Viral marketing

Viral Marketing Definition

With the rise of social networking and digital media platforms like TikTok and YouTube, anyone and anything can go viral (including cats or Gigi Hadid's pasta). Viral marketing is based on the idea of creating exciting content that viewers are compelled to share and forward to others. So what is the difference between viral marketing and word-of-mouth (WOM)? Well, according to Ferguson (2008), the difference stems from cause and effect, whereby viral marketing is the cause, and word-of-mouth is the effect.¹ As a result, we define viral marketing as follows.

Similarly, De Bruyn and Lilien (2004) state that what distinguishes viral marketing from other forms of marketing is its consumer-to-consumer (peer-to-peer) nature. Rather than companies communicating information about a product or brand, it is consumers who are spreading information to one another.²

Viral marketing occurs on the Internet, frequently through social networking sites like Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook. Additionally, the virality of a campaign is often impacted by the advertising appeal used to engage customers.

In the following sections, we will discuss marketing campaign appeals used in viral marketing.

Viral Marketing Methods

Let's first take a look at the viral marketing methods marketers may use when creating a campaign. Grifoni, D'Andrea, and Ferri (2013) presented a method for developing marketing campaigns.³ Based on their model, the steps of designing an online viral marketing campaign are as follows (see Figure 1 below):

1. Phase I: company and business context - Phase one involves analyzing the internal (including competitors, consumer behavior, etc.) and external (including strategies, resources, products, etc.) environment. Regarding external analysis, the company must carefully consider competitors' customers, market share, promotion strategies, and product developments. This phase should also include an extensive product analysis whereby the company assesses product features, pricing, distribution, promotion, and support of its current products. Finally, the company must also evaluate its financials to see whether they have the budget for a viral campaign and to assess how the campaign will impact its returns.

2. Phase II: objectives and goals - The next phase includes defining the goals and objectives of the campaign. There are three different types of objectives that marketers must determine: cognitive (how will we reach customers?), behavioral (how do we want customers to react?), and financial (how will this campaign help in building the brand?).

3. Phase III: designing a message and selecting the medium - The following phase involves selecting the message type, including the emotional appeal that the campaign will use to encourage viewers to forward the content and the medium through which the message will be conveyed. Examples of media include videos (e.g., on social media), written content (e.g., Twitter posts, blogs, or e-mail), audio content, or even offline content.

4. Phase IV: implementation and results - The final stage includes implementing the viral campaign and analyzing the results. A helpful method of campaign implementation in viral marketing includes seeding.

After the initial implementation is finished, marketers receive feedback from the small target group before the campaign goes live. Businesses can use this test marketing approach to make changes to the campaign if necessary. Finally, they implement the campaign on a larger scale and assess its effectiveness. This data is collected and transformed into useful insights for future campaigns.

Viral Marketing Elements

So how do ads, or content in general, go viral? Let's take a look at some of the specific elements of a viral marketing campaign.

Emotional Appeals - A crucial element of a viral marketing campaign is the emotional appeal used. Emotional appeals are essential for capturing the audience's attention and are powerful tools used to encourage people to forward content on social media. Whether it be feeling sad for abandoned puppies or celebrating our favorite football team's win together through a challenge, emotional appeals work. But which one is the most effective for viral marketing? According to Petrescu, Korgaonkar, and Gironda (2015), it's humor - humorous appeal has the highest potential when creating viral ads.⁴

Motivation to forward content to others - Another crucial element of viral marketing campaigns is their ability to entice viewers to forward the content to others rather than simply engage the viewer. The message and content must have a unique view on a particular topic and should be relevant to current situations or trends. All in all, the content should give the viewer a reason to share the information with others. Therefore, a viral marketing campaign will be more successful if its message resonates with the target group. It should appeal to the motivations for sharing information, particularly to the motivations of helping others and standing out from the crowd.⁵

Opinion leaders and influencers - Finally, certain brands attempt to go viral by partnering with an opinion leader, e.g., an influencer or a celebrity. For instance, Nike often uses famous athletes like Serena Williams or Michael Jordan to draw attention to its new campaigns. Using celebrities and influencers can have an impressive impact on a campaign's virality due to the reach of the celebrity involved. However, marketers should be careful in choosing which celebrities they involve in a campaign as it can come across as inauthentic if there is no immediate connection between the brand and the celebrity.

Viral Marketing Advantages and Disadvantages

All in all, viral marketing is a tricky science, but is it worth it? Let's now turn our attention to some of the advantages and disadvantages of viral marketing.

The advantages of viral marketing include:

• Reach - Viral marketing can reach many people quickly.

• Buzz - Viral marketing creates buzz around a product or brand, increasing awareness and purchase motivation.

• Costs - Viral marketing can be a low-cost strategy as it is dependent on word-of-mouth rather than ad spending to target customers.

• Authenticity - As viral marketing relies on word-of-mouth, it can come across as more authentic and credible. For example, a friend sharing a video seems more genuine than a company pushing it on your social media feed.

The disadvantages of viral marketing include:

• Negative word-of-mouth (NWOM) - If viewers get a negative impression of the campaign, it could spark negative word-of-mouth.

• Implementation and control - It is difficult to target a viral marketing campaign; therefore, it might not reach the intended audience.

• Wasting time - If the campaign is unsuccessful and consumers are not interested in it, marketers have wasted time and effort creating it. Additionally, not all interested viewers are guaranteed to share the campaign.

• Feedback: It is challenging to collect feedback and measure the results of a viral marketing campaign as it is heavily based on word-of-mouth.

Viral Marketing Examples

Let's look at some viral marketing examples to familiarize ourselves with the processes of viral marketing.

Let's now take a look at another viral marketing example from Spotify.