The Power of Viral Marketing
If you're fond of looking around the Internet, you've probably come across the phrase “viral marketing” at some point. Even if you hadn't, just seeing the phrase probably makes you a little bit curious. Viral marketing is a phrase that describes a certain cutting-edge style of marketing that takes advantages of existing social networks to spread information about a product or service. This probably sounds vague, but it's actually quite simple: viral marketing seeks to get people talking about a product with other people.
In a sense, it's an age-old concept. After all, haven't Super Bowl ads tried for years to get people talking around the water cooler the next day? Viral marketing tries to recreate this dynamic, only usually employing much less expensive methods. The idea is to do something unusual to get people talking about it – to change the paradigm of marketing by dictating the experience. Back in the 1920s, stores would hire people to scale their buildings or put on marathon dances as a sort of spectacle to attract attention. Viral marketing is a sort of modern-day, Internet-driven version of this tactic.
Famous Viral Marketing Campaigns
There have been a number of well-known viral marketing campaigns, most of which have been Internet-related. They include:
- Burger King has engaged in several different viral marketing campaigns, including the Subservient Chicken website (in which visitors could type in requests about what a man in a chicken suit would do). Burger King also recently dropped wallets stuffed with coupons and money around major US metropolitan areas to advertise the inexpensiveness of their menu.
- The movie “The Blair Witch Project” was advertised mostly through viral marketing, including web sites and doctored information claiming that the events depicted in the film were true. It went on to become one of the top-grossing independent movies of all time.
Contact Us
To learn about how advertising can help your business, contact the Texas LLC experts at Texas Legal Entities.
At any time, please feel free to ask us a question. It's FREE!