I was reading about an online fancy dress supplier
who wanted to promote their services at Christmas time. They implemented an online promotional game which captured the imagination of their market. That
promotional message was spread rapidly by the recipients at little cost
to the supplier and generated ...50k visitors to a landing page, 20% of which went on to
purchase - not a bad ROI!
This of course is an example of a 'viral marketing' promotion which really is a marketer's dream - having your message passed on by your market at little cost to you. Another good case study comes from the world of agriculture publishing, when the team at Farmers Weekly wanted to tell their marketplaces that "Agriculture is evolving, and so is FWi". In this example, they used video to get their message out; seeding the promotion in social media sites. Again, they successfully managed to achieve huge awareness as well as database of names and addresses to build relationships with. See what you think of the angry cow promotion.
However, before you get excited and leap in too quickly - there are a few points to note which... in the desire to go to market quickly, can often be forgotten:
1. A 'viral' is just a promotion with a mechanism to facilitate distribution and capture demographics
2. The promotion needs to suite your product, message and target market. In other words, there needs to be a clear connection to your product or service
3. Like any promotion - a great idea must be at the heart of it - videos and games tend to work well..funny and controversial are top themes
4. Remember, viral by its very nature is difficult to control - once it's out there, it's out there
5. Plan what to do with the response once it comes in so that you have a whole campaign based around the single idea
A couple more examples:
Little Gordon
Top 10 viral campaigns
This of course is an example of a 'viral marketing' promotion which really is a marketer's dream - having your message passed on by your market at little cost to you. Another good case study comes from the world of agriculture publishing, when the team at Farmers Weekly wanted to tell their marketplaces that "Agriculture is evolving, and so is FWi". In this example, they used video to get their message out; seeding the promotion in social media sites. Again, they successfully managed to achieve huge awareness as well as database of names and addresses to build relationships with. See what you think of the angry cow promotion.
However, before you get excited and leap in too quickly - there are a few points to note which... in the desire to go to market quickly, can often be forgotten:
1. A 'viral' is just a promotion with a mechanism to facilitate distribution and capture demographics
2. The promotion needs to suite your product, message and target market. In other words, there needs to be a clear connection to your product or service
3. Like any promotion - a great idea must be at the heart of it - videos and games tend to work well..funny and controversial are top themes
4. Remember, viral by its very nature is difficult to control - once it's out there, it's out there
5. Plan what to do with the response once it comes in so that you have a whole campaign based around the single idea
A couple more examples:
Little Gordon
Top 10 viral campaigns
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