Viral Marketing

What is Viral Marketing?


By definition, viral marketing, or viral advertising, "are buzzwords referring to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of viruses or computer viruses. It can be delivered by word of mouth or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet." Viral marketing can take on many forms such as video clips, images, text messages, among others. Despite the negative connotation the word "virus" brings with it, getting your marketing campaign to go viral is a great thing.

Well what goes into making a marketing campaign, or just a simple video go viral? An article titles, "7 Priceless Tips On How To Go Viral" gives some solid tips on how to go viral. Below is a list of the seven points the author makes, but to get a summary of each point head on over to Socialtimes.com.


     1. Create viral, shareable media
     2. Understand that most things are not viral
     3. Target the "Bored at Work Network"
     4. Target the freaks and maniacs
     5. The mullet strategy - business upfront, party in the back
     6. Big seed marketing - because your content won't share itself
     7. Learn marketing from the Mormons


One of my favorite viral examples are the Old Spice commercials. These commercials are incredibly simple yet complex in their own way. They involve a single man who says some of the most ridiculous statements anyone has ever heard all while telling his listeners how handsome and irresistible he is. He consistently reminds the "ladies" that their man could smell just as he does, but of course will never be able to compare to his awesomeness. This video went viral because of its nonsensical humor and dumb wittiness. 
 

 

Location Based Services

As you walk towards your favorite coffee shop for an evening of studying, you take your smart-phone out of your pocket to catch a glance at the time. Upon entering, you search for your study group also while grabbing for your wallet/purse to buy a warm cup of your favorite hot drink. You spot your friends just as soon as the white chocolate mocha you ordered is ready. You head over to the usual table that you have studied at so many times before. You take your phone out one more time before turning it on silent to "check-in" to the small coffee shop on the corner. You just used a location based service through the Facebook application. Why did you do this? It could be to let your significant other know that you got to your destination safely, or, to let your social network know who you are at the coffee shop with. Maybe you are using a location based service because the coffee shop rewards, every month, the most frequent visitor who publicly displays their presence at the local hangout. Whatever the reason, the bottom line to marketers is that you just used location based services.

Wikipedia has this definition for location based services: "an information or entertainment service, accessible with mobile devices through the mobile network that utilize the ability to make use of the geographical position of the mobile device." Location based services include Foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp, Brightkite, Twitter, and most recently Facebook. In May of 2010, after 15 months of growth, Foursquare had over 1.2 million users who had "checked-in" over 40 million times. That is a lot of traffic! But now the numbers have grown significantly especially when you consider the millions of users between social media channels such as Twitter and Facebook.

It is obvious that location based services are a marketers dream because it allows them to "keep tabs" on their target market, among other reasons, but what are the benefits for the everyday consumer. The benefits below are from another blogger's post about this same discussion topic.

1. Real estate marketing – alerts homebuyers about properties in the immediate vicinity that meet their specifications.
2. Discounts and coupons – sends alerts for retail discounts within a geographic radius of an opted-in consumer’s location.
3. Keeping track of children and teens – parents can be alerted when kids leave or arrive at specified location, such as school or home.

These are simply a few of the many benefits of location based services. Can you think of any?