Viral advertising - the Holy Grail of marketing?
The stark truth is, viral will offer only a handful of marketers the riches and acclaim they seek and most would be better off re-directing their energy and efforts to optimising conventional targeting of customers within paid-for media. Suzanne Moorey-Denham, managing director of Dynamic Logic Europe explains more…
No wonder viral advertising is being talked about. The lure of creating mass-market, fame-creating, high-impact communications without incurring the cost of media space is very strong. Reaching elusive and hard to influence audiences and the potential for creating positive brand fame is a heady mix.
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However, in a Dynamic Logic study among readers of US trade MediaPost, viral marketing was reported to be a fad and not a viable option for all marketers. When asked to rate it on a continuum from fad to mainstream, half rated it as more of a fad than a widely usable marketing tactic. 24 per cent felt that viral was something that any marketer could create.
With such little insider confidence in the future application of viral advertising, why then is there increasing interest in creating viral campaigns? In this age of the consumer, content and advertising are being controlled more and more by what consumers want and how and when they want it. In some respects, viral advertising is a way of reaching consumers that gives them ultimate creation and viewing control including the media platform they choose to watch it on, whether it be the Internet, email or using their iPod or mobile device. However, this does not guarantee a promising outcome and marketers need to consider both the positives and negatives of launching a viral marketing campaign.
Viral ads may not always end up enhancing the brand image carefully conceived and desired by the marketer. In some viral video ads, the content may involve a brand or a product with an undesirable message that may negatively impact the brand image. For example, Coke may not have agreed with the way its Diet Coke product was portrayed by a video on YouTube when Mentos mints and Diet Coke are combined. But surrendering brand control is, to some degree, an inevitable part of advertising in the future.
In a Millward Brown study, 32 different viral ads were tested among 3,000 people. The results showed that there is a strong correlation between ad enjoyment and endorsing it to friends. However, enjoyment alone was not enough to ensure the ad would be passed along.
Viral ads need LEGS, a convenient acronym that means viral ads have to have a Laugh out loud quality, Edgy content, must Grip your attention and most often have some Sexual content. Given that few campaigns (viral or otherwise) have LEGS, few will be able to create a successful viral campaign and in most cases the reach is low, it comes back to the bottom line - a question of opportunity cost and return on investment.
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