrities can improve chances of success.

1. HOW VIRAL ADVERTISING CAN
IMPROVE THE MARKETING EFFORTS OF
INNOVATIVE APPS?
By Gil Lavie
1

2. TABLE OF CONTENTS
THEORY
THE VIRAL INDUSTRY
ADVANTAGES
PHILOSOPHY (Biology of memes)
VIRAL ELEMENTS
HUMOR
SEEDING
METHODOLOGY (Cracking the code)
Q&A
2

3. LOOK AT IT AS A PROJECT
Work Process – Art & Science
CREATIVE – Is the meme strong enough? (R&D)
PRODUCTION – Is the meme well executed? (Programming)
POST-PRODUCTION – (Debugging, patching)
SEEDING – Does the seeding plan cover all bases? (Marketing)
3

4. CAN “MEMES” BE ENGINEERED?
YES
Creative agencies which repeatedly crack memes quickly move to
the big league. Working with them can better ensure success, but
it costs a pretty penny!
NO
What goes viral is always a fluke.
Just look at “Charlie Bit Me” or “Harlem Shake” if you don’t
.believe
4

5. THEORY
5

6. ADVERTISING
Push vs. Pull
Conventional ads are PUSHED
We are exposed to over 3,000 marketing
messages each day. Billboards, print, radio,
TV, banners, pop-ups, etc.
6

7. VIRAL ADVERTISING
Push vs. Pull
Viral ads are PULLED
Creativity of the ad propels exposure (Web enabled)
Something worth watching, but also worth forwarding
or sharing.
7

8. VIRAL ADVERTISING
The Goal & Focus
GOAL
To use consumer-to-consumer as opposed to company-
to-consumer communications - to disseminate information
about a product.
FOCUS
To create an environment in which consumers voluntarily
market to one another, thereby voluntarily acting as brand
ambassadors.
8

9. NOT MUCH HAS CHANGED
Word-of-mouth Word-of-mouse
WOM eWOM
Viral Marketing is a technique that can CAUSE
a word-of-mouse EFFECT.
9

10. KEY VIRAL ELEMENTS
A viral campaign should be:
 Humor/Funny
 Sexy
 Artistic
Original
High emotional threshold

 Surprising
 Optimistic
‫סף רגוש גבוהה‬
 Emotional
 Provocative
 Thought-provoking
 Punchy (twist)
 Hermetic / To the point
10

11. ADVANTAGES
11

12. VIRAL ADVERTISING
Advantages
• Media-free (in theory) • Self-targeted
• Measurable • Lives forever
• Voluntary • Immediate call-for-action
• Peer-to-peer endorsement • Less regulated / Uncensored
• No geographical boundaries • Individual appeal
12

13. NEW MEDIA
NEW MEDIA
Individual Appeal
Active Viewing
OLD MEDIA
Social Group Appeal
Passive Viewing
13

14. VIRAL ADVERTISING
Objectives & Benefits
mySupermarket.wmv etoro caveman.wmv
Branding
//Branding
Positionin
Positionin
Koolanoo 1.wmv gg
Buzz/WO
Buzz/WO
Targeted
Targeted MM
Traffic
Traffic Awarenes
Awarenes
FIAT Panda.wmv
Viral
Campaign ss
Video
Video Call-for-
Call-for-
Search
Search action
Snapily.wmv action
Optimization
Optimization JamesAllen.wmv
Different Objectives lead to different Creatives
14

15. THE INDUSTRY
15

16. HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
2002 2007 2012 2017
Creative Production Seeding
16

17. VIRAL ADVERTISING INDUSTRY
How it all started
From email forwarding of viral video commercials,
to “sharing” and “liking”.
Viral Factory headrush.mpeg
Late 90’s April 2001
17

18. VIRAL ADVERTISING INDUSTRY
From then to now
2002
TheViralFactory.com
London, U.K
18

19. VIRAL ADVERTISING INDUSTRY
Where’s the app?
19

20. PHILOSOPHY
20

21. PHILOSOPHY
What’s a “meme”?
A “meme” is a contagious idea (joke, smart saying, new
theory…) that when unleashed into a population of people,
exhibits a similar growth pattern to that of a viral epidemic.
– Richard Dawkins, “Selfish Gene”, 1976
21

22. Philosophy
More on memes
A meme is like a gene, only it’s a unit of culture.
The same principles of evolution should apply to it:
 Has a Host
 Transfers Information
 Competes for Survival
 Success drives it (It doesn’t care for the truth)
 Replicates (When jumping from mind to mind)
 Mutates
 Evolves
A meme is the mutating replicator in human cultural evolution.
– Richard Dawkins
22

23. Philosophy
The science of Memetics
Based on Universal Darwinism, Memetics can be simply
understood as a method for scientific analysis of cultural
evolution.
It’s not yet officially recognized as an academic science.
Competing Fields
Sociobiology – Social behavior has resulted from evolution.
Evolutionary Psychology – Examines traits such as
memory, perception, language from evolutionary perspective.
Human behavior is a result of psychological adaptations that
evolved to solve problems in our environment.
23

24. MEGA MEMES Resurrection
Adaptations
Islam Christianity Virgin
Eugenics
Mary
Politics Survival Social
Secularism of fittest Darwinism Judaism
Food
Liberty Evolution Creationism
Holy
Natural DNA Land
Selection
Freud Democracy
GOD
Technology
Zionism
Sex Inventions
Capitalism Atheism
Open
Source
-Multi Communism
Freedom culturalism
Love Marriage Of
Speech ‫שוויון‬
‫בנטל‬
24

25. HUMOR
25

26. HUMOR IS VIRAL
Studies show that funny content is
shared more than sexuality,
animals, violence, children…
Think of jokes…
26

27. Source: INSIDE JOKES, Using Humor to Reverse-Engineer the Mind – Hurley, Dennett, Adams (2011)
SCIENCE OF HUMOR
No emotional attachment to the object (Accidents/pain, Religious fanatics)
Object must be personified to be funny (Ex. clouds, landscapes)
Relates to aggression (sarcasm) and fight or flight response (Ex. Lion Cat)
Relates to love & sex (Oxytocin), play (tickling), fear (death), feeling of
superiority (identity), risk-taking (fight or flight).
Helps us fall in love, overcome fear (death), forms our identity (superiority),
fights depression (optimism), lowers stress (comic relief).
Theory of Surprise – Plato
Theory of Incongruity – A result of contradictions
Evolutionary reward system for creative problem solving
Mirth ‫עליצות‬
Real vs. Ideal (world view, perceptions, interpretations, expectations…)
27

28. COMPUTATIONAL HUMOR
Computer-generated joke:
What kind of murderer has a moral fiber?
A cereal killer
The survey also found that men preferred more aggressive jokes, as
well as sexual innuendo, while women preferred word play.
Source: Laugh Lab, Richard Wiseman, The World’s Funniest Joke 28

29. METHODOLOGY
29

30. METHODOLOGY (1)
Example: Scuba Accident
Host Memes Scuba accidents, funny bald guys, fear of baldness,
bald jokes, word play…
Humor Contradiction - A guy about to die should not be thinking
about his hair loss. Self-deprecation, word play…
Viral Elements Funny
Surprising
Original – 1st time connecting h/air in underwater situation
Provocative – Disguised as a scuba accident
Hermetic – No flaws in the logic. It really could happen.
Social Context Is now the time? ‫קרקע פוריה‬
Since R>1, more paid seeding will generate more views
Merck Scuba - English.wmv
30

31. METHODOLOGY (2)
Example: Backgammon
Host Memes Backgammon, music (Flamenco), dance, relationships, sex,
tricks, gambling, chance, show-off…
Humor Contradiction - A girl doesn’t behave that way. Our
expectation contradicts what “really” happened.
Self-deprecation
Viral Elements Funny
Sexy
Fantastic – World of fantasy, surreal
Surprising – Twist
Original – 1st time for this trick
Provocative – Bizarre enough
Hermetic – No flaws in the logic. Use of Product & Slogan.
Social Context Is now the time? ‫אליפות העולם בשש בש‬
Over 50 user-generated uploads…
Tricky play.wmv 31

32. METHODOLOGY (2)
Example: Orange Video
Host Memes Dogs, talking dogs, action, technology…
Humor Contradiction – Dogs don’t talk and if they did, they
wouldn’t be mafia.
Viral Elements Funny
Fantastic – World of fantasy
Surprising
Original – 1st time connecting dog in mobile video call
Provocative – A little bit considering it’s Orange
Hermetic – It “really” could happen.
Social Context Is now the time? ‫הייפ על דור שלישי...הבורר‬
Divergence from Orange’s Brand DNA
Orange 3G.wmv
32

33. SEEDING
33

34. SEEDING THEORY
1,000,000
900,000
800,000
700,000
R – Reproductive Rate 600,000
500,000
400,000 0.99
N ÷ (1-R) 300,000
200,000
0.95
0.90 R
100,000 0.50
0 0.10
1,000
10,000
Additional viewers
R - Reproductive Rate
When R>1, it’s an epidemic because Seed
Base 0.10 0.50 0.90 0.95 0.99
on average each person forwards to 1,000 1,111 2,000 10,000 20,000 100,000
more than one person. 10,000 11,111 20,000 100,000 200,000 1,000,000
34

35. SEEDING THEORY
Gladwell vs. Watts
Malcolm Gladwell – Influencers start trends
Influential marketing (Katz & Lazarsfeld 1955)
Two-step Flow  Law of the Few – Spread of memes made simple
Duncan Watts – Influencers can’t start trends
Social Context - High connectivity-Low resistance (Ex. Wild fire)
Accidental Influentials
Sources: “Viral Marketing for the Real World” & “Accidental Influentials” Harvard
Business Review 2007, Duncan Watts & Jonah Piretti 35
“Is the Tipping Point Toast?”, Fast Company

36. SEEDING THEORY
Duncan Watts
Global cascades (epidemics) don’t require few influentials, but a
critical mass of easily influenced connected people.
In simulations, most trends started with the average Joe,
but when influencers started them, they spread further!
Don’t try to engineer success through Influentials.
Susceptibility is crucial for trend starting.
Whether everyone is easily persuaded is more important than
how persuasive the early adopters are.
Sources: “Viral Marketing for the Real World” & “Accidental Influentials” Harvard
Business Review 2007, Duncan Watts & Jonah Piretti 36

37. SEEDING THEORY
Duncan Watts
“Reliably designing messages to exhibit viral properties is
extremely difficult, as is predicting which particular
individuals will be responsible for spreading them”
Companies are NOT like epidemics, they can create enormous
seeds.
Big-seed Marketing
Big-seed Marketing combines viral marketing tools with
old-fashioned mass media to yield more predictable results
than “purely” viral approached.
Sources: “Viral Marketing for the Real World” & “Accidental Influentials” Harvard
Business Review 2007, Duncan Watts & Jonah Piretti 37

38. SUMMING IT UP
38

39. SEEDING THEORY
‫?"אז מה זה "ויראלי‬
 Returns the investment (ROI)
 Reproductive Rate (R) ~ 0.90
 Posted on at least 1 blog organically
39

40. HOW MUCH CAN A GOOD MEME
SAVE?
100
80
60
40
20
0
Weak Meme Strong Mega Meme
Meme
Production Cost Paid Media Earned Media
40

41. WHAT’S YOUR MEME?
Building the umbrella concept
VTAGO Post your special moments and tag with friends
Special moments? Embarrassing situations.
Frimper Speed video dating
Dating? Show the exaggerated misery of blind dates
Pixplit Collaborative split photos
INHERENTLY VIRAL APP & FORMULA FOR HUMOR!!!
Hilarious split personality situation?
Split screen video - Spit screen photo series with quotes
SmileCaster Fund Your Cause & Receive Videos
Smile is a huge meme to play with
EatWith Dine in homes around the world
Food?
Pick one point and exaggerate the heck out of it!!!
41

42. GUARANTEEING VIRAL SUCCESS
Check List & Shortcuts
 Never compromise on the creative meme.
 Jokes are public domains.
 Use Internet celebs that have followers (seed base).
 Product Placement (existing popular content).
 Synergize photos with relevant quotes (LOL cats).
42

43. THE END
Gil Lavie
gil.lavie@gmail.com
43

44. Definitions
Advertising – Defined:
Paid non-personal communications from an identified
sponsor using mass media to persuade or influence an
audience.
Viral Advertising – Defined:
Unpaid peer-to-peer communication of provocative
content originating from an identified sponsor using the
Internet to persuade or influence the audience to pass
along the content to others.
In reality, the paid-for views generate unpaid views.
These unpaid views are known as earned media.
* Wells, Moriarty and Burnett
44

45. VIRAL ADVERTISING
Is there a problem?
TODAY
A Share replaced Email Forward
A Like became a public announcement
Problems:
Trust. Privacy.
Facebook is a single identity. We have many identities.
Facebook documents everything. Phone calls go by. Emails are
deleted.
Irony and Sarcasm is dangerous. No intonation in text.
(Example, “Obama Style”, Irony Mark, USENET pledge)
Solution:
Facebook Lists and Google Circles are not quite there yet.
Example: Café scene
SnapChat, Facebook Poke
Facebook “phone” and Video Calling
45