Properly harnessed, viral marketing offers a range of opportunities to arts organisations. Tim Gibbon looks at some of the ways viral marketing can be managed.
Viral marketing has come a long way. One of the first memorable campaigns to break this often misunderstood medium was Hotmail, where a simple message at the bottom of each email was sent on to a friend. Some years later we have Googles Gmail (or Google Mail as it now likes to be called) launched in a similar way, except this time you need to be invited. Viral marketing like Hotmail and Gmail transcends off and online media, it creates a positive reaction and is a self-propelling message allowing an audience to experience and interact with the brand. This is viral marketing at its best: simple, effective and enticing.
Now, viral marketing is also being coined as buzz or word-of-mouth marketing and it is big business. It has the power to create, build and even maintain brands in addition to being the enabler that can enhance or support products and services. Forget the negative connotations of the term viral marketing, due to its lightning quick impact, this medium has a potential to reach audiences that most other mediums would envy.
Gaining status
A compelling story, an event or a new product or initiative can all become successful viral campaigns. Not surprisingly, it is the humourous, thought-provoking, odd and the bizarre that get there quicker. To produce and achieve successful virals, creators need to be appealing and have a hook that is interesting to a group and/or groups of individuals; this is the only way to make campaigns work. It is the proposition, brand, product and/or service that will determine what sort of viral campaign it is, and, therefore, its target audience. Sadly, original and inspired viral marketing campaigns are less common these days, with marketers relying too heavily on a materialistic incentive. Lazy campaigns like these are rarely the ones that are remembered. However, if a message is powerful enough and has a topical essence, then it will be remembered and passed on (making it viral).
Its virtually impossible to control the communication of a viral campaign. Once its out there and has taken hold, it is almost impossible to retract it. If the campaign involves a microsite, or website, then it can be removed and will stop the audience interacting with it (unless it has been downloaded by a third party and hosted elsewhere). Managing viral marketing is about good organisation and tracking the results (to the best of your ability) from the very start of the initiative. A good web analytics system is able to track email response and forward rates, as well as clickthroughs and call to action, from a host of initiatives. Measurement is everything, and without it, we will not learn anything and certainly will not be able to take experience though to future campaigns and viral activity. There are plenty of vendors that supply this service; we elect to use WebtraffIQ (http://www.webtraffiq.com), which has evaluated both small and large campaigns.
Enabling
Email marketing, online PR, online communities, portals and vortals, search, microsites and using the website itself are solid ways to kick-start, drive and maintain a successful viral campaign. ViralMonitor (www.viralmonitor.com) is probably the most well known in the industry, and it is currently free to post links to where campaigns are hosted online. Additionally, there are specialist viral charts (some, if not all, require a fee to add or enter viral campaigns) where ideally you need this process to be as cost effective as possible.
Email marketing is probably the most popular medium due to its low set-up and running costs, and its potential reach. A simple and concise, plain text (preferred) or multipart email with a hyperlink can be more than enough for a successful viral campaign, and to drive audiences to a website/microsite. Marketers would ideally be looking to build an in-house, opt-in email list as a result of a successful viral, and more often than not would build this into the data-capture elements of the campaign.
Tim Gibbon is Director of media consultancy Elemental Communications Limited.
t: 0870 745 9292; tim.gibbon@elementalcomms.co.uk
w: http://www.elementalcomms.co.uk
Top tips to building a successful campaign:
" Build an opt-in mailing list for your future campaigns that adheres to international law
" Be aware of cultural differences and the impact that these have
" Employ tracking to measure the success of the campaign
" Remember KISS Keep it Simple Stupid. Challenging budgets require simple drivers and enablers to make campaigns work
" Test the campaign and be sure it works before communicating to a larger audience
" Set goals and objectives and be prepared to meet demand, depending on the nature of the campaign
" Become your target audience, understand them and unearth mediums that they frequent to communicate your campaign
" If possible, bring off- and online elements to the viral campaign and seed where the highest interest will be reaped
" Be realistic, start small and grow your campaign and expertise
" Research and read up on the top campaigns from resources like ClickZ ( http://www.clickz.com) and Web Marketing Today (http://www.wilsonweb.com)
" Dont underestimate the medium. Its not as easy as it appears to create, kick-start and manage.