7 tricks to Viral Web Marketing

Viral marketing (word-of-mouth marketing) is a really cool thing. Just think about it... instead of spending an insane amount of money on newspapers ads, TV commercials or banner ads, you spent nothing - and let your fans do all the work for you.

With viral marketing, your campaigns will suddenly get a life of its own - and start to spread like a virus. Everyone want to see it, and when they do, they all want to share it.

It is immensely powerful, usually having 500-1000 times greater impact than what you get from regular advertisements.

But how?

There are a lot of tricks to viral marketing. Here are 7 important ones:

1: Make people feel something

The most important trick of all is to create a very strong emotion. You need to have an opinion, to express an idea with commitment and dedication. You want people to:

• be filled with love or hate.
• be very happy or insanely angry
• be an idiot or a genius
• be deeply compassionate or an egoistic bitch

You want people's blood to be pumping of excitement.

Forget neutral, trying to please everyone, supporting several target groups or any of the many ways to be unbiased. Viral marketing is 100% about emotions.

2: Do something unexpected

This one explains itself. If you want people to notice you campaign, you have to do something different - something unexpected. Forget about trying to promote your products as just being great - everybody does that. Forget about trying to make it look cool - everyone else has "been there, done that".

Remember the bear being attacked by a man? That was unexpected - and it is one the most effective viral advertisements ever.

...and above all - never be a copycat.

3: Do not try to make advertisements (that sucks)

One of the biggest mistake companies make is when they think viral marketing is just advertisements that people share - it is not. Traditional marketing is about promoting your product, showing how good it is, giving it center stage - and generally being incredibly selfish (and possibly using supermodels or movie stars). But guess what, nobody cares about you!

Viral marketing is all about a good story. When BMW put out BMW Films, the main ingredient was not the cars, but the story. Replace the car with another one, and it would still be great. When Sony made their Bravia TV ads, the product was not even seen - yet everyone remembers it.

Forget about you, your product or your company. Focus exclusively in creating a good and interesting story. Sure, you can add you product into the mix, but it must not be the most important thing.

4: Make sequels

People have just seen your campaign. They think it was interesting, unexpected and their emotions has reached a high level - you have their complete attention.

Now what do you do?

If you do like most companies you will simply do nothing... and that is a big mistake. When you got people's attention you need to act, and one the best ways of doing that is to give them more - make sequels. This can be many things;

• It can be extra movies similar in concept to the first one - like BMW Films and Nissan did.
• It can be a behind the scenes look
• Bloopers
• A blog about the process (like Nissan did)
• Extra material, goodies etc.
• ...or all of the above

Never leave people standing with nothing.

BTW: Forget about countdown releases - i.e. releasing a new episode every 2 weeks. People's attention span does not last that long. Give them everything now!

5: Allow Sharing, downloading and embedding´

Sharing is what viral marketing is all about. Everything you do to make that easier is going to improve your campaign. That means that you need allow people to:

• Download the content, in a usable format (videos in MPG, pictures in JPG etc.)
• Allowing them to easily embed the content on their own sites (Note: remember bandwidth issues)
• Sending it to friends, either using a link or by sending the content directly.
• Publishing it on varies social networks - Digg, YouTube etc.
• Allow people to add it the bookmarking sites

Note: This also easily be overdone. You do not want to clutter up your page with a zillion "share me, dig this etc." icons.

6: Connect with comments

Another important element is to connect with your audience. Remember you got their attention, they are excited and now they want talk. Comments is one of the most effective ways to do this.

Keep in mind that the best viral marketing campaign is one that creates a strong emotion. This means some people will really like it - while others will get very angry. You have to accept both in your comments, and you have to welcome both opinions. But, at the same time you must prevent individuals to wage war against each other.

It is not a sin to delete comments from people who attack another person, or if the comment is off-topic. But, it is a sin to delete comments from people who just have an negative opinion.

And, most importantly. Connecting with people through comments means talking back. Do not add comments if you do not want to participate yourself.

7: Never restrict access!

Viral marketing is also about your campaign getting a life on its own - spreading like virus. In order to do that, in order to become "viral", it needs to be free.

Never add restrictions to the mix.

• Do not require people to register
• to become members
• to download special software
• to enter "unlock" codes
• ...or to do something in order to get the right link.

Viral marketing is never about exclusivity. It is about getting it out there for everyone to see.

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There is a common message in all of these tricks. It is that you need to make it right - or not do it at all. Only the best viral marketing campaigns make it - the rest literally sucks.

If you have any tips of your own, I sure would like to know about them! Also, If would very like to see any cool viral advertisement that you might know.

Other cool "virals"

The Smirnoff viral

One of the first really successful viral campaigns in the "YouTube age"

Berlitz language

Not originally designed for viral, but stupid Germans and fridays quickly changed that

Some biscuit company

Again, not designed for viral, but the unexpected elements made people share it

Dove Evolution

A true viral campaign, showing artificial beauty - and it worked!

The Escalator

Another true viral campaign. worked too!

Copy Goes Here

A very funny movie by Coudal Partners, making fun of advertising companies.

BaekdalMONKEYS

A movie I made to promote my report on "Actual Browser Sizes". It was seen by about 800 people within the first few days - but with only limited viral effect.

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HP FingerSkilz

Viral campaign from HP

VIA

Differentiating in increasingly undifferentiated markets

In the increasingly cluttered world of branded packaged goods it is quite common for brand managers to say in frustration that a category has become commoditised and that there is absolutely no possibility of creating a sustainable functional brand differentiator. 

But here are 2 examples which show that that need not be so. 

As we all know the starting point for functional differentiation is to offer some product attribute that meets a consumer need. However, to expect research to discover any substantial unmet needs nowadays is often too ambitious - in fact much research on cluttered categories comes to no other real conclusion than that all the consumer needs is a better product at a lower price. 

Hence it is more realistic to set out with the declared objective for your research to search for any insight on a new facet or extra dimension to a consumer need to help your brand stand apart.

To illustrate this, recent research conducted on the crowded toothpastes market revealed that consumers had no real unmet need - and that the only call from consumers was the old story that the benefit of brushing one's teeth should simply last longer.

More exploratory work on this theme led to the insight that consumers believed that toothpastes work best during the process of brushing and immediately afterwards - but that the benefit of the toothpaste vanishes immediately the user consumes the first morsel of food/drink thereafter.

This insight led to the creation of a "brush brush" audio mnemonic (i.e. the sound of brushing every time users in the ad opened their mouths ) that told the consumer that this toothpaste continues working for a full 12 hours regardless of whether the user is eating, drinking or sleeping. Evaluation of this as an ad concept revealed that consumers did indeed believe because of the "brush brush" mnemonic that the therapeutic effect of this brand of toothpaste continued working even after eating/drinking.

This produced one of the most memorable ad campaigns ever in the category - and subsequent brand tracking revealed high identification with this benefit, and an increased brand share.

Our second example comes from a category that you might expect would be an even greater challenge - the household insecticide market.

Advertising for mosquito coils typically talks of increased efficacy and lasting longer - and every brand in the market says the same things. However, a stray consumer comment in research, that smoke from the coil does not penetrate curtains (where mosquitoes are believed to hide) because the smoke loses its strength by the time it reaches the corners of the room, led to the development of an ad campaign that spoke about new properties in the smoke that took it to the furthest corners of the room and able to penetrate the thickest of curtains.

This attribute quickly became the acid test of efficacy for the category and single-minded communication on this property led to our brand being uniquely associated with it despite other brands trying to jump on the band wagon later.

Summing up :
• In many product categories these days all functional needs that were there to be discovered, have already been discovered

• Insights therefore are no longer so much about discovering new consumer needs...but about exploring well recognised needs to greater depths to uncover a hitherto unused facet or dimension.
This means:

• looking for a new dimension to the functional brand benefit

e.g. goes on working despite eating - as a new dimension to the works longer need;

e.g. penetrates curtains - as a new dimension to the efficacy need

• discovering an executional device like the "brush brush" mnemonic to express this new dimension of the brand benefit.

As seen by these 2 case studies the dimensions and the executional device were new - not the basic underlying consumer needs themselves.

When you have nothing new to say - as is the case in most cluttered branded packaged goods today - then say it differently. Scope for brand differentiation will rarely lie in addressing a new need, but more and more in presenting a solution to an old need from a new angle.

In other words in the world of brand differentiation today the 'How' has become more important than the 'What'.

Flyar | Augmented Reality Twitter Visualization Screensaver

Flyar is a screensaver, Twitter visualization application that uses Augmented Reality and gesture interaction. It enables users to see themselves in real time, inside a pc screen, surrounded by virtual birds that flutter about or fly towards them to deliver incoming tweets. Developed by YDreams. Get it at: http://ww2.ydreams.com/flyar/

Saugrippe.com::: Campaign against swine influenza.

Agency: barfuss.creative.group


A stunt campaign against swine influenca. With this promotion they pull attention to contagiosity at Oktoberfest. 

Sony Ericsson attempts online flash mob with space hoppers

LONDON - Sony Ericsson has kicked off its space hoppers marketing campaign, asking consumers to create their own hopper to take part in an online flash mob.

The Sony Ericsson campaign, which uses the theme ‘spark something', comprises an online film and space-hopper character creator athopperinvasion.com. The digital campaign will also feature hopper-themed activity on Twitter.

The global campaign, by Saatchi & Saatchi and Dare, is to promote the Yari, Aino and Satio trio of handsets.

The TV campaign asks ‘What if dreams could become reality?' and features people bouncing down the street on coloured space hoppers. The ad ends with the words ‘We're here to make it happen. Make.believe.'

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Hopper Invasion by Sony Ericsson

Sony Ericsson has been recruiting a new generation of followers with the Hopper Invasion, an interactive campaign launched with a flash mob of hoppers in Barcelona. The YouTube video points viewers to the Hopper Invasion site where they are encouraged to create their own customized hopper and sign up for updates from Sony Ericsson. It’s all part of the Entertainment Unlimited and Make.Believe branding behind three new phones, the Yari, Aino and Satio, and part of the lead up to the November 3 launch of Rachel, Sony’s first Android phone, the Xperia X10.

Mayhem. Madness. Hundreds of people. Hundreds of hoppers. Get ready for a sneak preview of what happened when Sony let a load of hoppers loose on the streets of Barcelona.

Visitors are invited to create their own hopper -- specifying eyes, nose, gaping mouth, even tattoos -- before giving it a name and entering their email address. As with all flash mobs, the time and place are being kept top secret at present; however, all participants will be informed of the exact time and place of the online invasion in which they can spot their own bouncing character.

Ericsson Globe

A video shot with Satio showing the chief hopper projection on the Ericsson Globe in Stockholm on the night of 20th of October 2009. 

Credits

The Hopper Invasion campaign was developed at Saatchi & Saatchi, London, by executive creative director Richard Copping and art director Eddie Wong.

Media was handled by MEC.

Filming was shot by Rockhard Films director Tony Petrossian via Play Films. Post production was done atBlackmagic Design, Singapore. Sound and music were produced at Song Zu, Singapore

Johnnie Walker | Walk Away (Monsters)

Sydney Dust Advertising Storm

Major brands, like Telstra, Visa, Bankwest, Subaru, and cleaning products like Omo, NapiSan, Windex and Viva, seized this unique tactical opportunity to promote their product in context of a one-in-a-lifetime event.

Most of the ads ran the day after storm, in context of editorial that illustrated the one-off weather occurrence. In Queensland, press ads also ran in the weekend; the Queensland Government alerted the public to special clean up provisions while  BP took advantage of a flood of consumers with unusually dirty cars.

These ads are a perfect example of how newspapers stand out as the best medium for advertisers to leverage their brand upon major news events to deliver smart, relevant messages that can be turned around literally overnight.

Sydney residents, and visitors like me, were treated to a change in atmosphere colour on Tuesday September 22, as a dust storm swept in from Australia’s inland. Dust particles transformed dawn skies into shades of red, orange and yellow, turning the sun blue. Wednesday’s newspapers, not surprisingly, were full of both photographs and print advertisements capitalizing on the public need to reflect on the previous day’s events. Visa’s “Go” campaign, for example, was translated into the way residents would be paying for their car wash.

Subaru presented the new Subaru Outback with Symmetrical All Wheel Drive as the vehicle for all conditions, the snow, the coast, or even a Sydney dust storm

Telstra provided a reference to the “Time to call your Mum” campaign with the question, “How do you get red dust out of white pants?”

BankWest picked up the Orange angle in their print advertisement.

NapiSan ran its campaign with the headline, “Great for stains. And dust storms”.

Viva cleaning fluids are presented as the way to “get to dust”.

Windex window cleaning products are presented as the way to work on the windows now the dust has settled.

Unilever worked with Lowe Sydney creative director Simon Cox, copywriter Matt Cramp and art director Sesh Moodley to associate Omo with the inevitable comparison of the storm with the end of the world. “A little dirt isn’t the end of the world”, the copy reads, with a photograph of the Sydney Harbour Bridge covered in red fog.

Zyrtec sponsored a Flash advertisement on the Sydney Morning Herald and News.com.auweater sites, congratulating photographers for the way they had captured the red dawn, linking to Dust Storm on Flickr and remind readers about the product’s response to hayfever and allergies.