Viral marketing. Viral promotion Viral marketing and viral advertising

Viral Marketing

Viral marketing- a general name for various methods of advertising distribution, characterized by distribution in a progression close to geometric, where the main disseminator of information is the recipients of information themselves, by forming content that can attract new recipients of information due to a bright, creative, unusual idea or using a natural or trusting message.

In the “pre-Internet era,” so-called methods were used. “word of mouth”, through personal communications, focus groups, advertising campaigns in print, on television, etc.
marketing technique, using existing social networks to increase awareness of the brand/product/service,
methodological principles characteristic of e-mail marketing, which are based on encouraging an individual to communicate a marketing message to others, the potential for exponential growth in the impact of that message. Like viruses, such technologies take advantage of every opportunity to increase the number of messages transmitted. Promotion using viral content can take a variety of forms - videos, photos, flash games, a call from a video clip (WOW-call), even just text (for example, jokes).

Due to the fact that the majority of the population has a low level of trust in advertising in general, and even more so emanating from the manufacturing company, the basic principle of viral marketing is that the person receiving the information message must be sure that it comes from an uninterested person. for example, from an acquaintance or stranger, but in no case affiliated with the advertising campaign. For example, a person will readily listen to positive reviews about a product from a “real person” and, most likely, will buy this product. And vice versa: after seeing an advertising video for this product, he will ignore it, since it is widely believed that advertising embellishes the qualities of the product.

Etymology of the term and history of occurrence

The reference to biological terms is not accidental. Indeed, an event or action can be considered viral when the process of disseminating information begins to obey the biological laws of the spread of viruses, that is, any recipient of information is sincerely interested in it and is imbued with the idea of transmitting it as quickly as possible to the largest possible number of friends, using the most efficient channels (most often Internet messengers and social media). The process of spreading viral information is thus akin to viral epidemics - it spreads quickly, exponentially, it is difficult to stop, and relapses often occur (it seems that interest in information has died down, but it rises with a new wave of spread). The term “viral marketing” is believed to have been popularized in 1996 by Geoffrey Rayport in his article The Virus of marketing .

Examples of viral marketing

One of the first known examples of the use of viral marketing on the Internet is the Hotmail campaign, when every letter written by a user was accompanied by a company message encouraging e-mail recipients to sign up for free mail on Hotmail. An excellent example of using a virus to advertise the training company bestrong was the comic site fast-die.kiev.ua, which allegedly offered its visitors suicide pills. Already on the second day of the site’s existence, its audience amounted to more than 40,000 unique visitors per day.

Among the Russian examples of successful viral marketing was a website for StarHit magazine, implemented using WOW-call technology - an automated call from a video clip. The essence of the project was to give visitors to the promotional site the opportunity to feel like a star. The girls left their personal information on the promotional site (name, mobile phone number, photo, hair color), clicked on the “OK” button, after which the video started: at a meeting of the Starhit editorial staff, the question of who to put on the cover was decided. One of the proposed options was to make a cover with a photo of the participant. To get consent, Andrei Malakhov called the participant directly from the video. Campaign was carried out for 4 months, and its results were more than 170,000 unique users of the promotional site, about 165,000 calls and almost 3,000 works published on blogs and social networks.

Viral video

At the moment, almost every major company is trying to make their advertising videos of high quality so that they have a viral effect. Video advertising is the most effective tool for achieving a viral effect, as it has greater opportunities to interest the audience. Famous companies can use viral videos as an announcement: Victoria's Secret, on the eve of the new Fashion Show, released a remake of the video for the Maroon 5 song “Moves Like Jagger” with the participation of its recognizable models. Interactive viral videos are also now popular to develop the action in which the viewer can take part. An example of a Russian-language video is an advertisement for “Exo” ice cream, in which the singer and actress Anna Semenovich performs various actions with fruits, the names of which the viewer can enter in a special line. An English-language example of such an advertisement is a video about a bear’s birthday. and the Tipp-Ex proofreader, in which the main characters traveled in time, the viewer could enter the year to which they would travel, and the further development of the plot would change depending on this.

Viral advertising seeding channels

Seeding is the initial placement of viral content. The most common sowing channels are:

Viral marketing in Russia

The first viral video on the RuNet was created by the dating site Cupid in 2005. The first commercial viral video “Sysadmin” was created by the digital agency Affect for the client “Corbina-Telecom” in the same 2005.

The most famous viral videos on the Runet are the videos “Revolt of one manager” (Affect), “Hellish squirrel” (Znamenka), “New Year’s address of D.A. Medvedev 2012” (Smetana), “Instant office” (Affect), “Dumplings Siberian gourmet " (hosts of "Europe Plus").

What is viral advertising and how does it work?

Viral advertising is any advertising on the network that is voluntarily distributed by users themselves. A sort of “word of mouth” of the 21st century. The fact is that trust in commercial advertising is now at a low level. Company promotion is not always led by a professional marketer. Therefore, the intrusiveness, irritability and uniformity of frankly bad advertising did their job - it became invisible to Internet users.

Viral advertising, unlike classic advertising, works on a different principle. Trust in it is due to the fact that it comes not from the company itself, but from acquaintances, friends, and relatives. Is there any reason for a person not to trust the opinions of loved ones? Definitely not. Everyone listens to the advice and reviews of real people much more than to empty advertising promises. Therefore, when using viral advertising, it can give impressive results. But only if you approach its creation correctly.

History of Viral Marketing

The history of viral marketing begins with a 1996 article written by the founder and chairman of the division of the largest strategic consulting company Marketspace LLC, Jeffrey Rayport. In his article, he also introduced such concepts as “psychological advertising”, “socio-organic advertising” and “self-valued advertising”.

According to the expert, the classic 20-30 second commercials between television programs are gradually becoming obsolete. Therefore, there is a need to organically fit advertising into the lives of consumers.

“Most marketers know that penetrating the consumer's mind is the most difficult task; the usual answer is to simply turn up the volume. Viruses are smarter: they find their way into consciousness under the guise of other, unrelated activities.” (excerpt from article)

In addition, Jeffrey Rayport has developed 6 rules for successful viral marketing. And, despite the fact that the article was written 20 years ago, these rules are still relevant.

Rules for successful viral marketing:

Cunning is the essence of entering the market correctly.
Give the client something for free - the profit will come later.
Advertising must convey a message to the target audience.
Advertising should look like an organism, not a virus.
Harness the power of weak ties.
Invest to reach the tipping point.

According to the expert, viral marketing can revolutionize the idea of promotion. And, despite the fact that the effect is not immediately visible, the results can grow exponentially. Therefore, positive dynamics are a sure sign that viral marketing has worked.

Reasons for the popularity of viral marketing: pros and cons

There has been a lot of buzz around viral marketing lately. Some argue that this method of promotion fits perfectly with the modern consumer, while others, ardent supporters of traditional marketing, doubt its effectiveness. Therefore, you need to consider the pros and cons of viral advertising.

Cheap distribution. The promotion of the commercial is carried out by the users themselves, so the costs of its distribution are significantly lower than classic promotion.
Increased user confidence. Most often, viral advertising comes from people you know, which increases its credibility.
Lack of intrusiveness. The user has the right to independently choose whether to open the link or not.
Easy targeting. Channels for seeding are determined by the advertiser at its own discretion, taking into account the parameters of the target audience and the format of future advertising.
No censorship. Using viral marketing, the advertiser receives complete freedom, or almost complete (videos of a pornographic, violent, etc. nature are prohibited).
No time restrictions. If you compare viral videos with television advertising, there are no such restrictions as when using airtime.
Large audience reach. When used correctly, advertising spreads like a virus, reaching audiences of millions.

Difficulty in predicting the outcome. Viral advertising is unpredictable. You can hire a team of marketers and order a high-quality video that will only get a couple of thousand reposts. Then, an amateur video shot on a regular smartphone will easily cross the 1,000,000 mark.
High cost of implementing the idea. The idea is the basis of viral marketing. And sometimes the budget for its implementation reaches six figures.
Limited target audience. This type of marketing can only exist within the Internet space. It is impossible to implement it offline.

Examples of viral online advertising

To fully understand the essence of this marketing tool, you need to analyze it using specific examples. There are thousands of them on the Internet, in particular on the popular video hosting site YouTube. Moreover, among them there are both brilliant ideas and not so great ones.

Photo.
Video.
By text.
Application.

As examples, we need to consider all 4 types of viral advertising, which worked equally well.

Viral photo from Nikon.

According to the marketing planners, it is immediately clear that the advertising is aimed primarily at a male audience. Moreover, the brand saved a lot on the advertising campaign budget without compromising the effectiveness of the viral photo.

Viral video from the John Lewis chain of foreign department stores

The number of views of this video is simply off the charts - 26,630,934. Viral promotion of the video on YouTube also turned out to be very productive - almost 2 million reposts. His secret is simple - the video made the audience laugh sincerely. Of course, judging by the quality of the video, a lot of money was spent on implementing the author’s idea, but the result clearly paid for all the costs.

Viral article on the Huffington Post website

Promoting the Lipton brand through a viral application

The “Favorite Farm” application is widely known among users of the social networks vkontakte.ru, odnoklassniki.ru and mail.ru. The company, having integrated its brand into this application, attracted 1.3 million new users within one month.

There are many successful examples of successful viral marketing. But in order to launch the desired advertising format, you must first analyze the target audience and then determine distribution channels. Since the advertising format mainly depends on the platform where it is placed.

How to make viral advertising?

Having been inspired by the examples, you can start planning an advertising campaign for your own business. But the question immediately arises - where to start? And you need to start with the basics of viral advertising on the Internet.

Today there is no special technology for success in creating viral advertising. But according to the observations of marketers, there are standard techniques that increase the likelihood of its rapid spread. Users are most loyal to advertising that contains:

Children.
Animals.
Stunts and special effects.
Girls of model appearance (only for male audience).

But sometimes the psychology of viral advertising turns out to be much more complex. And materials that seem guaranteed to bring success remain unnoticed. In this case, one can only hope that the next attempt will be more successful.

Viral advertising on VKontakte

Social networks are an excellent platform for spreading viral advertising. Users of social networks, in particular VKontakte, without any coercion, like, comment on posts, and repost content that interests them.

When viral advertising is ready for seeding, you need to immediately determine the channels for its promotion. If, at first glance, it seems that it is enough to throw it on your VK page and then it will promote itself, then this is not so. To spread a virus across a social network you need to:

Select groups where the largest number of target audiences are concentrated.
Agree with the owner about publication.
Track all events related to the advertising campaign.
Prepare an escape route if viral advertising has the opposite effect.

It is worth noting that viral advertising does not always work as it should. Sometimes a provocative video becomes a reason for condemnation and a lot of negativity towards the company. To preserve the brand’s reputation, you need to immediately think of an option that could smooth out this situation.

An example is a video advertising the game Word of Tanks. There, Vadim Galygin, in the role of a father, locks his supposed son in a closet and nails him with boards in order to play the above-mentioned game. This story caused a lot of negativity and reproaches. The company was also accused of child abuse. Therefore, the company representative had to state that this video was not an official advertisement produced by their company.

Viral advertising on Instagram

Viral advertising on Instagram is most often presented in photo format. Text is not suitable, since users often do not read what is written under the photo. And YouTube is intended for viral video promotion; Instagram is used only as an additional channel for seeding.

Unobtrusiveness. The words “Promotion”, “Sale”, “New” and other advertising cliches should not be mentioned in the photo and in the description below it.
Humor or cuteness. Funny and touching photos are best promoted on Instagram. And there is a reason for this. According to statistics, the majority of the active audience on this social network are girls between 20 and 30 years old.
Relevance. The message that the photo carries must correspond to current trends. In order not to make a mistake, you should conduct an analysis and study the interests of the target audience before creating advertising.
Discussions. It’s good when advertising not only evokes positive emotions, but also provokes users to enter into a discussion. Therefore, the idea of the plot must be controversial so that a person has a desire to express his point of view.
Advertising message. In all circumstances, one must not forget to establish a connection with the brand. This could be a barely noticeable logo or the use of a unique product in the story, the sight of which makes it immediately clear who it belongs to. For example, black pumps with red soles are immediately associated with the famous Christian Louboutin brand.

Popular public pages or accounts of opinion leaders are selected for distribution. The last option is the most effective. Because Instagram users watch the lives and publications of their idols with great interest.

How to create viral advertising in Odnoklassniki?

Odnoklassniki is a social network for a more mature generation of users. The main advantage of this social network is that “class” is both a like and a repost. Therefore, it is enough to make a post that users will simply like.

Most often, viral posts on Odnoklassniki are those with the caption “Do you remember this?”, “Have you had this happen too?” And so on. Therefore, when creating advertising in Odnoklassniki, it is best to “press” on nostalgia. The 40+ generation remembers their early years with pleasure.

To distribute viral advertising, as in other cases, you should choose groups with a large number of target audiences. Promotion in Odnoklassniki occurs much faster than in other social networks. Because, by putting “class”, the user, without realizing it, promotes viral advertising among his friends.

Calculating the success of viral advertising

A sad fact that all marketers know is that the success of viral advertising cannot be calculated in advance. Therefore, no one can guarantee a positive result of an advertising campaign. If a “specialist” promises quick creation and distribution of a video, you should not order or trust him with business promotion. Conscious concealment of possible risks is not professional behavior of a marketer.

The success of viral advertising can be determined after 3 days from the date of its launch. This period marks the peak of its distribution after sowing. As research by Unruly Media shows, if an advertisement has not gained popularity within this period, we can consider that the advertising campaign has failed. Although in some cases the life cycle of viral advertising can reach 3 years.

Examples of viral advertising

Not really

, product or service. The technology is based on the desire of people to share information, as a result of which a marketing message, like a virus, is transmitted from one person to another, taking advantage of every opportunity.

History of origin

The term “viral marketing” was first used in 1996 by Harvard Business School professor Jeffrey Rayport in his article The Virus of

marketing (“Virus in marketing”). In it, he outlined six rules for creating and developing viral marketing, thereby laying the foundations for a new direction.

Rayport predicted that this innovation would soon become widespread. And already in 1999, this idea was first implemented on the Internet: on the Hotmail mail service, each user’s letter was automatically accompanied by an invitation from the company to open a mailbox on Hotmail.

A significant contribution to the popularization and development of viral marketing was made by a certain category of office employees, who are also known as “office plankton”.
The category of low-level office employees, who always have time during the working day to exchange entertaining or funny information with each other, have become a priority target audience for viral marketers.

Especially if we consider that these consumers of viral advertising are also a fairly solvent audience, this served as a significant reason for the introduction of this type of advertising into the Internet community.

Types of viral content

Various communities can act as conductors of viral marketing, for example, trendsetters (from English to set trend “to establish, introduce a trend”) - specially trained and hired agents, as well as people with high purchasing power or a predisposition to purchase certain goods, which are often may be regular customers or discount card holders.

Viral marketing is especially effective if it is carried out on frequently visited pages on social networks, Internet pages with real bloggers who have a certain audience, history and authority on various resources (in this case, cooperation can also be carried out on a paid basis).

Stages of a viral campaign

A viral campaign consists of four key and equally significant stages:

Like any type of marketing communication, viral marketing has its advantages and disadvantages that must be taken into account when working with it. The advantages include:

Minimum Costs.
Information is transmitted from a “trusted” source, and is not imposed by mass advertising.

The disadvantages are the following:

It is difficult to organize control.
Information is often greatly distorted.

Conditions for a successful viral marketing campaign

In order for a viral message in a veiled form to be freely distributed among the maximum number of Internet users, you should take care of some preparatory nuances.
1) Suitable sites.

In order for a viral message to be seen and appreciated by its first users, you should choose a high-quality, highly visited website, popular online communities on social networks, thematic forums and other popular sites for posting it.
2) The speed and ease of spread of the virus.
Convenient conditions should be created for the exchange and dissemination of information between users:
- no registrations or access restrictions,
- access to the necessary information in a minimum of clicks.
- good usability of the site-platform.
3) The novelty of a viral idea.

You shouldn’t even try to copy someone else’s successful viral strategies or borrow other people’s ideas. In viral marketing, innovation and uniqueness are valued above all else.
4) A clear understanding of the target audience that the viral strategy will be aimed at.

Areas of application of viral marketing

According to the channels of influence and the methods used, viral marketing can be classified as follows:

Viral Marketing Offline

1) Buzz - the deliberate and planned spread of rumors for commercial purposes. Moreover, it is quite beneficial for advertisers if, as a result, information from the original source is distorted and overgrown with fictitious additional information. Such a marketing move requires extreme caution, because the vector of events can get out of control and then the “marketer’s weapon” can turn into a boomerang.
2) WOM - advertising by word of mouth. This is an extraordinary verbal advertising communication, the essence of which is that the distributors of information in WOM understand what they are doing, why and what material benefit they will have in the end.
In practice, the use of this technology looks something like this: specially hired people live their lives, work, go about their business, but in the process of communicating with other people do not forget to mention, on occasion, the name of a brand, brand or product and tell something about it in a positive way key.
3) Opinion Leaders - opinion leaders. Famous people (stars, actors, influential people) who have their own circle of fans or whose opinion is considered indisputable. Through these persons it is quite possible to influence the inclinations of consumers.
For each industry, market, region, opinion leaders are different, but in any case, the words of opinion leaders are believed more than advertising, because the opinion of a well-established person is more interesting for buyers than advertising.
Naturally, leaders voice their opinions, recommendations and thoughts about the promoted product or service not for free, but their words are heard by a wider circle of people, which means it is advisable to pay advertisers for this service.
4) Friend – communication that has many types of impact, but is based on the “refer a friend” mechanism and receive a discount, prize, bonus or other benefit for this.

Viral Marketing Online

1) Viral Video – viral video. The bottom line is this: an entertaining, funny, exciting video with any plot that may be interesting is uploaded to a popular portal. Not necessarily about the advertised products. It can even be uncensored or from the “only for adults” category. In the context of the video, subtitles are launched with the website address or company name. And you can count on an impressive number of visitors.
2) Viral Game – a game with a viral mechanism. The bottom line is that the advertiser entertains his potential buyers. As a rule, it is impossible to do without exciting competitions, public events and valuable prizes. Naturally, this type of viral game marketing can only be afforded by large corporations that are preparing to promote a rather exclusive product to the market.
3) Blogging – influence by exploiting the interests of readers and visitors.

With the help of viral advertising, you can easily promote your products and services on the Internet, demonstrate presentation films, and videos. Many companies specially produce short funny films, flash cartoons, and create games that help a large audience become familiar with the material. Sometimes viral advertising is spread through a selection of interesting photographs, reports of past promotional exhibitions, events, fashion shows, product demonstrations or food and drink tastings.

Viral advertising has nothing to do with the spread of viruses that disrupt the operation of computers or cause illness. It is called so because it spreads at the speed of a viral infection. It is enough to create interesting, original and unlike anything else material, and users of social networks begin to view it, passing on the information to their many friends and acquaintances.

Examples of successful viral video advertising

Here is a selection of the five most popular videos on the Internet:

Psychology of viral advertising

Talentedly created videos attract the attention of millions of users, literally encouraging them to share them with each other. The essence comes down to arousing genuine interest, surprising, and shocking users in some way. Word of mouth can work better than the most expensive advertising campaigns. Information literally reaches the most passive users in a matter of hours, and even the most distrustful and doubtful tend to believe it - after all, it comes from acquaintances and friends, from those people whom they are accustomed to trust.

Reasons for the popularity of viral marketing

It is very convenient to sell products, inform the target audience about the opening of a particular store, about the arrival of a new product on the market, with the help of viral marketing. Its advantage is that the degree of trust in conventional advertising has decreased quite significantly. People need to get information from people who are not interested in increasing sales. It is beneficial not to buy a new product yourself, but to first get feedback from those who have already done it. Therefore, those sites where reviews are posted are also very popular. Many forums have been created precisely for this purpose.

Competent marketers, when creating online stores, initially include the functionality to leave reviews for each product. Sometimes owners hire special staff to write these reviews, making them extremely reliable.

An example is the following facts: if on a forum someone advises you to buy this or that washing machine, says that it works reliably, washes perfectly and works silently, then most likely there will be a demand for this particular model in the store. If the same information is in an advertisement, it will simply be ignored.

The same can be observed in everyday life. If a neighbor or friend tells you that this cheese is delicious, then you are more likely to try it. But if the same cheese appears on posters, most people will not believe it. After all, many of us have become convinced of the possibilities of high-quality digital printing and the ability of advertisers to take beautiful pictures, but advertising tricks do not always correspond to reality.

High-quality viral advertising

Unfortunately, the success of viral advertising is impossible to calculate. You just need to hope for a good result by observing the above requirements. Sometimes the most insignificant story becomes extremely popular, while others, in which a lot of money has been invested, remain unknown to anyone. It is worth remembering that there is high competition on the Internet, that in addition to creating a video, you will also need to optimize your profile, select the right tags, and pay attention to the video from famous bloggers, forum and social network participants.