Viral marketing has become part of North American culture.
By way of example is the ‘Will It Blend’ viral marketing campaign that promotes blenders using a comical DON’T DO THIS AT HOME video series. The video that shows the blender chewing up an iPhone has had over 5 million views on YouTube alone.
Viral marketing campaigns that have gained mass appeal in Canada and the US have typically touched on pop culture themes including politics, music and sports.
The question that then presents itself is whether or not there is an opportunity for professional service firms to use viral marketing to promote their practices.
The Gobbledygook Manifesto proves that there is.
This manifesto is essentially an analysis written by a consultant who wished to share his theory about business communication. David Meerman Scott theorizes about the growing number of buzz-laden press releases and websites and how these tactics lack in original thought and also fall short in terms of their ability to communicate:
Oh jeez, not another flexible, scalable, groundbreaking, industry-standard, cutting-edge product from a market-leading, well positioned company! Ugh. I think I’m gonna puke! Just like with a teenager’s use of annoying catch phrases, I notice the same words cropping up again and again in Web sites and news releases—so much so that the gobbledygook grates against my nerves and many other people’s, too. Well, duh. Like, companies just totally don’t communicate very well, you know?
MarketingSherpa’s Viral Hall of Fame 2007 sheds insight on this successful, albeit anomalous, viral marketing campaign:
Buzz Generated: I received immediate buzz: – 8 bloggers tracked back to my original post. – 18 comments were left on my original post.- As of this writing, there are more than 1,000 hits on Google for the term “gobbledygook manifesto” (which I made up). There were zero hits the day before my original post, so I can safely say that I introduced this phrase to the Web and those hits are a result of my work. The many bloggers who wrote about my original work created all of the hits.
Biggest Learning: This was a true test of online thought leadership-based viral marketing. Rather than the old crap about “branding” with slick and expensive advertising that people ignore anyway or being “on message” with the media hoping some journalist throws you a bone, thought leadership based marketing like “The Gobbledygook Manifesto” delivers valuable information that people want to consume, reaching buyers directly and branding an organization as one to do business with.
Viral marketing campaigns not relevant to pop culture are less widely circulated than those that are.
Nonetheless, they exist.
A professional service firm’s target audience would normally be delineated by the city within which the practice resides. Such a viral marketing campaign would be deemed a roaring success at a tiny fraction of the visits that Nike, Cadbury or Burger King have achieved.
Photo credit (top): Ahmed Zahid
(h/t: BlogStorm)
Hi Sandra, Viral marketing is very appropriate for all sorts of companies. It’s so liberating to be able to create some interesting content and offer it for free, generating interest along the way. So much more effective than buying expensive advertising or begging the media to write about you.
Thanks for linking to my stuff.
David Meerman Scott
Thank you for your comment David. Thank you also for providing us with an inspiring case that demonstrates how viral marketing can apply to professional service firms. This is yet another example of how the Internet has leveled the playing field for the small to mid size professional practice.