This document discusses viral marketing and provides examples. It defines viral marketing as advertising or marketing techniques that spread like a virus from person to person. Examples given include games, videos, images, and software. Warner Bros.' viral campaign for The Dark Knight is discussed, which utilized the "Why So Serious?" tagline but had to change focus after Heath Ledger's death. Cloverfield and Dexter are discussed as viral marketing examples, with Cloverfield using cryptic TV clips and Dexter sparking controversy with unsolicited text messages. The document also discusses R3WiND Media's use of YouTube, Facebook, blogs, and social media for viral marketing. Options discussed to gain further feedback include Twitter, podcasts,

1. R3WiND MEDiA VIRAL MARKETING www.rewindmedia.wordpress.com

2. Definition “Any form of advertising and/or marketing techniques that "spreads" like a virus by getting passed on from consumer to consumer and market to market.” “Viral marketing can be spread by word-of-mouth or throughout the Internet” To achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses. It can be word-of-mouth delivered or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet.Viral promotions may take the form of video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames, eBooks, brand able software, images, or even text messages.

3. Items promoted Items being promoted by a viral means might include: Games (which are usually made in Flash). Informative, humorous, or otherwise entertaining articles. Blog posts or comments which are deemed to be highly controversial or a central talking-point for a popular topic. Video clips. Images. Brand able software or embedded tool links

4. Current Examples Currently on YouTube, there are trailers on a new movie called ‘the book of Eli’ the colours and headings used stand out from the rest of the you tube website where you are invited to view the trailer The ‘Book of Eli’ movie also has its own Facebook group which has over 1000 members, when searching for the group there are about 10 more groups related to this specific film. You can view clips of the movie and even view pictures.

5. Example:DarkKnight Warner Bros. had initially created a viral marketing campaign for The Dark Knight, developing promotional websites and trailers highlighting screen shots of Ledger as the Joker, but after Ledger's death, the studio refocused its promotional campaign. In May 2007, 42 Entertainment began a viral marketing campaign utilizing the film's "Why So Serious?" tagline with the launch of a website featuring the fictional political campaign of Harvey Dent, with the caption, "I Believe in Harvey Dent." The site aimed to interest fans by having them try to earn what they wanted to see and, on behalf of Warner Bros., 42 Entertainment also established a "vandalized" version of I Believe in Harvey Dent, called "I believe in Harvey Dent too," where e-mails sent by fans The way that this film was viral marketed was slightly different to other films, they took a more different approach by taking the worldwide web by storm with ‘www.WhySoSerious.com’ the tagline ‘why so serious?’ is associated to with the antagonist ‘The Joker’ , the campaign however was unsuccessful due to the death of Heath Ledger, after the death of Heath Ledger they focused on the promotional campaign instead. http://www.superherohype.com/news/topnews.php?id=6470 http://www.cinematical.com/2008/03/26/the-dark-knight-viral-campaign-back-with-lots-more-sites/ http://www.firstshowing.net/2008/03/28/why-the-dark-knights-viral-marketing-is-absolutely-brilliant/

6. Example: Cloverfield & Dexter The film ‘Cloverfield’is an example of viral marketing, the ways that they have done this is by showing many clips on TV, which were really random and had nothing to do with the film, this then created a buzz about what the film might be about and left the audience unaware, this then caused the campaign to be successful. The American television series ‘Dexter’ was also unsuccessful in there viral marketing campaign seen as they took a different approach by using texting unsuspected mobile phone owners the following “Hello (name). I'm heading to the UK sooner than you might think. Dexter." This sparked controversy because mobile phone owners saw this as spam and were very annoyed by the shows intention of trying to boost views. Hello Dave, I'm heading to the UK sooner than you might think. Dexter

7. When logging onto msn movie page which is full of reviews, there is an example of viral marketing for a movie starring George Clooney ‘up in the air’ – the advert is successful as it specifically focuses on the protagonist making it ‘actor driven’ . Well known and movies with ‘hype’ has its place on the msn website – on the main website there are galleries and behind the scenes footage on msn video.

8. Viral Marketing @ R3WiND Our videos are all posted on YouTube which is well known for people all around to upload and watch videos, most recently YouTube have been posting TV programmes to their website to target a wider audience. Facebook is the largest social networking sites around, users ranging from ages 13+. After making our Facebook group live, we looked at the latest statistics on our blog and we saw that our blog had peaked to 50 views on the day we opened the Facebook group. On our Facebook page we have over 150 members and over 200 views of are videos – we as a group also send out messages to group members asking if they could give a minute of their time to give us feedback when anything new is posted. We upload videos on YouTube, and post links to Facebook and word press so it all stays connected. YouTube can also be accessed on all new digital devices We publish videos and commentary on word press which is a blog so that viewers can see our progress of work. Facebook is also available on nearly all new mobiles and technologies including the iPhone and PS3.

9. Our group has already started using viral marketing via social networking websites, we have made a group where we post all of our videos that have been made and also any upcoming work that we have planned, we also rely on the people who are in the group to give us constructive feedback so that we can then improve our work to a high standard. Seen as many young people are on the social networking website ‘Facebook’ we then aim to attract our target audience very easily, because instead of the young people searching for our work, we go onto the social networking website and bring it to them. We aim to use ‘Facebook’ to generate audience feedback, and also because gadgets these days have internet on them, our Facebook group is accessible in many forms, whether it is being on your Playstation3 or simply travelling with your iPhone in your hand you can see the videos and give constructive feedback to the our group in order to achieve a successful viral marketing campaign. R3WiND @ FACEBOOK

10. Viral Marketing: Options How can R3WiND MEDiA gain further feedback? Tweeting is also another way of gaining feedback, people can view the videos and reply via twitter on the internet or on the mobiles Podcasts are becoming hugely popular as many people now have wireless access on digital devices. Consoles, such as ps3 have their own network – many can view the video via wireless and feedback can be given through the Playstation network Software you can also create a web conference where you can hear peoples voices through mics. Many digital devices such as phones come with video viewing applications, peers could text or send an instant Commentsreply via YouTubethrough mobile Phones.