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VIRAL MARKETING

DIGITAL

Waggener Edstrom Worldwide |Ged Carroll |November 18, 2008

2VIRAL MARKETING:

• What viral marketing

• What viral marketing isn’t

• Going in with your eyes open

• Factors for success

• Considerations

• Going viral for the wrong reasons

• Case studies

• Questions

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3WHAT IS VIRAL MARKETING

• A marketing phenomena that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message voluntarily

• Attention economy• Content comes in many formats

– Games– Video clips– Brandable software– Images– Text messages– Vouchers

4WHAT VIRAL MARKETING ISN’T

• Free marketing• Easy to do• A guaranteed success• A great mechanism for direct

response marketing (generally)• Infinitively sustainable• A way to dupe or deceive

consumers

5GOING IN WITH YOUR EYES WIDE OPEN

• Only 15 per cent of advertisers reached the goal of prompting consumers to pass along their messages for them - JupiterResearch Viral Marketing – Bring the Message to the Masses

• Relatively older online users are more likely than relatively younger users to forward advertising messages to friends or tell friends about ads

• Different influential groups not only respond very differently to advertising campaigns, but also influence others in very different ways and through different means

• Failure to truly understand the audience means that a campaign is as likely to alienate an audience as influence it

• Brands attempting to reach outside their brand images or target demographics and only end up looking like they are trying too hard

6FACTORS FOR SUCCESS

• Brevity• Don’t try too hard – the audience

needs to get it• Don’t make an outright ad unless

you have amazing content• Do provide people with an

opportunity to remix your content – carrying on the discussion

• Do invest in great content• Don’t put all your eggs in one

basket• Do think about Social Network

Potential / Super Nodes

• Do not allow a creative idea to be watered down by too much internal discussion

• Tactics that work• Shock• Fake headlines• Appeal to sex• Incite a debate

• Do seed and promote: blogs, forums, social networks, email list, friends

• Think carefully about a content release strategy

• Luck

7CONSIDERATIONS

• What are you trying to achieve?• Who are you trying to influence?• What understanding do you have

about them?• What other audiences could see

this content?• What is the reward to me as a

consumer for engaging with your content

• What is the opportunity cost vis-à-vis other marketing tactics?

• What will this do to your brand?• What legal constraints do you

operate under?• What organisational constraints

do you operate under?• What’s next?• What will do if it doesn’t work?

8GOING VIRAL FOR THE WRONG REASONS

• Going against brand values

• Offending stakeholder groups

• Conducting an activity that is considered to be in bad taste

• Being seen as dishonest

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CASE STUDIES

10NISSAN

• Nissan Motor Company of Japan ordered its Israeli distributor to pull an advert that shows Arab businessmen venting anger at the fuel efficency of a Nissan Tiida car

• The video went up on YouTube in July and was widely seen throughout the Arab world

• Boycotts of Nissan products were started by Arab consumers

"We need to apply punishments... against these things. In order for Nissan to keep its interests in the region, it must apologize.” Saudi government spokesperson Hani al-Wafa

11SONY BRAVIA BALLS

• Ad agency looked at a way of visualising the colour difference of Sony Bravia TVs and came up with an ad spot

• The high production value of the ad and the creativity of the film garnered 4.3 million views in 2006 on YouTube

• Improved brand and advert recall and Sony had a 15 per cent rise in sales

12BURGER KING WHOPPER

• Burger King’s signature dish is the Whopper. This campaign was done by Crispin Porter + Bogusky.

• A Whopper-free Burger King is set up. • Customers are being told: we are very

sorry, Burger King discontinued the Whopper.

• The reactions of real customers, taped with hidden cameras and a fake TV news crew!

• Some customers get really very angry and some tell great stories about Burger King

• Day 2: customers Whoppers are swapped for other chains burgers – more anger ensues

13CADBURY GORILLA

• Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate sales had been hit by a salmonella outbreak

• The company needed to get the brand back in front of people and meaning something more than food poisoning

• It needed to spur discussion, there are 63 response videos on YouTube and the original has been viewed 3.2 million times

• 70 Facebook groups set up in appreciation of the gorilla

• A 9% year on year increase in sales

14BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Media Virus by Douglas Rushkoff

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© Waggener Edstrom Worldwide 2008