Viral marketing - why are big companies doing it?
August 18, 2006 – 6:25 amIf you look at many of the videos at Youtube, you quickly realize that it’s not all amateur videos. In fact, you have a great number of talented directors making videos that they hope will “go viral”. The movie Snakes and Planes has been able to capitalize on viral efforts in an attempt to spread the word about their movies.
Why is viral marketing a big deal to big companies?
1) It doesn’t cost much, if anything. Big companies are cheap because they can make more profit if they save on marketing costs. They love more profit, so they always look at ways to publicize products in a manner that’s cheap or free.
2) Viral marketing works. People are extremely likely to tell their friends or family about something the like, and that marketing message is worth a lot more than a paid advertisement because it comes from someone they can trust.
For these two reasons, viral marketing is the current killer app of the internet marketing game. But be warned, most viral marketing efforts will fail. Unless they ramp up and take on a head of steam fast, chances are they just won’t spread.
You can start a viral marketing campaign today
I can’t tell you exactly how to do your campaign, because it depends on the type of content on your website and what you’re attempting to accomplish. But I can tell you to at least consider the concept. This is a simple and effective way to earn more money without devoting a ton of resources to the job.
4 Responses to “Viral marketing - why are big companies doing it?”
Hi, i’m an italian student in marketing & communication in Venice. I actually don’t think viral marketing can be a basis for building a marketing campaign. I really hope, nevertheless, this won’t be the future. I spent the last 4years studying how important a correct plan is to make all the efforts worthy, and I think the viral part of a good marketing strategy is a small one, yet important, but it has to be correctly planned and it can’t be the very bulk of the strategy. in fact the very title of your post says it…Big companies! big companies,in my opinion,can afford the challenge not only because they need a “low-cost strategy”, but even because they can “widespread their word” in many other non-conventional marketing strategy, of course after having improved and experienced their successful marketing plans. in the end I believe viral marketing can be really useful to companies, but it can’t be the basis, but the result of a careful pianification,which must be already well experienced and, last but not least, it must have proved to be succesful.
By Filippo Minelli on Sep 1, 2006
Hi Fillippo,
Thanks for the comment. Viral Marketing, IMHO, is extremely sustainable. But for how long is anyone’s guess. For that reason you’re right that people can’t rely on it solely. But people would be crazy to ignore it. Imagine a free campaign that runs for a year and transforms a business?
By Darren McLaughlin on Sep 1, 2006
Hi,
Here’s Giorgio Soffiato, my schoolmate Filippo linked me this tread about viral marketing. I made my thesis on this topic and I think it would be an interesting strategy if well planned. In my opinion it’s not possible to make a viral action without a planned marketing campaign and viral effect have to be managed, if possible. We know there’s a part of viral propagation which trend is to grow down fastly, in this moment marketing manager have to be able to give new energy to viral engine. But How?
By Giorgio Soffiato on Sep 2, 2006
Good question, Giorgio.
You could always stage your viral marketing plan to “go off in stages”. It would take a bit of planning, but it could be done.
By Darren McLaughlin on Sep 4, 2006