Posts Tagged ‘Viral’

Stop. You’re killing me

March 5 2010

There are a few marketing buzz words that make you cringe when you hear them. Here we are in March of 2010 and my gag reflex kicks in when I hear:

Social media expert: These are usually self-anointed and woefully under qualified. In fact, I have a blog, a facebook account, a linkedIn account, and twitter accounts (yes, multiple). When you add up all VLG’s followers, group members, friends and fans and mine, well heck, we’re social media experts.

Viral marketing: Can you compare a waterskiing squirrel to the more recent Old Spice “I’m a man, man” campaign. Viral marketing might be the pinnacle of web impressions and tough to measure. Isn’t WOM so much better? That’s what we used to call it in the days before YouTube.

Twitter: Actually anything that starts with “Tw-” triggers tinnitus. I applaud Twitter apps that come up with original names like HootSuite, Su.pr and Birdhouse. Tweety Bird tweeting on Twitter would probably send me over the edge, but if I were Warner Bros. I’d be all over that.
warnerbrothersrocks

I’m putting this post up on a Friday, because it’s a little risky and I need a slow news day to say things like “Tweety Bird tweeting” without wrecking my good name. Negativity is such a buzz kill. (Sorry, couldn’t resist.)

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Define Viral For Me

June 10 2009

When you think about viral marketing what’s the first thing that pops into your head? Sharing, you know, like a virus spread hand-to-hand, hand-to-mouth, mouth-to-mouth, mouth-to-megaphone and on and on is straight forward. It’s like the new earned media that bypasses the old media.

From the agency perspective viral is awesome. It gets your creative juices flowing to think of different ways to be disruptive. After all if a virus is not disruptive, what is it?

harvardsucks

There are reasons to be cautious. A couple years back Turner Broadcasting got in a world of hurt after it’s Light Bright episode. You can check the CNN story on it here. Needless to say, having you marketing mistaken for a bomb is not a good thing–not in today’s climate. Nothing says fun like one marketing firm attacking another with what might be described as a viral virus. Check out the skunk pulled on Saatchi&Saatchi in the UK here.

In the B2B sandbox viral marketing takes a different tack. The focus is really hand-to-hand. “Please pass this along to the person that does handle purchasing.” “Share this with a friend or colleague.” Not very exciting stuff. If only we could get our clients to commit to something that will prove more engaging and disruptive without going over the top.

This all goes back to our philosophy that microsites hold the key to online communication. They are faster to build that websites, can focus on a specific message, and do it all before the viewer gets bored and walks away.

People derided USA Today when founded for turning print media into snippets. Look at how far we’ve come. With shorter attention spans (TiVo, Twitter, Text) people are looking for the Cliff’s Notes version of everything.

So if you really want to go viral, consider a small sneak attack that is disruptive. It’s a hit and run opportunity to plant your message and nurture revenue growth without going stale.

Last note. This is a little dated, but worth mentioning. If you didn’t hear about the prank Yale students pulled on Harvard during halftime of the 2005 football game, please take another look. This is the face of viral marketing. Ask yourself, “Who’s smarter a Yale grad or Harvard alum?” Now go to this site and ask yourself the same question.

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