Viral marketing has nothing to do with viruses. It is even difficult to call it advertising, rather, a complex of various techniques. The main goal of the product is to evoke a response from the audience, increase user interest and motivate to buy a product or service. Consider examples of viral advertising, its features, varieties and effectiveness.
What is a viral promotion?
At a time when there was no Internet yet, news about goods, products, companies or services was transmitted through word of mouth. It is this principle that is used in such an area as viral marketing. But the process is more complicated, since it requires the creation of a specific strategy aimed at a specific target audience, as well as a professional approach.
To put it simply, viral advertising on the Internet is a mix of advertising and marketing moves used by companies to increase awareness of a brand, product ora specific service. On the one hand, it looks simple, you just need to interest a person. But in order to do this, a tremendous amount of work must be done to study the trends of the modern market, as well as the goals and mood of users.
The essence of viral marketing is that information is transmitted voluntarily from one person to another. Thus, the involvement and interest of as many people as possible in a product, company or service is achieved. Advertising, which is filled with media and the Internet, is imposed on people and is very tiring, there should not be such an effect from the viral transmission of information.
Viral advertising a priori should be and be perceived by the target audience in a natural way. It is used in various fields. Most often distributed through the Internet, social networks and online games. Its main task is creativity, the uniqueness of the idea, the naturalness of conveying information in order to encourage a person to voluntarily share what they have seen or read.
Viral marketing: artificial or natural?
Viral ads in the browser are unobtrusive but highly engaged. In itself, this phenomenon is natural, but it is applied with certain skills and abilities, that is, it is created artificially. While highly effective, when delivered correctly, viral marketing is the cheapest way to advertise a brand, product, or service.
To createviral advertising does not require large funds, you only need to be able and know how to correctly convey information to a specific target audience. People tend to believe not in advertising that is filled with the Internet and the media, but in people, that is, a personal recommendation of some familiar user.
Benefits of high-impact viral marketing:
- engaging a large number of users online;
- low cost compared to conventional advertising;
- increasing awareness of a company, product or service;
- individual approach or personal appeal to the user.
To achieve effectiveness from viral advertising, it is worth carefully planning it, building certain tactics, strategies and thinking creatively.
Scope of application
Today, viral advertising (examples are given below) is used by almost all global brands, companies and corporations, regardless of their field of activity. The user does not perceive it as a traditional advertisement, but rather as a recommendation or advice from a familiar person.
The main task of companies in this case is to create such unique content that people want to share it with their friends. Therefore, the main thing in creating a viral promotion is not a product, service or brand, but the content of the content. Most often, companies use audio, photo and video materials as viral marketing, less often informative texts, news or flash mobs. It is important to evoke certain emotions in a person, and preferably positive ones.
Varieties of Viral Marketing
Looking at examples of viral advertising on the Internet, regardless of the mechanism used to create it, it can be divided into several types.
Types of Viral Marketing:
- pass-along (pass) - looks like an informational message, but is not used often (funny videos shared by more users are better perceived);
- incentivised viral (incentive) - a certain reward is expected for the dissemination of information about a product, product or service (a costly but effective method) - a successful example of this type of viral advertising was demonstrated by Unilever to promote Dove soap (to the woman who brought the coupon for a discount, you could specify the addresses of several of your girlfriends, who were sent soap as a gift for free), which increased the number of sales by 10%;
- undercover (secret) is an effective but complex type of viral marketing, as it implies an “investigative effect” (a vivid example was demonstrated by the life.ru website, which, a month before its opening, encouraged users to discuss and be interested in it by posting a slogan on billboards "life is in full swing here");
- buzz (rumors) is not a very correct method that is used to attract attention at any cost (Hollywood stars are examples of such viral marketing, trying to increase popularity or not lose the number of fans).
Pros and cons
Viral advertising has a number of advantages and disadvantages that you should evaluate before engaging in this type of promotion of your goods, services or brand.
Pros:
- significant cost savings - information is passed from person to person, no need to spend money on distributing materials;
- formation of a positive attitude due to the effect of unobtrusiveness;
- unlimited duration - viral marketing has no expiration date, product or brand advertising can change hands for years through referrals;
- emotional component - the product or product that the user shares causes a certain emotion in the user (most often positive).
Despite the obvious advantages, there are also disadvantages. No professional can give a 100% guarantee that viral advertising will be successful. You can't even tentatively predict the results. It is rather difficult to predict user behavior.
The disadvantages include the cost of viral marketing. It is not enough to come up with a good idea, it is important to bring it to life. And it is better to use the services of professionals for this, the cost of which may be high for the company.
How to start?
Viral marketing is carried out in stages. Judging by the examples of viral advertising of global companies, they did a tremendous job before the launch.
Steps of creating a viralpromoting a product, service or company:
- Target audience analysis.
- Developing a strategy and presenting content. It is important to work out the material in detail here.
- Dissemination of information. It is important to attract not only new users, but also to encourage the company's customers to make a new purchase or order a service.
- Control and monitoring. Possible through feedback.
- Evaluation. The marketer must calculate and provide information to the customer about the number of views, audience demographics, peak user activity, as well as the number and quality of comments.
It is important to understand that scandals, shock, humor and "cute" animals have a good prevalence on the Internet. These are the factors that cause certain emotions in people.
Examples of successful viral advertising
It is impossible to understand the phenomenon of viral marketing without examples. Only they clearly demonstrate what and how marketers use to increase brand awareness, as well as promote its products on the market.
Best examples of viral ads:
Halo Top (ice cream maker)
While most companies position the product as a delicacy for the whole family, the brand decided to remove the dystopia. In the video, the robot feeds an aged woman with ice cream, and the words are heard: “Those who are dear to you are no more, there is only ice cream.” This caused a storm of emotions among users, and the video quickly spread across the network, as it stood out noticeably against the background of grayand the same mass. The company's ice cream sales have grown exponentially.
Kentucky for Kentucky brand (various products)
Previously, the company produced and supplied its products only in the state of Kentucky (America), but one day they advertised in a major magazine with a slight grammatical error. Despite the fact that the mistake was made deliberately, the brand was discussed throughout America, which helped the company to expand beyond the boundaries of one state and increase not only recognition, but also the number of buyers.
Gravity Blanket
The company produces heavy blankets, weighing from seven to 11 kg. In their commercial, they did not talk about the features of the product, but delved into scientific facts and statistics. They collected statements and data from scientists who have proven that weighted blankets can get rid of stress and insomnia. The brand used this in their video without dry facts and boring statistics.
Examples of original marketing
Sometimes, judging by the examples of large companies, viral advertising may not be quite standard, which speaks, first of all, about the creativity of the creator.
To promote the Russian Vodka brand abroad, social network users were offered to play Russian roulette and either win a trip to Russia or close their account. To begin with, a person must invite three friends to the company's website, and then play "Russian roulette" on an electronic drum. Of course, no one was obliged to close their page, but according to the conditions, it was necessary to at least leave a farewell inscription inribbon to receive a bottle of alcoholic drink as a gift.
The company does not disclose how much popularity and brand awareness has increased by foreign consumers through this viral marketing. It is only known that this advertisement is an example of original solutions.
Conclusion
To use and get a good return on viral marketing, you need to carefully plan it and think through all the details. You can get a lot of profit from the viral promotion of goods, although before the implementation it is impossible to say with a 100% guarantee whether the advertising will be successful.
