Viral Marketing

March 24, 2009 erikawase
Tags: dove, hotmail, sony, viral marketing

word of mouth= effectivness of viral marketing

The whole point of viral marketing is to pass along a message. Passing this message could be by word of mouth, emails, and a lot of more new techniques that are used today due to our growing mass market. Viral marketing is a form of free advertising because it is all based on passing something along. This something could be about a new product, movie, etc. I believe viral marketing is a great way to gain recognition of a product you are introducing to the world because the whole point of it is for the words to come out of someone you know very well. For example, I would trust my friend over the ad campaign on a television screen in telling me about a product because obviously they have my trust if they are my friend. Another reason why viral marketing is effective is because it could be spread faster and more effectively.

Here are some examples of viral marketing campaigns that have been very successful in launching a product: (http://danzarrella.com/examples-of-viral-marketing-campaigns.html)

-Hotmail: When Hotmail launched, much of its early success was due to the virality of the sigline that it attached to every outgoing email inviting the recipient to join. One of the earliest examples of viral marketing on the internet.

-One Red Paperclip: This was a blog where the author started with a single red paperclip and traded his way up to a house, documenting his steps along the way.

-The Simpsons Movie: Simpsonize yourself was a website that viewers could create themselves into a character from the movie.

-Dove: The Dove evolution campaign.

All the examples above are good examples of viral marketing because they each sent a message which grabbed a viewers attention in a different way then the traditional ways of advertising like in newspapers and television. For example, the Dove evolution campaign touched my heart when I watched it because it made me feel that Dove as a product is being true in the word by showing me that the girl in the ad is made up to be better then she is. As a common observer of the Dove campaign, one would give Dove their trust.

A bad example of viral marketing is with Sony’s “all I want for Christmas is a PSP” because they were very secretive about making a blog that was really the company’s form of viral marketing. The marketing firm in charge of Sony made this blog and updated it frequently pretending to be a young boy who wanted a PSP for chrismas. Whether it become a success or not, viral marketing is very effective and has boosted products up with likability and trust in the product.