A very interesting article by Jessica Tsai entitled, "Have you Caught It?" was posted today in the Insight section of DestinationCRM.com. The tagline for the article caught our eye immediately. It reads, "Disappointing numbers have convinced many marketers to decrease their viral marketing by 55 percent next year, but viral isn't to blame."
The article raises some very good points about viral and new-media marketing that are often overlooked by companies that just want to jump on the "viral marketing" gravy train. The enormous success of a few viral videos has given the impression that the whole process is as easy as making a video, posting it on website, and sitting back while your view-count skyrockets to 40,000,000. Jessica Tsai notes:
"...as hot as viral marketing is, the dream won't manifest as reality unless marketers do a little less hoping and a lot more targeting. Only 15 percent of viral marketers succeeded in getting consumers to promote their message during the past year, according to a report by Jupiter Research."
We highly encourage everyone interested in viral marketing to read the article, especially companies interested in implementing or revamping a viral campaign. At Pandemic Labs we do not consider viral marketing to be a trend or flash-in-the-pan marketing technique. It is not a wave to be ridden until exhausted and then never come again. Every Pandemic Labs campaign is vertically implemented to ensure that the content sends the clients message and targets the correct audience. Or, to put it in PandemicSpeak: we work with our clients to ensure that their message is rendered in a virulent form (video, game, website, etc...), and that the initial seeds are highly targeted and highly receptive to achieve maximum secondary infection. As a simple example: a campaign that might achieve great success on Break.com probably shouldn't be targeted to Godtube. As Jessica Tasi points out: "Like other campaigns, viral has to follow the golden rules of marketing: Know your audience, know how they communicate, and know your product." As Emily Riley of Jupiter Research says, "Viral marketing really should be looked at more practically and less as a trend."
As always, we encourage all of our readers to comment on and discuss this post, and, as always, if you have any questions about how viral marketing can work for you, please email us.
article source:
"Have You Caught It?"
by Jessica Tsai
Copyright 2007, CRM magazine/destinationCRM.com
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