Topic: Viral and Buzz Marketing (WOMM)

Google.com -> Simpson's Test
What Character are you?

YOUR RESULT SHOULD LOOK LIKE THIS
Not 100% accurate.

Tell your friends!

OR…
Use email or AIM

This would be the simplest form of viral marketing
Benefits to The Simpson’s:
-Increased interest in show
-Increased knowledge of characters
-Possible merchandise purchases
What are the benefits?

MySpace.com & Facebook.com
Stalkers welcome…

Janet Jackson Super Bowl “malfunction”
One Sunday afternoon…

Results
“Nipplegate”
In March 2004 (2 months after Super Bowl),
Jackson released her eighth CD, Damita Jo, with a
debut at number two and opening week sales of
nearly 400,000 copies.
Janet became the most-searched for person on the
Internet in 2004.
Jackson was also the most-searched of 2005 on
Google.com.
Controversy = $

Ethical Concerns
-She violated the trust of her employer, MTV in
order to engage in blatant self-promotion.
-She was dishonest, disloyal, and displayed no
concern for any of many parties
-100 million viewers were affected by her actions.
You think she cares?

Overview
Step 1. A very successful word-of-mouth promotion
creates buzz.
Step 2. Buzz generates a highly intense and interactive
form of word-of-mouth referral that occurs both online and
offline.
Step 3. A marketer has successfully created buzz when
the result is everyone talking about or purchasing the
product or service.
Steps to success

By Definition:
Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM),
is a marketing effort designed to
stimulate consumers by verbal
means such as recommendations
What is it exactly?

Techniques
Viral Marketing
Buzz Marketing
Blog Branding
Guerrilla Marketing
Community Marketing
5 Different techniques

Viral Marketing
Viral marketing is creating interesting
and entertaining messages that
spread exponentially, usually through
methods such as the web and email,
to large numbers of people.
Pretty simple really…

Viral Marketing Methods
•face-to-face communication
•phone conversations
•text messages
•online profile pages
•blog posts
• message board threads,
•instant messages
•emails
Many different ways…

Blog Branding
Blog branding is blogging about your product or service in
an effort to create an open window on your offerings.
Becoming part of the blogosphere community in an effort
to be transparent to people who enjoy writing and post
comments.
Time to blog

Example: BrandingBlog.com
Blogs for blogs

Guerrilla Marketing
Guerrilla Marketing is a way to
market and get the message of
an product out on a low profile.
Similar to the warfare

Amusement Park in Brazil - Example
That’s a long escalator!

Community Marketing
Online, niche communities and
publications that create lasting
relationships between community
members and brands
Hobbies are the main one.

Community Marketing
•Connects customers with prospects
•Connects prospects with each other
•Connects a company with customers/prospects
•Connects customers with customers
There are two types of community marketing:
1. Organic (created by users with no company intervention)
2. Sponsored (fostered and hosted by a company)
Different types

Example: Yahoo! Groups
Which group are you?

Buzz Marketing World
Top Buzz Marketing Companies:
•Buzzoodle (Buzzoodle.com)
•BuzzMarketing.com
•Caffeinenow.com
Buzz Marketing Guru’s
•Seth Godin
•Jay Levinson
Buzz Marketing Books:
The Guerrilla Marketing Revolution
The Big Red Fez
Additional information

HALF.com
Convinced city in Oregon (Halfway), to change its
name to Half.com, Oregon.
This created a buzz.
It cost $100,000 and delivered $4 million in publicity.
Half.com sold to eBay for 300 million dollars.
College Books etc.

-Retails to the college crowd, creates and lives by
fake controversies.
-Company creates a storm of controversy around the
brand name, apologizes (or not) for any offense then
sits back and watches as curious shoppers react."
-Created Wong Brothers shirt, market reacted by
buying a lot of T-shirts.
Cool people clothes…

Sony Ericsson
-Hired “hip” actors to be around
tourist destinations.
-Tourists would be asked to
take picture with phone
-Subliminally using phone that
“cool” people are using
Old phone…

Thank you