Marketing Blogs
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by Deputy Editor | Mattyon Jan 21 |
Why you should be cautious of viral...
We are all sick of hearing about the love-struck girl who posted a YouTube video in an attempt to find a bloke she'd met at a Sydney café that has been proved to be a less-than-inspiring viral marketing campaign.
'Heidi Clarke' was an actress hired for the campaign by Surry Hills-based marketing group Naked Communications (who’s ideas director, Jonathon Pease, claimed no knowledge of the campaign).
It has been panned mercilessly, but some may say it was successful for that reason.
Since then, there has been a chorus of hostility toward the use of viral marketing in what could be viewed as being in a deceptive manner.
However, once the anger and berating has ended and the dust settled, it is important to look at the reasons why 'viral' campaigns go wrong and learn from it.
It has been pointed out by viewers that the idea to promote the brand of jacket, which 'Heidi' waves around in the video, is generally not perceived as being the problem.
The problem is, however, that she didn’t mention the jacket brand's name at all in the video and that all of the media reports about it didn't bother to reveal the brand either.
Media and advertising in cahoots? Hardly.
David Thorne, creator of the Spider email that was sent around the world, explained in a recent Marketing interview that the popularity of a viral campaign will be dependent on the content, that "many agencies have attempted to use viral marketing, some with limited success others with great results."
But should an agency be found out, the results can be disastrous.
The story of a woman who supposedly tattooed an advertisement for the Great Barrier Reef on her arm to win a dream island job was concocted by Tourism Queensland, is yet another example.
The Sydney Morning Herald described the fake YouTube video as "just another example of Australian advertising agencies' 'crude' use of social media to promote brands."
So when thinking about using this technique, which is still an interesting way to engage, consider the manner in which the campaign will be perceived and that it won’t be misconstrued.
As Thorne pointed out, "People will generally not forward advertising unless it is unique or humorous and there have been many cases where the advertising is purposely secondary to the humour."
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Related Video
The 'Heidi Clarke' viral that started it all.
Naked's 'Heidi' video has inspired some interesting responses...
The real 'Heidi' responds to her role in the jacket fiasco.
5 Comments
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My view:
Viral content is a tactic, and as such deserves to be employed intelligently only where it serves a higher goal - strategy. It's nice and simple: if content going viral will help you to achieve your strategic goals for developing and maintaining a meaningful and successful relationship with existing and/or potential customers, then great, create some content with viral properties and hope it is contagious enough to spread.
But if you're confusing using a tactic with having a strategy, then you need to stop, step away from the viral and get back to concentrating on building long-term and sustainable value.
Great thinking around the viral conundrum:
Seth Godin wrote the book (literally) on virals, and these two posts tell you pretty much all you need to know about the subject:
+ http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2005/09/what_makes_an_i.html
+ http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/12/what-is-viral-m.html
Servant Of Chaos Gavin Heaton riffs intelligently on the topic of virals:
+ http://www.servantofchaos.com/2006/04/can_viral_kill_.html
Julian Cole with a video all about virals:
+ http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=gH2Z8wyTrBw
Zac Martin analyses virals over on his blog dedicated tot he subject, I Like to Sneeze:
+ http://www.iliketosneeze.com/
Regardless of all the spin etc, what I really want to know - and no one seems to be able to tell me - is how many viral ideas don't come off. how many absolutely bomb compared to those that work? - how would you measure that? if they're not viral you'd never hear about it right?
The other thing I think the industry - both marketing and advertising - needs to think about is defining 'viral'.
I think there's a big difference between a company producing something to deliberately be viral, vs a very good marketing that ends up going viral.
Is a super effective email marketing campaign for example - a viral campaign? i.e. 'cheap flights for 24 hours' or 'print out a certificate and get 6 doughnuts free from your local store on tuesday'? - viral or good database and email marketing?
I would argue that virals that treat people like fools - i.e. QLD tourism's 'worlds best job', or 'man who left the jacket ', are more damaging than anything because people feel cheated before they've enjoyed a positive experience.
Marketing departments should be focusing on delighting and entertaining their current database first and if it goes viral as a secondary then all the better.
Viral can be a fantastic way for your client's product to get into everyone's front of mind, as long as the plugging of the product is NOT the main part of it. It's a case of entertainment for users first, advertising second. Say for example an agency has the Vegemite account and they decide to create a simple computer game that has people throwing vegemite at Sam Kekovich, then people will engage with the game with the product in mind.
A great example of this was Super Obama World (http://superobamaworld.com) which was released during his campaign. It doesn't say 'Vote for Obama' - instead it gives the user something entertaining and keeps the 'product' front of mind.
Where it could go wrong is when the initiative doesn't engage the user or is too obscure. Take this for example - I challenge you tell me what product this video is a viral for: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=k7VzWitgeU4
While there isn't a specific definition of what makes something a viral yet, your observation that it must be primarily entertaining for the user with advertising as a secondary thought is pretty damn close.