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Journal of Public AffairsVolume 13 Number 2 pp 143–145 (2013)Published online in Wiley Online Library(www.wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/pa.1479

■ Editorial

Viral media & marketing: strategy, policyand exploitation
What individuals are saying about organizations onthe Internet (Plangger, 2012; Kietzmann et al., 2012)really matters to marketing and public policymanagers. Social media have revolutionized theway dialogue occurs. Rather than simply ‘pushing’one-way communications, such as traditional media(Kietzmann et al., 2011), social media enable conver-sations. While this allows firms and public figuresopportunities to communicate and engage withindividuals on a far more intimate level, this alsopermits individuals to communicate and engagewith the organizations or content providers, withtheir competitors, and perhaps most significantly,with each other. Critically, this does not require thepermission, the endorsement or even the knowledgeof the source (Parent et al., 2011). In many instances,the content created by individuals or organizationsgoes viral (becomes very popular by circulatingquickly from person to person) when it propagatesthrough social and other media to an exponentiallygrowing audience (Mills, 2012). Social media channelsprovide content creatorswith relatively easy and inex-pensive access to an audience of, potentially, millions.Viral marketing describes marketing strategies,
tactics and processes aimed at encouraging thespread of branded content through consumers’social networks. Not all marketing content will goviral, and not all content that goes viral is brand-related—the goal of viral marketing is to encouragesharing of the brand message among consumers,without the involvement of the marketers, oncecontent is released from the firm into the sociallynetworked consumer ecosystem (Mills, 2012). Thereis some semantic debate as to the relationship ofviral marketing to word-of-mouth marketing, asboth relate to the spread of content (includinginformation) between consumers without the directinvolvement of the organization. Some argue thatviral marketing simply represents a technologicallyenhanced and expedited form of word-of-mouthmarketing (Dasari and Anandakrishnan, 2010).Others contend that viral marketing is something

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quite different from online word-of-mouth, becausethe content creator or originator has a vested inter-est in the content spreading to as many people aspossible, which is often lacking in traditional worldof mouth communication (Phelps et al., 2004).Regardless of the debate, the distinction may be

moot: in either case, marketers are being encouragedto spread their organization’s message online, and inmany cases, this means to have firm-generated con-tent go viral through various media. Thus, managersare keen to understand the motivations of individ-uals to post messages or other content concerningtheir organizations that may have the potential togainmeaningful public traction through social medianetworks by going viral (Bortha and Mills, 2012).These issues are addressed in the first article in this

special issue. Jan Kietzmann and Ana Canhoto’spiece Bittersweet! Understanding and ManagingElectronic Word of Mouth conceptualizes the motiva-tion of individuals to share their experiences andopinions online. Electronic word of mouth (eWoM)includes communication using an electronic medium(e.g. email, websites, social media and blogs) of anindividual’s consumption experiences. These authorspropose a conceptual model that unpacks eWoM inan effort to understand consumer motivations andpresent the attention scapetool that managers canuse to consider how they deal with eWoM.In an effort to further unpack our understanding

of the underlying motivations for consumers toshare experiences and opinions online, the specialissue then addresses the emotions individuals feelwhen forwarding-on viral messages. Botha andReyneke’s paper To Share Or Not To Share: The Roleof Content and Emotion in Viral Marketing proposesthat the emotions individuals’ associate with thecontent of the message are the primary reasonswhy those individuals choose to share that content.Thus, this article offers a glimpse into the psycho-logical reasons behind sharing content online andalso suggests implications for managers who maywant to create a viral marketing campaign.

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Digging deeper into the thematic content varia-tions of viral messages, Ekin Pehlivan, PierreBerthon, Jean-Paul Berthon and Ian Cross examinethe use of irony as a communication device toconvey truth in Viral Irony: Using Irony to Spreadthe Questioning of Questionable Consumption. Individ-uals process ironic messages on both literal andfigurative levels, the latter of which often evokesstrong emotions (e.g. amusement, enjoyment andfrustration) that may compel them to pass on theviral message. This work uses the example of agreenwashing awareness campaign, Clean Coal,by non-government organizations to illustrate theauthors’ point.

In extreme cases, consumer groups can organizearound individual consumers’ experiences andopinions in a public forum by harnessing the powerof social media and viral content. Carmen-MariaAlbrecht, Colin Campbell, Daniel Heinrich andManuela Lammel’s Exploring Why Consumers Engagein Boycotts: Toward a Unified Model attempts to under-stand the impetuses for consumer boycott behaviour,and, importantly, factors that organizations canmanage to prevent a devastating boycott of theirproducts or services. Through an extensive reviewof the boycott literature, as well as an interviewstudy and survey investigation, these authors posita model that sheds light on individuals’ intentionsto participate in consumer boycotts and the keymotivations that drive this intention.

Taking a different perspective on consumer atti-tudes and action, Philip Grant and Edward Boon’sWhen The Persuasion Attempt Fails – An ExaminationOf Consumers’ Perceptions Of Branded Flash Mobsprovides readers with more insights into thecontent-forwarding intentions of individuals andoffers interesting implications for the organizationalcreation of viral media. Studies of a number of focusgroups permit the authors to conclude that mediamust be creative and appear non-corporate innature to have the best chance of going viral.

Having explored the theoretical underpinningsand causes of virality in social media from a numberof unique perspectives, the special issue then turns toan analysis of two prominent current case studies ofviral media: Kony 2012, and Italian politician BeppeGrillo’s blog. First, Anjali S. Bal, Chris Archer-Brown,Karen Robson andDaniel E. Hall’sDoGood,Goes Bad,Gets Ugly: Kony 2012 applies a model of virality totwo related viral events: Jason Russell’s rise to famewith his Kony 2012 viral YouTube campaign andthen Russell’s quick fall from grace. These authorscompare and contrast both events and identifysimilarities and differences that form the basis fortheir viral media implications. Second, Alessandro


Bigi’s Viral Political Communication and Readability: AnAnalysis of an Italian Political Blog describes the powerand influence of viral messages by taking the readerthrough the troubles and successes of the Italiancomedian-turned-politician, Beppe Grillo. The authorpoints to the political power of viral messages andsocial media to conclude that modern political partieswould be ill-advised to ignore the potential of thesechannels and messages.Finally, we conclude this special issue with a

unique interpretation of viral media and market-ing as related to the psychological effects ofbiological viruses, bacteria and other diseases.Karen Robson, Leyland Pitt and Asa Wallstrom’sCreative Market Segmentation: Understanding theBugs in Consumer Behaviour discusses the impor-tance understanding how certain microorganismsmay influence consumer behaviour, and developsmanagerial implications for taking these influencesinto consideration to generate creative market seg-mentation strategies.The goal of this special issue is to inform both

scholars and practitioners about consumer motiva-tions, emotions and intentions to share mediacontent online through their social networks andto offer a number of fresh perspectives on the rele-vance and value of understanding viral marketingto public brands and organizations. As such, thearticles presented herein examine the managerialimplications and consequences of dealing (or notdealing) with viral events in a number of contexts.We sincerely hope that you will enjoy reading thiscollection of viral media and marketing researchand join us in starting a conversation about anemerging and important topic for both public policyand marketing.

REFERENCES

Bortha E, Mills AJ. 2012. Managing new media. In OnlineConsumer Behavior, Close AG (ed). Routledge: NewYork; 83–99.

Dasari S, Anandakrishnan B. 2010. Viral marketing ofretail products: a study on the influence of attributesof web portals and incentives offered on user registra-tions. The IUP Journal of Marketing Management 9(1):99–111.

Kietzmann JH, Hermkens K, McCarthy IP, Silvestre BS.2011. Social media? Get serious! Understanding thefunctional building blocks of social media. BusinessHorizons 54(3): 241–251.

Kietzmann JH, Silvestre BS, McCarthy IP, Pitt LF. 2012.Unpacking the social media phenomenon: towards aresearch agenda. Journal of Public Affairs 12(2): 109–119.

Mills AJ. 2012. Virality in social media: the SPIN frame-work. Journal of Public Affairs 12(2): 162–169.

J. Public Affairs 13, 143–145 (2013)DOI: 10.1002/pa

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Parent M, Plangger K, Bal A. 2011. The newWTP: willing-ness to participate. Business Horizons 54(3): 219–229.

Phelps JE, Lewis R, Mobilio L, Perry D, Raman N. 2004.Viral marketing or electronic word-of-mouth adver-tising: examining consumer responses and motiva-tions to pass along email. Journal of AdvertisingResearch 44(4): 333–348.

Plangger K. 2012. The power of popularity: how the sizeof a virtual community adds to firm value. Journal ofPublic Affairs 12(2): 145–153.


Kirk PlanggerBeedie School of Business, Simon Fraser University,

Vancouver, Canada.E-mail: [email protected]

Adam J. MillsBeedie School of Business, Simon Fraser University,

Vancouver, Canada.

J. Public Affairs 13, 143–145 (2013)DOI: 10.1002/pa