This last week I saw some excellent examples of how viral marketing can really succeed. And how it can really fail.
It comes down to having a great idea, proper execution of that idea and having a solid understanding of your target audience. For a viral marketing concept to succeed you’ll need help, and lots of it. If you miss the mark with your audience you run the risk, not only of failure, but of complete disaster. I’m going to take a look at three examples and talk about what they did right or wrong.
World of Warcraft on MySpace
World of Warcraft put up a MySpace page! Brilliant! Like it or no, MySpace is the perfect venue for this kind of marketing. They’ve got a great idea, understand and have targeted the right audience (“MySpacers”) and have executed really well.
Not only can you make World of Warcraft your friend (I find it crazy funny that 36,000 people are friends with an advertisement, but whatever…), they’ve got all sorts of goodies that would be very appealing to the “MySpacer” who’s into World of Warcraft; buddy icons, contests, a personality quiz and more.
Clearly an example of how viral marketing can work. If there’s anything negative to note it’s that it was a sure bet and they’d have to mess up pretty bad to fail with this.
Agency.com’s Subway Video
Agency.com’s “Going to Work for Subway” video is not exactly viral marketing, but a clear example of a so-so idea done really badly and with little understanding of the audience. In hindsight it’s very easy to ask, “what the deuce?” However, the idea (to create a video pitch that showcases your talent and then share that with the world) itself wasn’t horrible (although it wasn’t great either) and had it been executed well, it could have been good.Their biggest problem was they created a video for the decision makers at Subway and then released it to the general public. Most of whom thought it was stupid, not all all funny or entertaining, etc. Keeping to themselves might have been the best course of action. Again, they clearly didn’t understand the audience. For another take on this, check out Coudal Partners Viral Infection.
Snakes on a Plane!
In what are probably the best examples of awesome viral marketing ever, the folks promoting the upcoming movie Snakes of a Plane have managed to turn a somewhat silly sounding B-List movie into what will undoubtedly be one of the summer’s biggest blockbusters.
It started with a blog post from screenwriter Josh Friedman and quickly blossomed into contests (pdf), fan videos and this amazingly well done viral campaign by Veritalk.
Great ideas, great execution and they clearly understood the audiences they were targeting. It should result in a huge boost in numbers for the film. If you’re interested in viral marketing, check out the Wikipedia entry for the movie. It reads like a viral marketing how-to.
You’re right on about Snakes on a Plane! ability to master viral marketing. It sounds so absurd that I feel like I MUST see it!
Or…maybe I’ll get some sense and just wait for it to come on TBS or USA.
I Love “Snakes On a Plane” :)
I’m very glad that you write about viral marketing. I have a task given me by my boss in office and I’m searching the internet to find some inspirations. the examples written on your website helped me ;-) thx!!!!
What is your the most interesting example of viral marketing?