Viral marketing refers to marketing techniques that use social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or sales through self-replicating viral processes like viruses. One example is Hotmail appending ads to outgoing emails from users. For a message to spread virally, it must appeal to individuals with high social networking potential who will present and spread it to others quickly. The environment is also crucial, as small changes can lead to huge results. Viral marketing may take various forms like videos, games, images or text messages. The goal is to create viral messages that high social individuals will spread to their networks.

1. 2012
Viral Marketing
D.Malathy @ Chithra, PG student
Department of Management Studies
Sri ManakulaVinayagar Engineering
College, Puducherrry.
Vishmitha031990@gmail.com
Ph no: 9487578187
1/1/2012

2. to the spread of viruses or computer
Abstract: viruses (cf. memes and memetics). It
can be delivered by word of mouth
On the Internet, viral marketing is or enhanced by the network effects
any marketing technique that induces Web of the Internet. Viral marketing may
sites or users to pass on a marketing take the form of video clips,
message to other sites or users, creating a interactive Flash games, advergames,
potentially exponential growth in the ebooks, brandable software, images,
message's visibility and effect. One example or text messages.
of successful viral marketing is Hotmail, a
company, now owned by Microsoft, that The ultimate goal of marketers interested in
promotes its service and its own advertisers' creating successful viral marketing programs
messages in every user's e-mail notes. is to create viral messages that appeal to
individuals with high social networking
Some marketing people prefer terms potential (SNP) and that have a high
other than viral marketing. Web, probability of being presented and spread by
alternatives, including other terms in current these individuals and their competitors in
use. Among those suggested have been: their communications with others in a short
period of time.
avalanche marketing
buzz marketing The term "viral marketing" has also been
cascading style marketing used pejoratively to refer to stealth
centrifugal marketing marketing campaigns—the unscrupulous use
exponential marketing of astroturfing online combined with
fission marketing undermarket advertising in shopping centers
grass roots marketing to create the impression of spontaneous
organic marketing word of mouth enthusiasm.
propogation marketing
referral marketing (borrowing a term long
used in marketing prior to the Web)
ripple marketing
self-perpetuation marketing History
self-propogation marketing
wildfire marketing
The emergence of "viral marketing," as an
approach to sales, has been tied to the
Introduction: popularization of the notion that ideas
spread like viruses. The field that developed
Viral marketing, viral advertising, around this notion, memetics, peaked in
or marketing buzz are buzzwords popularity in the 1990s. As this then began
referring to marketing techniques to influence marketing gurus, it took on a
that use pre-existing social networks life of its own in that new context.
to produce increases in brand
awareness or to achieve other There is debate on the origination and the
marketing objectives (such as popularization of the specific term viral
product sales) through self- marketing, though some of the earliest uses
replicating viral processes, analogous of the current term are attributed to the

3. Functioning
Harvard Business School graduate Tim
Draper and faculty member Jeffrey Rayport.
The term was later popularized by Rayport
in the 1996 Fast Company article "The According to marketing professors Andreas
Virus of Marketing," and Tim Draper and Kaplan and Michael Haenlein, to make viral
Steve Jurvetson of the venture capital firm marketing work, three basic criteria must be
Draper Fisher Jurvetson in 1997 to describe met, i.e., giving the right message to the
Hotmail's practice of appending advertising right messengers in the right environment:
to outgoing mail from their users.
1. Messenger: Three specific types of
Among the first to write about viral messengers are required to ensure the
marketing on the Internet was the media transformation of an ordinary message
critic Douglas Rushkoff. The assumption is into a viral one: market mavens, social
that if such an advertisement reaches a hubs, and salespeople. Market mavens
"susceptible" user, that user becomes are individuals who are continuously
"infected" (i.e., accepts the idea) and shares ‘on the pulse’ of things (information
the idea with others "infecting them," in the specialists); they are usually among the
viral analogy's terms. As long as each first to get exposed to the message and
infected user shares the idea with more than who transmit it to their immediate
one susceptible user on average (i.e., the social network. Social hubs are people
basic reproductive rate is greater than one— with an exceptionally large number of
the standard in epidemiology for qualifying social connections; they often know
something as an epidemic), the number of hundreds of different people and have
infected users grows according to an the ability to serve as connectors or
exponential curve. Of course, the marketing bridges between different subcultures.
campaign may be successful even if the Salespeople might be needed who
message spreads more slowly, if this user- receive the message from the market
to-user sharing is sustained by other forms maven, amplify it by making it more
of marketing communications, such as relevant and persuasive, and then
public relations or advertising. transmit it to the social hub for further
distribution. Market mavens may not
Bob Gerstley was among the first to write be particularly convincing in
about algorithms designed to identify people transmitting the information.
with high Social Networking Potential. 2. Message: Only messages that are both
Gerstley employed SNP algorithms in memorable and sufficiently interesting
quantitative marketing research. In 2004, the to be passed on to others have the
potential to spur a viral marketing
concept of the alpha user was coined to
phenomenon. Making a message more
indicate that it had now become possible to
memorable and interesting or simply
identify the focal members of any viral
more infectious, is often not a matter of
campaign, the "hubs" who were most
major changes but minor adjustments.
influential. Alpha users could be targeted for
3. Environment: The environment is
advertising purposes most accurately in crucial in the rise of successful viral
mobile phone networks, as mobile phones marketing – small changes in the
are so personal. environment lead to huge results, and
people are much more sensitive to

4. environment. The timing and context of investors. Early investors enthusiastically
the campaign launch must be right. recruit their friends, generating exponential
growth until the pool of available investors
Whereas Kaplan, Haenlein and others is tapped out and the scheme collapses.
reduce the role of marketers to crafting the
initial viral message and seeding it, futurist Early in its existence (perhaps between 1988
and sales and marketing analyst Marc and 1992), the television show Mystery
Feldman, who conducted IMT Strategies’ Science Theater 3000 had limited
landmark viral marketing study in 2001, distribution. The producers encouraged
carves a different role for marketers which viewers to make copies of the show on video
pushes the ‘art’ of viral marketing much tapes and give them to friends in order to
closer to ‘science. expand viewership and increase demand for
the fledgling Comedy Central network.
Feldman points out that when marketers take During this period the closing credits
a disciplined approach to viral marketing by included the words "Keep circulating the
targeting, measuring and continually tapes!"
optimizing their campaigns based on
campaign metrics, viral marketing In 2000, Slate.com described TiVo's
transforms the customer into a new sales unpublicized gambit of giving free systems
channel, a new lead generation channel and to web-savvy enthusiasts to create "viral"
a new awareness generating channel. word of mouth, pointing out that a viral
Feldman's innovative reconceptualization of campaign differs from a publicity stunt.
viral marketers went a long way towards Both the second and third games in the Halo
making "viral marketing" a strategy that series were preceded with viral marketing in
sales and marketing directors at Fortune 500 the form of an alternate reality game called I
and Global 1000 companies could Love Bees for the second game, and Iris for
legitimately invest in. This disciplined the third game.
approach to Viral Marketing that Feldman
first carved out, pointed the way towards Burger King has used several marketing
measuring the ROI of every viral marketing campaigns. Its The Subservient Chicken
campaign and thus making a real business campaign, running from 2004 until 2007,
case for investing in viral marketing. The was an example of viral or word-of-mouth
customer-as-a-sales-channel approach to marketing. Burger King's launched its
viral marketing went on to become the "Whopper Sacrifice" campaign in 2009.
foundation for an explosion of technology
enabled viral marketing services offered The Blendtec viral video series Will It
online, offline and in blended hybrid Blend? debuted in 2006.. In the show, Tom
approaches. Dickson, the Blendtec founder, attempts to
blend various unusual items in order to show
Notable examples off the power of his blender. Will it Blend?
has been nominated for the 2007 YouTube
award for Best Series, winner of .Net
The Ponzi scheme and related investment Magazine's 2007 Viral Video campaign of
pyramid schemes are early examples of viral the year and winner of the Bronze level Clio
marketing. In each round, investors are paid Award for Viral Video in 2008.
interest from the principal deposits of later

5. Cadbury's Dairy Milk 2007 Gorilla The 2008 film Cloverfield was first
advertising campaign was heavily publicized with a teaser trailer that did not
popularised on YouTube and Facebook advertise the film's title, only its release
date: "01·18·08." Elements of the viral
The 2007 concept album Year Zero by Nine marketing campaign included MySpace
Inch Nails employed a viral marketing pages created for fictional characters and
campaign, including the band leaving USB websites created for fictional companies
drives at concerts during NIN's 2007 alluded to in the film.
European Tour. This was followed up with
an alternate reality game using series of The Big Word Project, launched in 2008,
interlinked websites revealing clues and aimed to redefine the Oxford English
information about the dystopian future in Dictionary by allowing people to submit
which the album is set. their website as the definition of their
chosen word. The project, created to fund
In 2007, World Wrestling Entertainment two Masters students' educations, attracted
promoted the return of Chris Jericho with a the attention of bloggers worldwide, and
viral marketing campaign using 15-second was featured on Daring Fireball and Wired
cryptic binary code videos. The videos Magazine.
contained hidden messages and biblical
links related to Jericho, although speculation
existed throughout WWE fans over whom
the campaign targeted. The text "Save Us" The marketing campaign for the 2008 film
and "2nd Coming" were most prominent in The Dark Knight combined both online and
the videos. The campaign spread throughout real-life elements to make it resemble an
the internet with numerous websites, though alternate reality game. Techniques included
no longer operational, featuring hidden mass gatherings of Joker fans, scavenger
messages and biblical links to further hint at hunts around the world, detailed and
Jericho's return. intricate websites that let fans actually
participate in "voting" for political offices in
In 2007, Portuguese football club Sporting Gotham City, hidden phone numbers and
Portugal integrated a viral feature in their websites in the queue lines of The Dark
campaign for season seats. In their website, Knight roller coasters at Six Flags Great
a video required the user to input his name America and Six Flags Great Adventure,
and phone number before playback started, and even a Gotham News Network that has
which then featured the coach Paulo Bento links to other Gotham pages such as Gotham
and the players waiting at the locker room Rail, a Gotham travel agency, and political
while he makes a phone call to the user candidate's pages. The movie also markets
telling him that they just can't start the heavily off of word of mouth from the
season until the user buys his season ticket. thousands of Batman fans.
Flawless video and phone call
synchronization and the fact that it was a In 2009 American rapper Eminem heavily
totally new experience for the user led to promoted his new album Relapse (album)
nearly 200,000 pageviews phone calls in with the fictional rehabilitation center
less than 24 hours.[citation needed] Popsomp Hills (pronounced: Pop some pills)
by shooting the music video for the song 3
a.m. (Eminem song) in the building of the

6. rehabilitation center. He mentions Popsomp Multiple forms of print and direct
Hills in various tracks on Relapse (album) marketing
and his newest album Recovery. He also Outbound/inbound call center services
mocks some other rehabilitation centers like Target marketing Web services
the Brighton Rehabilitation Center in the Search engine optimization (SEO) web
song 'Underground' with the line 'Two development
weeks in Brighton, I ain't enlightened'. Social media interconnectivity
After the Eminem campaign, the Television & radio
rehabilitation center had many more visits.
VMS target marketing is based on three
Between December 2009 and March 2010 a important principles:
series of seven videos were posted to
YouTube under the name "iamamiwhoami" 1. Social profile gathering
leading to speculation that they were a 2. Proximity market analysis
marketing campaign for a musician. In 3. Real-time key word density analysis
March 2010, an anonymous package was
sent to an MTV journalist claiming to By applying these three important
contain a code which if cracked would give disciplines to an advertising model, a VMS
the identity of the artist. The seventh video, company is able to match a client with their
entitled 'y', appears to feature the Swedish targeted customers at a cost effective
singer Jonna Lee. advantage.
On July 14, 2010, Old Spice launched the The Internet makes it possible for a
fastest growing online viral video campaign campaign to go viral very fast. However,the
ever, garnering 6.7 million views after 24 Internet and in particular, social media
hours, ballooning over 23 million views technologies do not make a brand viral; they
after 36 hours. Old Spice's agency created a just enable people to tell other people faster.
bathroom set in Portland, OR and had their The Internet can, so to speak, make a brand
TV commercial star, Isaiah Mustafa, reply to famous overnight.
186 online comments and questions from
websites like Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Social networking growth
Digg, Youtube and others. The campaign
ran for 3 days.
Two thirds of the world’s Internet
population now visit a social network or
Viral marketing has also been used to bring
blog site weekly. 220+ million people visit
about flash mobs.
the top 25 social networks each month.
Facebook has 500+ million active users.
Methods Time spent visiting Social media sites now
exceeds time spent emailing. 52% of people
who find news online forward it on through
Customer participation & polling social networks, email, or posts. 59% of
services adults polled state that they use their cell
Industry-specific organization phone to remain connected with their social
contributions network.
Internet search engines & blogs
Mobile smartphone integration

7. Conclusion:
Viral Marketing can be effectively used to
promote business activities. Et act as an
media between the suppliers and the
customers.