There Must Be Something Between Viral & Obscure...
Written by Rob Cottingham / August 10, 2008 1:07 AM
/ 13 Comments
You've probably been in those meetings too: someone mentions a cool, "edgy" (uh-oh) youth-oriented campaign, and someone else says "video", and then someone else completes the axis of online evil with the word "viral".
It's been said over and over again, but maybe one more time would help: "viral" can be encouraged, it can be prayed for, but it can't be engineered. Your only hope is to create engaging, compelling content, and tell a terrific story... and then hope.
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yeah? Prove it! Sounds like you don't even know what are you talking about
Posted by: Anton Kudris | August 10, 2008 2:24 AM
It's amazing how the same customers perfectly understand that blockbuster movies can't be predicted but still count on their agency to make anything viral. Stop listening to all those theories people, if there was a magic formula for this, don't you think Hollywood would have discovered it by now? Get real.
Posted by: Fabrice Epelboin | August 10, 2008 2:24 AM
I think Fungal vs Viral could work. slow growing and subversive... yet makes you pretty sick.. ;)
Posted by: Jo Booth
|
August 10, 2008 3:11 AM
Depends you can't engineer the success of viral videos but you can make any kind of application viral. Two different things.
Posted by: Florian Bailey | August 10, 2008 3:27 AM
I have to agree with all the commenters, so far.
'Viral' can be manufactured.
For example, constructing a marketing focus for [whatever] in such a way that large numbers of people (a site's social network, for instance) see an advantage 'for themselves' in spreading the word about it (whatever 'it' might be) is manufactured viral marketing.
Posted by: RobNoyes | August 10, 2008 5:01 AM
Viral can be engineered.
It is unfortunate that a number of different marketing techniques are called "viral marketing". I agree that creating something that will cause people to tell other people about is not predictable, but other types of viral activity can be "engineered". These are ones that use of the product causes it to "infect" others.
Hotmail is a good early example of this. At the bottom of each mail was a little text telling the recipient about Hotmail. The user did not directly tell others about the product, but using the product "spread the word" about the product. Social networks have used a similar sense of viral marketing by letting you invite your friends to connect etc. The user does not think they are telling them about the service so much as the user is motivated to be able to use the features of the service with their friends. These types of viral marketing activities can be engineered into a product, and product testing can check if users will want to use the feature that is viral.
Posted by: Dick Hardt | August 10, 2008 9:34 AM
Viral? You even think that's a word we use anymore?? Get with it already... hehehe, that word is soooooo 2007.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/22/the-secret-strategies-behind-many-viral-videos/
the comic is very cute, but the accompanying post is bollocks... A.) i've never been in any of those meetings and neither have you... B.) Viral can be engineered... it's not even a secret anymore (see link)... you may not like it, but it doesn't make it any less true
Posted by: Matt | August 10, 2008 11:19 AM
Viral marketing is an efficient and cost effective marketing strategy
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Posted by: Selma | August 10, 2008 1:17 PM
Oh, snap, Selma ... except that's spam, not viral marketing.
Posted by: Laura | August 10, 2008 3:38 PM
My videos don't even make fungal (great creation btw.) I've thought of hiring a company but I'm sure I couldn't afford it anyway.
Posted by: Tomboys | August 10, 2008 3:42 PM
Stop trying to be viral, and try to be engineering, engaging, targeted, focused, relevant, interesting, exciting, different, creative.
Aiming at a fifth step normally makes you trip!
Posted by: Mick Liubinskas
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August 10, 2008 4:35 PM
Viral is the opposite of brute force. The more force you use the less viral it becomes. A virus catches if it forms a community where none existed. - Campfire Media’s Mike Monello & Greg Hale
Viral returns are easily engineered. The key is providing value for people who share a real affinity. You must both provide something of real value for the group and force the group to connect to reap the reward. Giving human networks a reason to connect and share always creates a virus. People who say you can't engineer a virus simply don't know how and why viruses occur. The trouble is that people want to manufacture viruses around something that is valuable for them, and not for the people they wish to engage.
Posted by: Paul Daigle | August 10, 2008 9:40 PM
Between Viral and obscure is black mold. Black mold is everywhere, but rarely seen. When mixed with killer content it then quickly becomes viral and grows. When sprayed with bleach or lack of content it becomes obscure or dies.
Posted by: Rob | August 11, 2008 11:29 AM