This document provides an overview of viral marketing techniques through three examples: 1) The popular blog "Black Ascot" that chronicled the life of a fictional Swedish teenager named Erika and attracted a cult following, illustrating how new media blurs reality. 2) Studio Total's launch of a fictional political party called "Kulturpartiet" that garnered media attention through controversy. 3) Per Eriksson of Studio Total discusses how the agency avoids traditional advertising and explores more effective and fun viral methods, like Black Ascot, to spread messages through social networks in a self-replicating way analogous to viruses.

1. 11HORSES-
by PER ZENNSTRÖM
,,, theviral issue”
“the viral issue

2. 11HORSES-
by PER ZENNSTRÖM
“the viral issue”
Hello and welcome to 11HORSES and “the viral into the brave new media world where buzzwords
issue”. I have long had an interest in how ideas, like viral and social media are constantly popping
gestures and “memes” get transmitted throughout up and where viral campaigns get created and then
our societies, changing, evolving and sometimes let loose, to mutate and live their own life in the
mutating into something new, getting passed on pop-cultural gene-pool., Linda Nurk, of street-
from generation to generation. Why is it that You couture LickMyLabel has granted us permis-
will see soft, cuddly animals strapped to the front sion to reproduce one of her hauntingly beautiful
of big heavy trucks, driven by big, heavy men all drawings, (which very well could be a ficticious
over (at least) the western world ? Or what does rendition of Darwin’s famed vessel “the Beagle”),
the sight of a pair of sneakers, laces tied together, taken from the working-process leading up to her
thrown over a phone wire mean, and why is it that collection “Virgin Islands” which as an over rid-
kids all over will continue throwing them? ing theme had the meeting of the Conquistadors
We recently celebrated the 200 year anniversary and the Aztecs. Jakob Olsson, a young swedish
of scientific giant Charles Darwin. His brilliant photographer has followed a group of his friends
theory of natural selection continues to amaze and in his project “Meta-Morphosis” where he explores
inspire us with it’s simplicity and elegance. In this the amphetamine induced gestures and behavior
issue we’re trying to illustrate and reflect on all of in images that take on a frenzied theatrical aspect.
these phenomena with the help of some extraordi- In a editorial triptych over 3 spreads 11HORS-
nary talent. ES tries to unravel the universal aspect of viral
Michael Hansmeyer, artist/architect and pro- phenomenon’, we chose the installation “Cloudy
grammer, is writing code and then lets his com- House” by artist Tomas Saraceno, together with
puter render his structures creating breathtakingly the STARFLAG project headed by Andrea Cavag-
beautiful pieces that evokes deeply embedded cul- na, plus a video from the mother of all mothers of
tural icons like the Holy Grail. His work has a Social Media and Viral pop-culture vehicles, You-
primordial, organic quality that also brings Karl Tube, featuring a Flash Mobs homage to the King
Blossfeldt’s “Urformen des Kunst” to mind and also of Pop, Michael Jackson, video by Pierre Wik-
highlights the paths that nature will take, once it berg / BOUNCE. Superstar illustrator Liselotte
is let loose and set free... Give nature enough time Watkins takes us on a bewitching tour through
and this will logically happen ! Anka Bardeleben, her Milano kitchen and lets us closer to the nymphs
a young upcoming photographer, gives us her ren- that it hosts.Lastly, on a more somber note, in this
dition of the theme in her fashion story “Frail” that issue photographer Philipp Lohöfener has docu-
is at the same time both fragile and razor sharp. mented the seemingly banal interiors at the former
Takeshi Hamada, Art Director and Graphic De- STASI prison in “Banality of Evil” in a clinical
signer extraordinaire, publisher of the iconic on- portfolio.
line magazine Tiger has contributed with some of
his designs. Per Eriksson from cutting edge adver-
tising/PR agency Studio Total takes us for a ride

3. Drawing by LINDA NURK Photo by PER ZENNSTRÖM

4. “CLOUDY HOUSE”
“CLOUDY HOUSE”
by TOMAS SARACENO
at ANDERSEN’S CONTEMPORARY, BERLIN
“... THESE ARE IMAGES COLLECTED OVER A LONGER PERIOD OF TIME. THEY SLOWLY CAME TOGETHER AND RE-
CENTLY A PATTERN STARTED TO EMERGE . I GUESS THIS IS HOW IT WORKS... YOU DISCOVER A THREAD, (OR DIREC-
TION), ONLY AFTER YOU GIVE YOURSELF ENOGHT TIME AND ENOUGH SPACE TO SOMETIMES, EVENTUALLY FAIL.”
Saraceno is internationally recognized for his architectural proposals that frame the interdependen-
cies of systems to ponder ecological questions beyond the natural world. Much of his work has involved
conceiving environments that anticipate new socio-cultural platforms for interacting and experiencing
our surroundings. “Saraceno is treating the gallery space as a biosphere, where works installed in close
proximity sometimes connect through a network of cords and ropes to offer a concrete picture of what the
world would look like if he was to design it,”
Yasmil Raymond. / Walker Arts Center

6. “FLOCKING STARLINGS”
by STARFLAG- a project on collective animal behaviour
“In many biological cases, collective behaviour is the result of local rules of interactions among the in-
dividuals, without any need of a centralized coordination. Whenever this happens, we are in presence
of self-organization. It is then natural to ask: What interaction rules can grant such an extraordinary
coordination? The study of collective behaviour is not simply restricted to biological systems, but it has
a highly interdisciplinary impact. The spontaneous ordering of spins in ferromagnetic materials is a key
paradigm in statistical physics. Achieving self-organization in a group of artificial units with distributed
intelligence is a crucial problem in robotics. The emergence of herding behaviour is a common phenom-
enon in economics, finance and social sciences.”
Andrea Cavagna / STARFLAG
...please go here for the YouTube video “ 300 000 STARLINGS IN A SPRING BALLET” on the same phenomenon.

8. A FLASH MOB PERFORMING MICHAEL J
(featuring dance collective BOUNCE)

9. JACKSON’s “THRILLER”by PIERRE WIKBERG
...please click here to see the video on YouTube !

10. “DARK MATTER”
by PER ZENNSTRÖM
“... THESE ARE IMAGES COLLECTED OVER A LONGER PERIOD OF TIME. THEY SLOWLY CAME TOGETHER AND SOME
PATTERNS STARTED TO EMERGE. THIS IS HOW IT WORKS... YOU DISCOVER A THREAD, (OR DIRECTION), ONLY AFTER
YOU GIVE YOURSELF ENOGHT TIME, SPACE AND ENOUGH LEEWAY TO SOMETIMES, EVENTUALLY FAIL. THIS IS A
PROCESS THAT REMINDS ME VERY MUCH OF THE NATURAL SELECTION PROCESSES ALL AROUND US. SOME COMBI-
NATIONS WORK AND SEEM MORE ADAPTED TO GO ON AND BE SUCCESSFUL, AND IN THE PHOTOGRAPHIC EDITING
PROCESS YOU DO THE SAME.
SOMETIMES IT SEEMS INEVITABLE THAT A PARTICULAR IMAGE HAS TO BE PAIRED WITH ANOTHER, THE COMMON
RESONANCE IS JUST TOO POWERFUL AND STRONG. ”

26. “PLATONIC SOLIDS”
by MICHAEL HANSMEYER
Architecture has traditionally been an additive pro- Rather than studying the possibilities in combining
cess. Idealized components are combined, arranged, numerous primitives, the question is what potential
and re-configured to generate a building. is inherent in a single primitive given an appropriate
The components that constitute the building are process.
mostly conceived a priori. As a result, buildings can The Platonic Solids project aims to explore this ap-
be described by breaking proach. It takes the most
them down into smaller primitive forms, the pla-
and smaller modules, un- tonic solids, and repeat-
til one arrives at geometric edly employs one single
primitives - volumes such operation – the division of
as cylinders, cubes, prisms, a form’s face into smaller
and platonic solids. faces – until a new form is
Not only can buildings be produced.
described in this reduc- The recursively applied
tionist manner, but large process remains entirely
parts of the generative constant, only the vari-
processes involved in their ables that control its divi-
production can be under- sion operation are permit-
stood. ted to change.
These processes are linear This single process affects
and have traditionally in- the form's topography and
volved operations such as topology, and influences
translating, rotating, and attributes such as the de-
scaling of components. gree of branching, poros-
In the past decades ity, and fractalization - just
they have been ex- to name a few.
panded to incorporate various types of deforma- The resulting forms display a novel aesthetic and an
tion. Yet the combinatorial logic has remained astounding complexity that largely defies attempts at
largely on the level of the geometric components reductionism.
themselves, and not on the level of operations..
Subdivision algorithms in this project are based on the work of Daniel Doo & Malcolm Sabin, Edwin Catmull & Jim Clark, Jörg
Peters & Ulrich Reif, and Charles Loop. Forms are generated in processing and exported as dxf files. Each form consists of 200,000
to 16 million faces. Images shown have an original resolution of 8000 x 8000 pixels.

32. “FRAIL”
by ANKA BARDELEBEN
“FRAIL”
by ANKA BARDELEBEN
style by JESSICA FEIX
Dress: Michalsky
Belt: Kaviar Gauche
Shoes:: Ash

33. Dress: Kaviar Gauche

34. Top: Weekday
Overall: H&M

35. Dress: Kaviar Gauche

36. Top: Monki
Pants: Pringle
Shoes: Vic Matie

37. Dress: Christian Wijnants
Shoes: Tamrais
Bracelets: Monki

38. Top and pants: Kaviar Gauche
Shoes: Ash

39. Overall: Kaviar Gauche

40. Skirt: Urban Outfitters
Top : Christian Wijnants
Shoes: Reno
Scarf: Christian Wijnants
Photographer : ANKA BARDELEBEN
Styling: JESSICA FEIX
Hair & Make up: NINI NIELSON
Models MAGALI N’DIAYE, LEA TALAY

41. Skirt: Michalsky
Top: Henrik Vibskov

42. “VIRAL REALITY”
by PER ZENNSTRÖM
For a long time now I have been intrigued by the work wine tastes best with semen, (Trimbach Gewurztramin-
of Studio Total and their work in communication, PR er Selection de Grains Nobles) and references to certain
and advertising and especially their unconventional and boyfriends new Dior Hommes pants. Name-, and la-
highly successful methods using viral marketing and beldropping on a very high level with that sort of exper-
/or guerilla campaigns. Recently I had the privilege to tise that only a certain media/pop-cultural/Stockholm
be skyping with Per Eriksson from Studio Total on the elite possesses. All of it done with an absolute deadpan
realities of the New Media and I asked him do tell me arrogance and delicious morbidity...
more about their work.
“Erika”, quickly developed a cult following with her ob-
“We don´t see ourselves as a typical advertising, or typical servations and musings on fashion, sex, upper-class life
PR agency or even Marketing bureau for that matter. In and death, (sex, drugs & rock´n roll) and for me being
fact we quite enjoy or somewhat diffuse position on this a visual person I was jeaulously realizing the power of a
playing field, which gives us great freedom to do pretty text well written. Some of the comments reaveled a deep
much what we want” connection with this character, firmly in place on the
dark side... Reading the comments I couldn´t help fan-
“We as an agency are constantly trying to find out what tazicing that maybe some of them actually come from
we actually are, and we´re therefore constantly re-defin- the writer’s team responsible for the blog, they were just
ing what we are. One of our main realizations and strong to perfectly, lazily lingering over sensual details like the
points is that we have truly understood, and acted upon, type of silk best used while masturbating. ... or languid-
the fact that a lot of traditional advertising is a massive ly examining dildos in a sexshop.
waste of the clients resources. There are countless of “non- Per, on the cult following Erika attracted (Erika Ascot
traditional” ways of getting Your message across which have has at present 1601 Facebook friends) and the unusual
proven to be more effective (and more fun) and we tend to intense relationship she spawned:
explore those avenues. I guess the keyword here is “effectiv-
ness” We see ourselves and our solutions as being very, very “One of my favourite blog comments from a reader was “ I
effective” don’t care that You’re not real ! I still want to have sex with
You”
I came across Per and Studio Total through the very
popular blog Black Ascot which shot to prominence Once it was revealed that this was not a “real” blog some
and controversy in Sweden in just 4 short months and readers felt cheated that Erika was “just an” invention by
with just 100 posts managed to illuminate the creative- a “lowly” PR agency. The teenage-angst ridden content
ness, confusion and general “anything goes” attitude in had obviously put a hook in a lot of readers and some of
todays freenzied new media landscape. Not so very long them felt “betrayed” I assume. Fuming, moralistic “You
ago it was reaveled that the blog, chronicling the life of cannot do this” type comments where mixed in with
an orphaned teenager, Erika, living in the Stockholm glowing “Thank You´s” I found it very interesting thing
equivalent of Upper-East Side, in an apartment with to see how readers struggled to make sense of something
“750 dresses and doing my best to drink/shop my brains they couldn’t quite understand... OK, You know an ad
out” was in fact an advertising campaign for the Malmö when You see one and we all have gotten fed up by the
Opera’s production “Vanessa” seeking to “expand their endless ad´s on TV, but a blog ?
audience beyond the obvious core loyalists”
The blog with it’s hedonistic and sometimes very dark Erika, perfectly well aware of it, stuck her neck out,
streaks, featured “Erika”, a privileged Stockholm teen- especially in Sweden with it’s political correctness and
ager doing what a lot of young, urban women do... wall-to-wall-carpeted uniformity, with posts like:
Postings of “todays outfit”, documenting sloppy kissing
and casual sex and hang-overs, mixed with images of “The european nobility. Seems nowdays everyone wants
white lilies and the descriptions of the smell of certain to join our little club. Some guidelines: spend at least one
perfumes... Other posts deals with popular drugs, what fifth of each year in a place beginning with “St” (St Anton,

43. St Tropez) and if you are vomiting from panicanxiety, do Curtis Silver wrote this in Wired Magazine:
it in matching underwear.” Of course this wouldn’t go
un-noticed. ...or how about this one: “The power of influence is ever present in this discussion,
which is what social media tools add to viral marketing.
“Two new years resolutions. Stop fucking people in Acqua The crowd mentality is heavier within a social-media com-
Di Parma and start blogging” munity, which makes it easier for viral marketing to do its
job. Honestly, it seems like marketing through social media
Consulting a prime example of this new (media) world is the new form of viral marketing. That’s the wave of the
order, Wikipedia, on Viral Marketing, You get this def- future in marketing, a new and improved marketing plat-
inition: form.”
“...viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketing Another successful campaign by Studio Total was the
techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce highly controversial launch of a new political party,
increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing Kulturpartiet ( The Cultural Party.) Announced at the
objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating annual political show-off and spectacle , Almedals veck-
viral processes, analogous to the spread of pathological and an, where the absolute politico - cultural - media elite
computer viruses. It can be word-of-mouth delivered or en- grandstand and network, the press conference headed
hanced by the network effects of the Internet.[1] Viral pro- by some of the swedish cultural heavy-weights, who
motions may take the form of video clips, interactive Flash with absolute perfect pokerfaces deadpanned into the
games, advergames, ebooks, brandable software, images, or TV lights that they intended to run for seats in parla-
even text messages. The basic form of viral marketing is not ment on a one-issue-campaign of more money for cul-
infinitely sustainable. The goal of marketers interested in ture ! For a few intense days the speculations and media
creating successful viral marketing programs is to identify pressure was enormous until it was revealed that this
individuals with high Social Networking Potential (SNP) again was an effort by Studio Total to gain some public-
and create Viral Messages that appeal to this segment of the ity for Riksteatern.
population and have a high probability of being taken by
another competitor.” At some point in a viral campaign the creators need to
accept that they give up control of the message and let
Now, viral marketing is nothing new, actually quite the it live it’s own life, changing and going through “muta-
contrary. Your basic Ponzi- and Pyramid schemes are tions” as it’s being passed on word-of-mouth, or through
very early examples of viral phenomenon where “a mes- the social media networks. This is a radical difference to
sage” is spread from user to user, just like a viral in- a more conventional campaign where everything is re-
fection. Super con-man Bernie Maddoff relied on this searched in minute detail with focus groups, test panels
word of mouth effect to expand his rooster of seemingly and what have You...
happy investors... Some more recent pop-cultural ex-
amples are the marketing of The Blair Witch Project or Now, it may seem like the successful Viral Campaigns
the launching of email giant Hotmail. ... or just take are created by a bunch of guys just goofing around, com-
hugely popular CraigsList which managed to spread ing up with funny and outragous things that gets taped
solely on the basis of word of mouth. What is new is and uploaded on YouTube and subsequently passed
the enormous power and potential in using all the new around and at some stage reaching a tipping point but
social media such as the obvious ones: YouTube, Face- some rules seem to exist and there seems to be a method
book or LinkedIn, to more specialized, “less open/more to the madness and anarchy:
focused” networks such as Vimeo (if Your into moving
image / video) or Glossom “a social network for fashion
style and creativity”, and to use these networks to virally
spread the word. -->

44. When You talk about anything Viral it’s easy to get the ... on the same thread about losing control.
impression that it’s a little bit like the Wild West ! Are You guys more about a “Happy Creative Chaos” or
I mean, like “anything goes” and creatives relying on is it more a disciplined war-like campaign effort with
their gut feeling to put strategies together flow charts etc etc ?
... or are there theories, procedures or protocols to fol-
low ? How do You see this ? We’re not flow-charts guys, thats for sure. Not to say that
there’s chaos in the office but a certain amount of impovisa-
To get the media attention in order to get people to talk tion is needed when launching our campaigns.
about your brand it’s difficult to rely on theories. We’ll have
to rely on our sense for what catches peopels interest. There seems to exist some rules to viral marketing like:
The structure of stories is in one sense theoretical as con- A successful viral campaign...
structed in classic litteratur and film and that might work ...gives away products or services, (Free)
as a theory that we could apply. We use basic story elements ...provides for effortless transfer to others, (the digital /
as finding an enemy, moving things around in order to mobile lifestyle)
create something new or not trying to blend in by look- ...scales easily from small to very large
ing good. Since we cannot predict exactly what part of our ...exploits common motivations and behaviors,
campanigns that will be retold we need to keep them sim- ...utilizes existing communication networks, (Social
ple. People aren’t stupid, if you interupt them with a story Media)
that isn’t relevant or clearly speculative you will not get the ...takes advantage of others’ resources, (Let the consum-
viral effect. Anything goes applys better for traditional ad- er / prosumer do the heavy lifting)
vertising where you don’t have to earn the attention.
Do You follow these rules, or is it done by gut feeling ?
At some point in a viral campaign the creators need to
accept that they give up control of the message and let Of course the precence of social media helps certain cam-
it live it’s own life, changing and going through “muta- paigns to evolve. The rules above might descibe parts of a
tions” as it’s being passed on word-of-mouth, or through succesfull viral campaign but it will not necessarily help you
the social media networks. This is a radical difference to create one. In order to fulfill all the rules above you’ll have
a more conventional campaign where everything is re- to start out with something that’s worth telling. Once you’ve
searched in minute detail with focus groups, test panels got this you can utiliza social media and other means to get
and what have You... the story out. Focus on what matters, the story.
Any thought comments on this ?
Please tell me more about the concept of, the strategy
We haven’t experienced problems with messages that mu- of, and the actual release of KULTURPARTIET ?
tates in a bad way. If you think of your campaign as a Have seen the press conference tapes and the chaos and
headline in a newspaper, for example as our iPod speaker pandemonium is total... Fun or scary ?
for Brothers - the WOS, the headlines was “The worlds
most powerful iPod dock” and this whas what people told Haha, a bit of both I must say. The mission was to help The
each other and our client Brothers was there in the back- Swedish National Theatre (Sweden’s largest theatre, with a
ground as the manufacurer of WOS. In general we launch turnover of more than 40 million euros) to get the cultural
our campaigns in many different channels at the same time issus on the political agenda. Theatres need public funding.
and this probably help to keep the campaigns together. In How could we show the importance of culture to politi-
combinatin with a simple story I don’t see the risk of bad cians?
mutations as a problem when working viral. You’ll just The conclution was that everyone wants to get attention
have to accept that when using people for getting your story from politicians. So why not become politicians? We put
out it will be re-told in slightly different ways, but a simple together our own political party and baptised it “The Cul-
story will keep on course. tural Party” and invited famous writers, actors and mu-
sicians as spokespersons. Our fake party was featured as

45. headline news in TV, radio and newspapers. A newspaper
poll indicated that 16% of the population would vote for
the party. After revealing the party was only an advertising
hoax the chairmen of all the political parties liked the cam-
paign (easy to say when the threat was gone). As a second-
ary effect the theatre experienced a 10% increase in ticket
sales that summer.

46. “IN CUCINA”
by LISELOTTE WATKINS

54. “THE BANALITY OF EVIL”
by PHILIPP LOHÖFENER
Images from the former STASI prison, Berlin

60. “Under conditions of terror most people will comply but some people will not, just as the lesson of the countries to which the Final
Solution was proposed is that “it could happen” in most places but it did not happen everywhere. Humanly speaking, no more is
required, and no more can reasonably be asked, for this planet to remain a place fit for human habitation.”
HANNAH ARENDT from EICHMANN IN JERUSALEM

70. “UNTITLED”
by TAKESHI HAMADA

81. “META-MORPHOSIS”
by JAKOB OLSSON
Metamorphosis
Etymology
First attested in 1533, from Ancient Greek (metamorphōsis) (meta, “change”) + (morphē, “form”)
metamorphosis (plural metamorphoses)
A transformation, such as that of magic or by sorcery
A noticeable change in character, appearance, function or condition.
(biology)
A change in the form and often habits of an animal after the embryonic stage during normal develop-
ment. (e.g. the transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly or a tadpole into a frog.)
(pathology)
A change in the structure of a specific body tissue.
Usually degenerative.

90. 11HORSES-
by PER ZENNSTRÖM
“the viral issue”
Contributors (alphabetical):
ANKA BARDELEBEN “Frail”
www.lelivrebleu.blogspot.com
ANDREA CAVAGNA / STARFLAG “Flocking Starlings”
Andrea Cavagna
JESSICA FEIX “Frail”
www.jessicafeix.blogspot.com
TAKESHI HAMADA
www.hamada-takeshi.com
MICHAEL HANSMEYER “Platonic Solids”
www.michael-hansmeyer.com
LINDA NURK
www.lickmylabel.com
JAKOB OLSSON “Meta-Morphosis”
jakob@works.se
TOMAS SARACENO “Cloudy House”
www.andersen-s.dk
PER ERIKSSON / STUDIO TOTAL
www.studiototal.se
LISELOTTE WATKINS “In Cucina”
www.liselottewatkins.blogspot.com
PHILIPP LOHÖFENER “The Banality of Evil”
www.philipp-lohoefener.de
PIERRE WIKBERG / BOUNCE “A Flash Mob performing Michael Jackson’s “THRILLER”
www.pierrewikberg.blogspot.com
www.bounce.nu
PER ZENNSTRÖM “Dark Matter”
www.perzennstrom.com
www.10horses.blogspot.com
Creative Director / Publisher:
PER ZENNSTRÖM.