Viral Marketing: How to raise massive interest in a startup?

Juha Väisänen CEO, Fantastec

Finland http://www.polarheroes.com

http://fi.linkedin.com/in/juhavaisanen10 http://twitter.com/mr_Fantastec

Develop Conference

Brighton, UK

11 July, 2012

Contents

•Who is he? Where does he come from? •Fantastec & learning game revolution •What is viral marketing? •Viral marketing case:

•How Fantastec became internet phenomenon and got massive media attention? •How can you get thousands of job applications for an unknown startup company?

Banker squirrel helps children to learn the value of money

Epilogue:

Finland…

The country with the most beautiful nature in the world….

….where your

mother is beautiful….

Finland…

….and your father is rich.

Finland…

….well, not really.

A small nation with limited financial resources and extreme

conditions.

Finland…

Finland…

• This is how our staff lives

Finland…

• The most typical reasons why an employee is absent from work:

• Lazy

• Drunk

• Polar bear attack

Finland…

• To be honest, Finland is a great country with very strong ICT expertise, a well-managed society and a happy nation

• OECD (PISA tests): The best education system on the globe

• Several very successful game companies

• Rovio (Angry Birds), Remedy (Alan Wake), Digital Chocolate, Supercell...

Fantastec and

learning game revolution

•Two University degrees: Economics (Marketing) and Education •Research: game based learning •Energetic innovator, marketing professional, humour producer, learning expert... •Now combining all previous: CEO, Fantastec

Juha: Background

Background:

producer of humour content

•Humour magazines, sketch TV shows etc •Hilarious application for the position of Bank of Finland’s Governor

•Instead of a CV, attached was a service manual of Massey Ferguson tractor

Fantastec Ltd

•A two-year-old company •Programming and creative talents plus education and business experts •Nominated for the 3rd most attractive Finnish ICT company at Zero 2 IPO venture capital Forum at Beijing, China (December 2011) •Winner of Innovative Business Idea competition •Finalist of eEemeli, competition for digital education innovations

Flying Sledge with rocket engine

Fantastec

powers children’s happiness

and creates

great value for parents

with fun and educational games

Fantastec:

Mission & passion!

Kids Wiz Street and Math House

Children’s entertainment is

too dominated by violence

rather than

educational content (Gavyn Davies, the chairman of the BBC's governors)

Problem?

• Most of us want to be good parents

• But...

Problem?

• Current educational children’s games?

• Boring...

...

What if learning

met…

Fun! Adventures!

Solution?

Polar Heroes: “Moshi Monsters* with IQ”

Fantastec presents:

Edutainment gaming revolution

*Comment by a investor at Entrepreneur festival, London, Nov 2011

Polar Heroes: World’s first comprehensive

game based learning solution

•Virtual world & rich portfolio of fun, educational games & learning services •Fun for kids, beneficial for parents!

Watch the trailer: http://www.polarheroes.com/

Polar Heroes: Play and learn!

•The children are little Polar Hero and Princess candidates •Task is to help their characters to grow and gain fun skills and super powers •While playing children learn math, reading, behavior, general knowledge, languages and much more

Learning analytics services

for parents and schools

Teacher Owl

93 % very interested

93 % want to use (Reseach of 500 beta user families, Omega Research ltd.)

Does it work?

1 2

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100% 93%

7%

0

1

2

3

4

5

4,8

Does it work?

Rate of interest: 4,8 (scale 1-5, where 5 is best) 100% of children wanted to continue playing Polar Heroes Most interesting things: minigames, pets, funny objectives and functions. (Qualitative Focus group research, Omega Research ltd.)

”Really fun game”

”Nice game!”

”I could play this

whole week”

Testing principles

What is viral marketing?

Traditional vs. viral marketing

•Traditional marketing funnel

•Viral marketing funnel

COMPANY

CUSTOMER

Viral marketing

•“Marketing your business with things that can get passed around the Internet, such as social media and emails” •Traditional viral channels; word of mouth (users, customers, influencers, media…) •Cost effective, yes! •Easy? Definitely…not.

Viral marketing

•Research: “Virality is driven by psychososiological arousal. Content that evokes high-arousal positive (awe) or negative (anger or anxiety) emotions is more viral” •Feelings: Happiness, anger, laughter, love… •“See this cute baby seal? Buy our product or it will be killed” •Things to take into account; shareability, media, audience, momentum, etc.

How can you do marketing with a budget of zero €/£/$?

How can you get massive media attention

for a startup? How can a startup get over 1000 job

applications for one job?

Viral marketing

Case: Fantastec

Starting point

•Game developer and programmer needed •Problem: an unknown startup company •Problem: Fierce competition for best talents (Rovio etc) •Problem: no money for recruitment campaign •But… We are not doing this with big bucks, we are doing this with brains…and a big heart!

Goals of marketing

campaign

•Publicity for Fantastec •Raising awareness and interest among potential employees •Brand building: An energetic, talented and fun company – That’s Fantastec!

Recruitment campaign:

Action!

•Job ad on Finnish employment office (very concervative) web pages …job ad with a strong humoristic twist and reverse psychology

•”Fantastec is a tired and grey game company. We are looking for village idiots and foolish daydreamers”…

•We wanted to attach a picture of a hard working employee. We couldn’t find one so here is a picture of our office kitchen.

Content samples

1/3

Content samples

2/3

•We offer the support of a spineless organisation and miserable bonuses like only slightly used bus tickets •You will get a Commodore 63 and internet connection, so you can enjoy your work day on Facebook •Our morning meetings may be anaemic, but in return, team gatherings include a sufficient amount of alcohol. •On Fridays, we leave work early, but we compensate this by coming to the office later on Monday. •Work experience as a CEO of Rovio is a benefit.

Content samples

3/3

•The truth was also revealed: •To the point! This company doesn’t need idle tweakers, but top talents with a great sense of humour and creative spirit •Show your potential by sending an application, a CV and a picture of your grandfather wearing his wife’s underwear. •Please inform us about your desired amount of salad

What happened?

Humor portals…

•For example Naurunappula (Laugh Button): almost 30 000 viewers •The first comments were wondering if it was a real job or just a parody ad •Then somebody sent an application and told others that he got a response

A blogger translates it into

English…

Advertising agencies

react…

Facebook and Twitter

buzz…

The press wakes up!

Dozens of articles

For example: Second largest newspaper Aamulehti; print and online news article

Tekniikka & Talous:

a two-page article

Largest tech related newspaper in Finland

Internet marketing conference:

Fantastec as a case example

Academic interest arises:

Doctoral dissertation!

“Unconventional employer brand communication through digital advertising. Insights into a startup company.”

(Eeva-Liisa Oikarinen, Doctoral student, University of Oulu)

So what?

• Applications from all around the globe

• Over 1000 applications for one job

• National record: the largest number of applications for one job

• Altogether almost 2000 job applications – and we still get several every day!

• Dozens of co-operation inquiries

• Articles in several Finnish newspapers

• Now over 300 000 people know Fantastec

Fantastec brand

1/2

• The Fantastec brand was built

• Humoristic, laid-back and energetic people

• An agile, joyful company

• The core of brand image: That’s Fantastec! Fantastec Spirit!

Fantastec brand

2/2

• Reputation still strong:

• COO search process: dozens of excellent applicants; several executives of leading Finnish game companies

• Interest among the media and financiers

• Many co-operation possibilities

The craziness

continues…

– If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it

– Game developer: • http://creacom.fi/fantastec-rekry-ilmoitus

– COO: • http://jobs.igda.fi/job/124/kaupallinen-johtaja-coo-at-fantastec-oy/

Viral marketing:

Summarizing • Company policy, culture, resources…

• (media) relationships

• Best practices

• Plan (takes time!)

• Consult experts

• Goals?

• Audience?

• Main message, style and context?

• Channels, media?

• Organising: Who, what, why, when, what resources?

• Test, iterate

• Measure the results and learn

Fun is our business

…and our business is FUN!

Juha Väisänen CEO, Fantastec Ltd

http://www.polarheroes.com http://fi.linkedin.com/in/juhavaisanen10

http://twitter.com/mr_Fantastec

That’s all, folks!

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