Viral marketing has the potential to make a huge splash online, but as with any marketing strategy, there's risk involved. Poor planning, offensive material, and a lack of brand transparency are all major contributors to failed campaigns. With so much potential for failure, how can your company launch a successful viral marketing campaign?Let's start by looking at what not to do. Here are four of the biggest viral marketing fails of all time.Samsung: Memes Without ContextA 2013 ad campaign from Samsung had the right idea - capitalize on popular memes to produce relevant content - but failed in its execution. The meme, known as the Overly Attached Girlfriend, followed from a video parody of Justin Bieber's song "Boyfriend" by vlogger Laina Morris. The video featured clingy, stalker-like lyrics and a creepy wide-eyed stare - and became an overnight viral sensation.Memes can be a great content marketing tool, but they require brands to use them intelligently - or risk coming off as … [Read more...] about How Not to Go Viral: 4 Viral Marketing Fails
Successful viral marketing campaigns
Making Link Bait and Viral Marketing Work – Part Three
Two of the most popular buzz words in the online marketing realm right now are link baiting and viral marketing. These two tactics are a great way to build links and to build branding when constrained by small marketing budgets, but there are several things you need to remember when planning these types of campaigns. In this ten part series, I'll be covering many of the things that you need to take into consideration when planning a link baiting or viral marketing campaign. While there's no need to integrate all of them into every campaign, understanding what they are and how they work can go a long way toward helping you plan an effective launch strategy. In part one of the series I look at the importance of a good headline. In part two, we explored the need to make your campaign easy to spread. Today, I'll be helping you understand how to find and exploit motivating factors in order to get more people interested in your product or service. Human being are all driven by something. … [Read more...] about Making Link Bait and Viral Marketing Work – Part Three
Making Link Bait and Viral Marketing Work – Part Four
Two of the most popular buzz words in the online marketing realm right now are link baiting and viral marketing. These two tactics are a great way to build links and to build branding when constrained by small marketing budgets, but there are several things you need to remember when planning these types of campaigns. In this ten part series, I'll be covering many of the things that you need to take into consideration when planning a link baiting or viral marketing campaign. While there's no need to integrate all of them into every campaign, understanding what they are and how they work can go a long way toward helping you plan an effective launch strategy. In part one of the series I look at the importance of a good headline. In part two, we explored the need to make your campaign easy to spread. In part three, I helped you understand how to find and exploit motivating factors in order to get more people interested in your product or service. Today we'll find out how to use existing … [Read more...] about Making Link Bait and Viral Marketing Work – Part Four
The Strategy And Success Behind Viral Marketing
Who doesn’t love Betty White? The supremely funny octogenarian has delighted audiences for most of her adult life. Her successes date back to the days when radio was king and men wore fedoras without irony. Yet White’s popularity – at the twilight of her working career — is at an all-time high. Why? Because Betty White went viral in 2010. Viral Marketing Viral marketing depends on consumers spreading the word about a specific product or service. A well-executed viral marketing campaign engages the consumer, drawing her in as a transmission vector for the marketing message. Much like a biological virus, a viral marketing campaign spreads from person to person to person, generally beyond the control of Patient Zero. It’s the social-media version of word-of-mouth testimonials. Viral campaigns can flop – as in, “no one notices” — so there is a serious element of risk. But if a company is willing to accept that risk, a combination of the … [Read more...] about The Strategy And Success Behind Viral Marketing
How Viral Marketing Has The Potential To Promote Or Destroy Your Brand
Everyone wants every piece of their content to go ‘viral’, whether that means a tweet is re-tweeted 500 times, a YouTube video has 2,000,000 views, or a blog post has 300 comments. Many companies believe that social media and online marketing isn’t “Worth it” if they aren’t getting high numbers. While this isn’t always the case (especially if the target market is small or the content isn’t right for their industry), viral success can greatly benefit a company, especially if it is built around a new product that can experience increased sales. While going viral doesn’t have a set formula or set of steps to follow, there are a few general ideas that can help your commercials, campaigns, or content catch on and spread faster. Embrace The Weirdness Skittles has some strange and unique commercials (to say the least), both online and on TV. Example: Weird, yet it has gotten press coverage and at the time this article was written, it … [Read more...] about How Viral Marketing Has The Potential To Promote Or Destroy Your Brand