Ensuring Virality of Marketing

Nirmal PalaparthiDigital Marketing 2.0 Conference

7 April 2009,Singapore, Asia

Warning! If you’re not above 18 years old, you may leave this room now!

Virality: The act of content on the web being spread by users sharing it, bringing new users to the original content and therefore adding additional utility.

Feel free to doze off...• Traditional Agencies: caught in a time warp• Cost of the Last Mile• Predictions in the “downturn”• ROI 2.0• Basic Principles• Apple mantra #3

• What to do after this presentation

Traditional Agencies: caught in a time warp

• Antiquated concept: fee based on media bought• High dependence on creativity and copy• Shy away from redefining business models of clients• Do not understand the philosophy of web 2.0

42: Elements of a good viral clip...• Edginess• Surprise factor• Originality• Sexiness• Pop Culture• Emotion• Topicality• Allowing for water-cooler conversation• Branding

• But then, what’s the difference between regular advertising and viral marketing?

Cost of the Last Mile

• Matt Harding, ex multimedia game developer• 39 million views on YouTube• 84% stride chewing gum• 0.25% Visa

Big Company Syndrome

• CMO Claims 3% “conversion” rate of “923” views

• = 28 hits on website!!• YouTube is not equal to Viral!!

Predictions in the “downturn”

• Move over Traditional Media, digital marketing has viral reach!– Engadget and the iPhone

• Move over Standalone Software products, Mashups deploy in internet time!

• Marketing Accountability will drive budgets towards Social Media channels

Viral Marketing 1.0• According Joseph Carrabis,

– “The completely controllable part of viral marketing is based on mathematics and deals with the following questions:”

1. How many individuals does the campaign need to start with (seed)? 2. How fast will the campaign spread (propagation factor)? 3. How will the campaign spread (vectors)? 4. How large a group is required to sustain the propagation (viral burden)? 5. What is the campaign's goal (maintenance factor)? 6. How large a group is required to sustain the campaign once the goal is

achieved (threshold point)? 7. At what point is the campaign too successful (saturation point)?

It is not about the ad!• Viral advertising is sexy, but where is the

money??– Hits on website is just not the metric

• Take the water to the horse– TwitterHawk

• Add value to the consumer– Amazon, SMART PADALA

• Virality of Value– Beinggirl.com, Appexchange– Talk.Support.Energize.Embrace

OPPORTUNITIES SPAN ACROSS CUSTOMER TOUCHPOINTS

Product Design and

Improvement

Communication Design

Quality Control

Corporate Communications

Search Engine Marketing

Campaign Management

Customer E

xperience

Touchpoints

Web2.0 tools that can be leveraged

• Lucene or Google :: web 1.0• Ning or Facebook :: web 2.0• Laconica or Twitter :: web 2.5?

The Facebook vs. Twitter debate

• Facebook is growing at 100%, Twitter is growing at 1100%

• Facebook connects people, Twitter connects entities

• Facebook’s power is amount of data layers, twitter’s power is lack of data layers

ROI 2.0

• Do not measure with a sliding scale– Pause, Measure, go to Plan B if required– Cloud computing allows for variable infrastructure

• Do not do all the heavy lifting yourself– The Blogger is your new Agency• the 1:10:100:700 rule

• Leave something on the table– The Carrier needs an incentive

Basic principles

#1 Spread Value, not... Viruses#2 Park at hubs that connect diverse people#3 You need to know when to fan the flame

Empower early adopters

it could be fun!

Word of Mouth in action

• Star Trends Apparel Corp. organized a warehouse sale that they spread through word-of-mouth marketing.

• This company sells overrun goods imported from US and UK and is located in Bulacan, Phillippines.

Star Trends: Reasons for Success

• Hygiene factors– Strong Copy– Strong use of Imagery– Honesty is the Best Policy

• Exclusivity empowerment– Do not forward Clause!!

• Word of Mouth Fuelled by the Bloggers

Effective Viral Strategies 2.0

• Understand the Blogger Animal– Listen, Profile

• Leverage Social Graphs– Call History

• Think platform– Buttons, Widgets, Browsers

• Think Device– iPhone, Wii, Xbox, SMS

Follow the Leaders

• Here is my top 10

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