As I’ve talked about before, the success of a viral marketing campaign ultimately comes from the stickiness of the content, and the desire in the ‘host’ to willingly pass it on. Office max had an incredibly successful campaign last year with it’s “elf yourself” videos. The company employed a humor company, JibJab, to create dancing elf videos that anyone could upload their own pictures to, creating a video of dancing videos with their friends, family, or co-worker’s heads. At it’s peak, the website traffic rivaled that of Facebook, and in total was viewed by more than 100 million unique visitors. The company plans to recreate the magic this year, and to expand the features and available videos. Read more here.

Seth Godin, author of Tribes, just wrote this very insightful article pertaining to the publishing industry. He makes a good case for the dynamic nature of ecommmerce, and how the market doesn’t owe anybody anything. Reaping the rewards comes from adapting to the climate, and not the other way around. Read the article.

Social networks can be leveraged in a way that was once dubbed ‘secret’ or “undercover’ marketing.  A few years back 60 minutes took a look at few guerilla marketing operations that put undercover marketers in situations where they appeared to be normal people. They were placed on street corners or in Starbucks’, and their task was simple; use a product and invite other people to try it too.  The ‘secret’ aspect was to combat the challenge that marketers face on a daily basis; people are so bombarded by marketing and advertisement that they are desensitized – ‘secret marketing’ allows marketers to reach consumers without them knowing they’re having a product pitched to them.  

The Social Bookmarking phenomenon is one that has its marketing advantages. If you don’t already use social bookmarking, you are certainly aware of their presence if you’ve viewed the ubiquitous array of little icon “badges” that appears at the bottom of so many blog posts, or on the side column of this page displayed as the “add this” button. But what exactly are their advantages in terms of Marketing? Bill McIntosh, explores social bookmarks’ value for rapidly gaining the attention of search engines in his project to set up a ranked and search engine indexed website within a week. He proves his point that the trackbacks and pings that are achieved through social bookmarks give relevance to your site that could take months to otherwise achieve. While his efforts are impressive, they offer a somewhat hollow analysis as he uses them for a flash the pan effect, without exploring social bookmarking’s value, if any, for establishing repeat visitors. More to come on the long term value of social bookmarking.

Viral Marketing, an aptly named internet phenomenon whose term seems to have lost all sense of irony, is one of the great mysteries for the modern day marketer.  If anyone has an exact formula for how to achieve it I’d be happy to hear it, but for now it’s about all I can do to talk a little bit about the phenomenon itself, and perhaps glean some insights into what key factors might contribute to viral success.

 The term was first coined in the mid-90’s by Harvard Business School professor Jeffrey Rayport in an article for Fast Company.  The analogous relationship between a pathogen and viral media stems from the voluntary or perhaps involuntary spread of the media itself. When someone forwards you a funny video, that video can be considered viral. If you consider that video to be funny enough in turn to forward it to one of your friends, you have played host to and transmitted the “virus” as well. The marketing aspect of course comes into play when a certain brand or corporate message or idea is inserted somewhere into the mix.

There doesn’t seem to be any kind of definite rule of thumb about how the insertion takes place, save to say that it is different/original in each case.  Here are a couple of examples of successful viral videos. The content of the first, a Cadbury commercial featuring a Gorilla playing the drums to a Phil Collins song, literally has no connection whatsoever to the brand it is endorsing. Yet the video is so funny, original, and different that the viewer can’t help but associate some element of the gleeful experience of viewing with the brand itself. Conversely, the Smirnoff Raw Tea video incorporates the brand identity directly into the content, but juxtaposes preppy characters with rap video stereotypes to create another funny and memorable video.

These videos both share humor, which seems to be one of the most conducive qualities to viral media. They are both relatively short, and they don’t attempt to go into a great deal of depth about the product itself. Essentially they do nothing but associate an entertaining experience with the brand, which is what many ads do in the mainstream media. However the difference is that there is something definitively offbeat about them. These aren’t ads you would see on American television. Both of them make the viewer sit back and say “what is this?!” at first, and then the payoff comes. This element of initial bewilderment is fundamental aspect of successful viral media. It is the veritable x-factor that makes you want to send it to someone else. It is a common theme that will be the focus of many further posts.   

These days there are a number ways that people can interact via the internet. From groups specifically designed to connect with “friends,” to media and file sharing sites, to corporate networking sites, there are a lot of different ways to connect. But what is the most effective way for businesses to take advantage of these digital relationships?

Michael Jones of Userplane describes the benefit of social networks like Linkedin for making “blind” connections with potential business associates, much in the same way that individuals might meet for blind dates.

Stepping into the conference room, I realize that I’m headed into an appointment with very little information on what’s about to happen or with whom I’ll be meeting. I know the names of the participants, but would not recognize them if I passed them on the street. Nonetheless, I’m pleased with the opportunity and eager about what may materialize from this gathering.

Now here’s the punchline: this entire in-person meeting was arranged online with the assistance of “web introductions,” through the business networking service Linkedin.

He goes on to speculate that these types of business meetings will become more common place, and that eventually, through the integration of technology like tele-conferencing, the necessity to meet in person may be eliminated altogether.

In this B to B model of social networking, the advantages are fairly straightforward. You set up a profile describing yourself and what you do and would like to do, and then go about making connections with the people whose profiles in some way present a common interest or benefit. But what about B to C social networking?

This Tech Crunch article explores some of the best “create your own social network” type of sites. The idea of how to create a successful platform with your business at the center upon which your consumers can interact is the 64 thousand dollar question for these types of networks. I don’t personally have the answer, but at least there are folks out there trying to figure out the best ways to facilitate it.