Hannah Brady - Powering Up Your Brand with Content @ Force24 All leads
Viral Marketing
1.
2. • An attempt to spread marketing message that
spreads quickly and exponentially among
consumers to increase brand awareness.
• Video clips, Flash Games, Images, E-books
• Viral marketing is a strategy that allows to
spread marketing messages and ads, over many
different types of social media sites.
• These messages or ads multiply rapidly and are
sent to thousands of people, just like viruses.
What is Viral Marketing?
3. What is Viral Marketing?
A promotional method that is of the customers, by
customers, and for customers
“Like viruses, take advantage of the rapid
multiplication to explode the message to thousands –
or even to millions”
7. Key Learning of ICE Bucket Challenge
viral marketing
• Make it fun, and make it easy: Brands and
marketers are constantly asking people to do
things -- it's one way that we try to get our
audiences to engage: register to win a car, tweet
to get a discount, create an account for new
updates. It works to varying degrees when the
incentive is there. But it doesn't often generate a
lot of buzz or take off organically because it's
generally not that interesting or unique of a
tactic. People are now used to doing these things.
Most people aren't used to dumping a bucket of
ice water on their heads.
8. Key Learning of ICE Bucket Challenge
viral marketing
• Sometimes going local is more powerful than
national: The Ice Bucket Challenge started off
unaffiliated to any specific charity until, according
to Time, a guy named Chris Kennedy in Florida
linked the two (see above video). But it didn't
really go viral until Pete Frates in Boston and Pat
Quinn in Yonkers, New York, picked up the
challenge and took it to their local communities
and friends. They wanted to raise money for ALS,
but they didn't intend to kick off a national
movement.
9. Key Learning of ICE Bucket Challenge
viral marketing
• Don't try too hard to control the message -- let other
people tell the story: If a brand had launched
something like this, chances are that you'd have
marketers all over the place trying to control the
message. But this challenge enables people to tell their
own stories. Some have dedicated their video to a
loved one with ALS. Some are taking the opportunity to
create a memory with friends. Others are taking
creative license and building ice dumping contraptions
a la Bill Gates. And still others are skipping the ice and
just jumping into the very cold waters of Lake Michigan
(albeit that may be too far of a stretch).
10. Key Learning of ICE Bucket Challenge
viral marketing
• Make it personal: The Ice Bucket Challenge has done something
that I haven't really seen happen before: it's created a niche
community that's both inclusive and exclusive at the same time.
Once you've been challenged, then you're in. And if you haven't
been challenged directly, you can still enjoy the videos, donate and
support others who are doing it. It's become a form of public
exclusivity. And by asking you to nominate other people, it's
become personal -- even if you don't know someone with ALS. If
you're challenged by someone to do this, then you become
accountable, both to those people and to yourself, both in public
and private. And if anything, the negative press may have helped
somewhat in this regard -- because a lot of people felt fake if they
didn't both dump the bucket and donate. There is a simple human
truth here: people want to help humankind, but they really jump in
when it's personal.
11. Advantages
Accessed by millions of people per day
Quicker way of reaching the customer
Saves on advertising costs within companies
Customize the message to your preference
Can easily be directed to your exact target market
Sometimes gives the company a good reputation
12. Disadvantages
Can be annoying and be considered as spam
Only benefits the company if an actual sale is made from the ad
Focuses more on short term success
Many competitors can easily imitate the viral marketing
techniques and steal the market from other companies
Can put out a negative impact on the company, in the same
timing that it puts a positive impact on the company
13. • Failing to make it interesting enough to pass
along
• Failing to provide incentives to encourage
people to pass your message along
• Focusing on a single viral piece rather than a
viral process
• Failing to test and track the results
• Not recognizing it is different from word-of-
mouth marketing
Viral Marketing Mistakes