Viral marketing uses social networking to produce increases in brand awareness, through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses. It can be word-of-mouth delivered or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet. Viral marketing is a marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message voluntarily. Viral promotions may take the form of video clips, Flash interactives, images or text messages.
The goal of marketers interested in creating successful viral marketing programs is to identify individuals with high Social Networking Potential (sneasers) and create Viral Messages that appeal to this segment of the population and have a high probability of being passed along.
The film Cloverfield initially released one teaser trailer that did not reveal the title—only the release date. The subsequent online viral marketing campaign for the film is remarkably complex, making use of everything from fictitious company websites to MySpace profiles for the film's main characters.
The most successful and notable variation on viral marketing is the architecture of social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace. Immediately on registration with these sites the visitor is encouraged to invite friends & relatives to join. This is how the website Myspace has grown to 300 million users in 9 years to February 2008
At Nuvo Creative we employ what we call animatics, flash animated 2 minute movies about a product or service. Occassionally these are scripted to be funny, offbeat or querky and become a suitable message for viral marketing. |
