Viral Marketing Show

Phil Bernstein, a Portland-based marketeer, has just updated his (excellent, by the way!) blog with a piece on the downside of Viral Marketing. In this article, he gives us his point of view on this piece — and I actually feel he’s making sense. :)

He says: “Viral marketing only works if the consumers doing the viralizing (a word I believe I just made up) are happy with what they bought. If they’re not, they’ll take it out on you with blogs, forums, and Amazon’s Customer Reviews. If the product is shoddy or the service is poor, the chorus of consumer voices can quickly wipe out any gains an advertising campaign can make.”

He’s right. Word of mouth is king in the land of the www!

I don’t have time to really post about the depth and the meaning of all the work Viral wonder Matt Harding has done with his “where the hell is matt?”-hype — but it worked out for him. ;)

With his videos being watched by aproximately 10,000,000 people — this guy is huge. He’s now a professional traveler — sponsored by Google Earth and Stride gum.

When you’re planning your next holiday or vacation // you MUST check out his website – it’s full of inspiration!

The viral marketing curve is a logistic one — and I’ve been trying to explain this to a lot of my marketing-friends. Most of them were stressing it’s a parabolic one, but that’s probably just the traffic-curve…

No — the viral effect is how many people are affected — not how many people are viewing a specific ad. The Viral effect will never end, seeing as videos (like most content) will keep attracting at least some new viewers every single day it’s kept alive on the net.

I also stressed having a sexy hot chick in lingerie running around in the ad will make the middle part a little steaper. :D

Got it? ;-)

This is a good example of a viral ad you just wouldn’t spot if you didn’t know this was one. Obviously that means the agency did a good job – and I’m kind of impressed by the simplicity yet pure genius of the idea behind the vid…

A bodybuilder babe doing a rubik’s cube – in a bikini. Simple and solid. Good ad by ad agency Cutwater and director Brian Lee Huges.

The Panasonic people know one of the factors that can help your viral campaign to work perfectly: show sexy women in close to no clothing. The miniature mp3-player D.Sound by Panasonic gets the attention at the end of the vid – when most of the young male gamer adults are already ready to get their money out. ;-)

It’s an easy approach – but it’s very effective!

Another perfect ad to make it on the web. It has some of the prime ingredients for a good viral: women’s breasts (covered up by a bikini, but that’s usually not too big a problem) and humour. It’s clever too – seeing as any viewer will easily link the ad to the product…

I think this is genius stuff by the Nissan people. :)

I love it how advertisers always find ways of combining lingerie models with cars. Excellent!

This is viral marketing the way it’s supposed to be. Simple, creative — and effective. Millions of people have watched the (beautiful) ad on youtube alone — and the message is very strong — something I’m sure was vital to Samsung (connecting people, remember?).

Ad by The Viral Factory; Director: Jake Lunt.

I need a new mobile phone. :D

This is probably one of the most popular viral marketing ads amongst women. I mean – it shows them those gorgeous models ARE NOT all that gorgeous.

Being a man, this is not the kind of illusions I like to lose – but obviously the viral ad worked like a charm – getting millions of online viewers to notice the brand and the message behind the ad.

Production by Tim Piper and Yael Staav.

(for the record — they’re selling beauty products. GENIUS!)