Hands-on Assignment #9
Viral Marketing
Patrick Gormley
November 19th, 2015
Viral marketing is a marketing phenomenon that is also known as “buzz” that was
introduced in the early 2000’s. Viral marketing is created by “using electronic
communications to trigger brand messages throughout a wide-spread network of
buyers” (Dobele, 375). Viral marketing really took off when the use of computers, cell
phones and the internet started to increase. Viral marketing used those tools to aid the
phenomenon as viral marketing is essentially a form of word-of-mouth advertising from
consumers who virally pass it onto their friends by email, sharing on Facebook, tweeting
or just texting a family member or friend to check it out. Viral marketing is quite essential
for firms to use as a marketing strategy for 3 reasons, the first is that it has very little
expense allocated to it. Second is that by consumer passing along voluntary information
about a product or service it makes consumers feel more confident in the information on
the product or service as it is voluntary rather than coming from someone who is being
paid to endorse it. Lastly, the consumers who are forwarding the product or service on
will be forwarding it to their family and friends that believe it will benefit those most
rather than paying lots of money to advertise to a gross population. In present day as
technology has vastly increased there is more of an importance on firms using viral
marketing as computers, cell phones and the internet are a part of everyone's daily lives
and now there are several different ways to utilize viral marketing.
Advertisment #1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLTIowBF0kE
My first advertisement that I chose was Old Spice’s 2010 commercials campaign
called “Smell Like a Man, Man”. This advertisement is a short 30 second clip advertising
Old Spice body wash that quickly became an internet sensation and eventually became
their marketing campaign by creating similar 30 second clips. In this commercial there is
a man holding the product they are advertising and the man is telling the audience why
he is the most desirable man while simultaneously his background was changing, same
with his wardrobe. Old Spice’s viral marketing strategy was executed perfectly. The
comedic commercial went viral and now the whole series of commercials have
approximately 105 million views on YouTube. To further their success of viral marketing
they launched a social media campaign where fans could tweet at the Old Spice man
asking him questions and he would respond to the questions via a YouTube video. Viral
marketing worked very well for Old Spice through the word of mouth aspect of it, I first
saw this commercial when it was shared virally on my Facebook by my friends and
family. By the commercials being shared virally it helped Old Spice keep costs down by
not having to purchase as much commercial space to get the awareness of their
product across to their target market of younger men. This marketing campaign has had
a big impact on their sales as their sales still continues to grow and they have
strengthened their market position and are now the leading body wash and deodorant
brand.
Advertisement #2
http://rebelgrowth.com/viral-marketing-examples/ (Example #6)
The Lost Experience
The Lost Experience was a viral marketing campaign that the popular TV show
Lost used in the UK, Australia and the United States during its hiatus between the
shows 2nd and 3rd season in the summer of 2006. The Lost Experience is very similar
to the viral marketing campaign as The Blair Witch Project that is mentioned in Dobele
article. The Lost Experience was a sort of on-line game. It all started during an episode
in season 2 when a commercial was aired advertising the Hanso Foundation which is a
fictional foundation that appears in the show. The commercial shared a phone number
where people would call and they would be taken to an answering machine where they
were give clues to various different websites that were part of the game. Each site
visited they would be given clues to different things about the mysterious shows plot.
This is an effective viral marketing campaign for similar reasons as the Blair Witch
Project’s viral marketing campaign by getting the consumers involved in a fun game to
gain awareness about their TV show and by providing incentives like clues to what
could happen in the next season. It was also effective as stated in the Dobele article as
it captured the imagination by being fun and intriguing. It was attached to the show Lost
and is was quite visible as it was providing clues about the show. It was well targeted
because Lost fans who are caught up in the show and couldn’t wait for the next episode
to come out was playing the game. The Lost Experience was associated with the
credible source of the Lost TV show and finally it combined the technologies of the
phone and using the internet to get more and more clues about the show. The Lost
Experience created a buzz around the popular TV show while it was on hiatus, it had
their fans talking about the TV show to their friends and family members sharing how
good the show was and potential gained more viewers for the show.