More classic examples of Viral Marketing

1) DID YOU KNOW??

This is a very cool and genius video, it been spread around everywhere on the internet, Facebook, Youtube or emails. With all the information that people are interesting to know, from Youtube record, there are 6,012,995 views with 5983 ratings. Under the category of Science & Technology, this video had been rated as 36 TOP VIEWD and 36 TOP FAVORITED VIDEO. As you can see from these figures, it is a very good example of Viral Marketing.



2) Honda

Probably most of you had seen this video but up to now, there are still many people thinks this is the coolest automobile ad. This is also an ad that makes people wanted to share with friends and its also a great example of how you should be creative and unique when making a viral video.

Word of Mouth = Word of Mouse

In the world of the Internet, mouse is instead of mouth because people use “click” function to forward message to their friends. Nowadays, technology provides convenience tools for sharing on the Internet such as TVB.COM and YOUTUBE. We can see “facebook share”, “e-mail share” or “add my playlist”. Audience just uses their computer mouse to click button and link the video to their facebook, then their friends may click it and watch the details.
when you see a video as below, will you forward it to your friends?

Molave attacked Hong Kong on 18-19 Jul(Souce from: www.youtube.com)

Be careful to the pitfalls

Viral marketing has been deemed by some as the answer to a marketer’s prayers – a quick, cheap way to broadcast a message, drive awareness and generate hot leads. Yet, while viral marketing is a powerful marketing tool, it is also a pitfall.

When you release your virus, you instantly lose control. Recently, there are many teenage models appear in the media. The models are going to publish personal albums during the Hong Kong Book Fair.


Kama《 My Secret Album》

The cover is prohibited and has to package with plastic bag.
http://www.getjetso.com/forum/thread-323340-1-1.html

On the other hand, it arouses the public to concerning the unhealthy morality and started to against oppose the teenage models. In Facebook, there is a communication Group which reflects the joiners feeling - Oppose the rubbish culture, teen models please leave the Hong Kong Book Fair in July.



http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=102010838579#/group.php?gid=83755732705

Here you can see that the affection of Viral marketing.

Local Example of Viral Marketing - McDonald Hello Kitty Lab Game

Here is the second case.

Recently, McDonald launch the Hello Kitty Lab figure and the summer special drinks and dessert. Do you remember there is a TV advertisement ask people to click into McDonald's website to play the game and win the prize?



Viral marketing can also creating buzz through the game. Let play it together!
http://www.mcdonalds.com.hk/chinese/campaign/summer09/index.htm

Foreign Example of Viral Marketing:
1. Best Job in the World
2. Evian Roller Babies
3. Hotmail (i) & Hotmail (ii)
4. hongkong168.com

Local Example of Viral Marketing – hongkong168.com

In Hong Kong, there are many example of Viral Marketing too! Some of them are very successful, however, some of them are not. Let's share some of them. You may guess which is the successful or the unsuccessful example. But, we will not tell you the answer. "lol"

The first case is the hongkong168.com

Foreign Example of Viral Marketing:
1. Best Job in the World
2. Evian Roller Babies
3. Hotmail (i) & Hotmail (ii)

Tips of Viral Marketing

We have mentioned how to Viral marketing in the 3 marketing mix, "Price, Place and Promotion". Now, let me give a tips on "Product".

How to reinforce the advertising effect of a product by using Viral Marketing strategy?

Many Viral Marketing program utilize free products or services to stimulate consumer’s interest. Frankly speaking, it is very effective. However, this is only one of the methods to catch the attention from the consumers.

Actually, there are some more effective methods to strengthen the advertising effect of a product by Viral Marketing. Let me give you a tips now. Creating quality and special content, such as hilarious, raunchy or exaggerated content, can often make or break a viral campaign. But, you need to estimate the risk first. If you use this method more professionally and cautiously, the result of this method is often better than utilize free products.

It’s real, let’s try it now!!

Harry Potter 6 in theaters 07.15

Hogwarts, Voldemart, Dumbledore....... what are these stange words if you have no idea who is Harry Potter. I guess all of the magic fans are super looking forwad to hearing these words again. That's right, Harry Potter series 6, Half Blood Prince is coming in theatres on July 15th.

Right now, yahoo hk is now working with warner bros picture which is the film production company to launch a special program, and you have a good chance to get a free ticket and a souvenir from hk yahoo. Other than that, through an official website of this film, you can use facebook to search all Harry's fans around the world, talk about your favorite characters, funny magic, Check out details through this link and get a free ticket NOW~~

http://hk.promo.yahoo.com/movie/harrypotter6/

Eason Chan be a delivery boy??

Viral marketing in marketing mix ( product, price, place and promotion )will creative a synergies to the marketing campaign. We have mentioned how to Viral marketing in the “Price”, let talk about the application on “Place”!

Have you been imagine Eason Chan be a delivery boy and delivery a hot meal to you? That is not a dream anymore. Recently, McDonald has a new campaign on 24hrs delivery service, on using the celebrities are a delivery boy, like Joey Yung and Eason Chan.

That is a good example of McDonald using Viral marketing to promote the new "24hrs delivery service". They using the celebrities be a delivery men will let people keep on talking if they think of the delivery service as they will imagine they will have chance to meet with their idol!

Have to take action to order? Eason Chan may be your next delivery boy!

1 DOLLAR chicken

"saving every one dollar"

Have you ever think about the use of one dollar coin?













For most of us, one dollar coin is unpopular in our wallet. When you receive it, you would use it as fast as possible. When you see it lying on the street, you would not save it from the ground.

In viral marketing, "unpopular" could become very popular! Nowadays, we are suffering from the financial issue. The things we talk about much is Money, Money & Money. We need to SAVE EVERY ONE DOLLAR!

Would you believe $1 could have a chicken in a restaurant before? Viral marketing, has a magic that makes something unbelievable comes true.





= $1






Marketers of a chinese restaurant, Taoheung, practiced this marketing tool and succeed. Customers like me, who rarely go to the restaurant, visit it when hearing this promotion!
The promotion message was then spread rapidly in the internet. Once I heard about the $1 chicken, I was wondering the credibility.

"How can a company do business with no profit?"
After all, it is viral marketing. Price is a very good element for this pratice. For the marketers, $1 chicken would bring a large impact which is bigger than the lost of cost. Media, such as newspaper and magazine, reported the promotion free of charge. Also, it helped to gain good image of the brand.

Pricing strategy practice well in viral marketing, especially when customers focus heavily on the price when buying. "$1 chicken" seems a lost to the company, but it gains media coverage and public awareness. Therefore, it is a Win- Win situation at last.

Evian Roller Babies

Recently, there is a very successful example that using Viral Marketing to promote the brand of a drinks company - evian.



Through the video shared in YouTube channel, they would like to show their energic brand image to the people by oberving the effect of evian on the main cast - babies from many different nationalities.

Let's take a look first.


Wow!!!

How do feel on it? It's wonderful, right? Yes, sure!

This video provides three versions, internation version, US version and France version, that launched in YouTube for 11 days only. Although 11 days is a short period of time, the total number of views is already more than 8.5 millions. What's a outstanding record in YouTube channel.

If you go to the user page of evian in YouTube, you may find the making of and the other 2 related videos too. It's very funny!!!

Let me share the making of with you all.

Evian Roller Babies Making Of

BEST JOB IN THE WORLD

Have you ever think about what is your dream job? Some may say the attractive offer, and some may say have the job that you really love it. How about the mix of these two factors?



The Queensland tourism board organise a campaign that recruit a person from the world for half year to be the caretaker of the great barrier reef islands with the best offer. The campaign called "THE BEST JOB IN THE WORLD".



Do they need to use a huge effort to capture the international awareness? Not exactly! This campaign itself can generate much of the buzz, exposure and circulation since who don't like this job? Besides, every applicant should upload their own video clip to introduce themselves and the Queensland tourism board have a website for the public to vote which video appeals you. That is why they can create such a great noise from all corner of the world.



The responsibilities of the Island caretaker is to clean the pool, feed the fish, collect the mail, explore and report back through the blog. The job commence at 1 July 2009. Here it is his blog: http://www.islandreefjob.com/

Classic Example of Hotmail ----- Part II

With yesterday discussion about the classic Hotmail example in viral marketing, are you looking forward to know the rest??

Now you know that there are people actually working at the back end while we are sending emails to our friends, here is the rest of the strategies :

1. After you sent an email to your friend with Hotmail, as the recipient read the message, they will be able to see the simple message at the bottom. With using the word “free”, it can easily attract more new customers.
2. Of course, if the person is interested, they can sign up for their own free e-mail service and start chatting with their friends.
3. Lastly, customers can build up more relationship by propel the message in order to widen their own ever-increasing circles of friends and associates.

Like tiny waves spreading ever farther from a single pebble dropped into a pond, a carefully designed viral marketing strategy ripples outward extremely rapidly.

Related article by Carvian

Classic Example of Viral Marketing -Hotmail (i)

Classic Example of Hotmail

Hey, to better understand viral marketing, I almost forgot there is a classic example that we must talk about…… is the Hotmail.com, one of the first free Web-based e-mail services.

Did you sign up your first email with Hotmail.com? I think the majority of us..

The strategy of hotmail is very simple, there are 6 stages, let’s talks about the first 3 :

1. Hotmail give away free e-mail addresses to people to communicate through the Internet and to send / received files and visuals.
2. Hotmail will attach a simple tag at the bottom of every free message sent out: "Get your private, free email at http://www.hotmail.com". This way, they can advertise for free and create WOM, they also use the term “free” to attract people.
3. In the back end, Hotmail staff will stand back while people e-mail to their own network of friends and associate.

Have you ever realize that from long long time ago viral marketing was already being used through digital, want to know the rest of how Hotmail managed viral marketing? Come back and check out tomorrow!!

Related article by Carvian

Classic Example of Viral Marketing - Hotmail (ii)

The Disadvantage of Viral Marketing

There are always advantages and disadvantages in everything; there are no exceptions, especially for viral marketing. Now, let me explain some disadvantages of using viral marketing.

1. Nuisance Factor



People get so many internet noises everyday; they have difficulty to determine which message they should pay attention to. The message, just like a spam mail, is likely to be deleted or ignored instead of being passed on to the other people.

2. Negative Buzz



People most likely to talk about the bad things rather than the good things, people will not take time to proof the negative news. As a result, the business will suffer.

3. Ethical Considerations

Although there are some privacy policies to limit the transaction of the mailing list of a company, there are some recipients who feel that viral marketing is a sleazy practice. They may even choose not to do business with those companies at the end.

4. Hard to measure

Viral marketing can be a hit and miss proposition, or unless the campaign is being handled by experience individuals; it can be very difficult to determine whether it is a worthwhile proposition.


Related article by John

The advantage of Viral Marketing

The Advantage of Viral Marketing

We know that there are many examples that companies use viral marketing to increase brand awareness and to achieve marketing objectives. You may ask why there is more and more companies like to use viral marketing as a marketing technique. Now, let me explain some advantages of using viral marketing.

1. Reachable

Viral marketing concerns on reaching people through internet. Hence, you can reach anyone at anytime and any places. That means there is no limitation on who you can reach.

2. Cost effective

Viral marketing usually uses techniques like joining social networks, building profiles, writing blogs and making videos. So, you can do whatever you want with a small cost or even free of charge.

3. Fast recognition

Without any restrictions or reservations, medium allows you to be as creative as you want. When people come over with the creative advertising many times, they will start recognizing the name and the business quicker than those who are using traditional marketing.

4. Enhance the ranking on the search engine

Ranking on the search engine is partly determined by the amount of one-way link leading to your homepage, such as embedding your video or posting your link.

Next, let’s talk about the disadvantage of the viral marketing.

Related article by John

The disadvantage of Viral Marketing