UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK IN PRAGUE

European Business Administration

An in Depth Study of Viral Marketing for the Purpose of Creating a Guide of Best Practices

by

Aizhan Maulen 2015 William Pattison

I, Aizhan Maulen, hereby declare that the material contained in this submission is original work performed by me under the guidance and advice of my mentor, William

Pattison. Any contribution made to the research by others is explicitly acknowledged in the thesis.

I also declare that this work has not previously been submitted in any form for a degree or diploma in any university.

Aizhan Maulen, [9.12.2015]

Acknowledgment

I would like to thank my parents for support and opportunity to study in this university. Also, I am thankful for my friends, who were near me all 3, 5 years and helped in difficult times. Specifically, I would like to thank entire faculty of

University of New York in Prague for all the skills and knowledge, which they gave me. Moreover, I would like to thank my mentor, William Pattison, who professionally introduced me to marketing and helped throughout the evolution of this work.

Table of contents

Abstract

1. Introduction……………………………………………………………………6 2. What is viral marketing………………………………………………………..7 2.1 History of viral marketing…………………………………………………8 2.2 Types of viral marketing…………………………………………………10 2.2.1 Organic viral marketing……………………………………...10 2.2.2 Amplified viral marketing……………………………………11 2.3 Advantages and disadvantages…………………………………..………12 2.3.1 Advantages……………………………………………….…..12 2.3.2 Disadvantages………………………………………….……..14 3. How to create viral marketing………………………………………………..15 4. How viral marketing works……………………………………………..……21 5. How to spread viral marketing………………………………………….……24 6. Additional successful practices………………………………………...…….30 7. Failed viral marketing campaigns……………………………………………34 8. Viral marketing typology…………………………………………………….39 9. Personal research……………………………………………………….…….40 9.1 Research 1………………………………………………………….…….42 9.1.1 Method………………………………………………………….42 9.1.2 Response rate………………………………………….………..42 9.1.3 Results………………………………………………………….43 9.1.4 Issues according research…………………………...………….54 9.1.5 Summary………………………………………………………..54 9.2 Research 2………………………………………………………………..55 9.2.1 Method…………………………………………………..……..57 9.2.2 Results………………………………………………….………58 9.2.3 Summary……………………………………………..…………64 10. Guidelines………………………………………………………………...…..65 11. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………....69 Work cited……………………………………………………………..……..72 Appendices………………………………………………………………..….79

Abstract Social media is one of the most popular communication channels in the twenty first century. Year after year the use of the Internet is dramatically increasing; people are able to communicate, share and gather information faster than ever. These new opportunities lead to the appearance of a new types of marketing namely viral marketing. This non-traditional, below-the-line marketing tool changed the rules of the marketing field and created more opportunities for companies. With viral marketing they can promote their products to larger amount of consumers in a smaller period of time and at a lower cost.

This research paper explores how technological advances, to include growth of social media sites on the Internet helps marketing messages go “viral”. Moreover, this paper summarizes brief history of viral marketing, examines real life successful and unsuccessful campaigns and scrutinizes advantages and disadvantages of viral marketing. Furthermore, the work analyzes rules and features of viral marketing in order to help in creating future potential viral marketing campaigns.

Research has shown that it is important for a given marketing manager to make sure that marketing message is understandable for consumers. Moreover, content is a key element of the future advertising as consumers are exposed to content before passing it to others. The viral marketing concept is a successful strategy in creating brand awareness, trust among customers while increasing rate of return of marketing campaigns. Maulen6

1. Introduction

In 2014 students at University of New York created a congratulatory video for mothers on 8th of March, International Women’s Day. The creators asked 25 random people of different nationalities to say “I love you, mom” in their language. The video spread across the Internet, and became popular in Prague. This case leads the researcher, who was one of the creators to the question of; how companies could use Internet in their marketing strategies most effectively.

Marketing can be referred to as satisfying market needs by the commercialization of product and services (Kirby & Marsden, 2006). Therefore, it is almost impossible to imagine successful company without it in a free market. Moreover, marketing is a complex science, which is evolving from traditional to non-traditional marketing strategies continuously. Above the line marketing which is traditional includes advertising through media, such as television, radio and newspapers. Below the line marketing, also known as a Guerrilla marketing or when company reaches its consumer directly. Guerrilla marketing is divided to ambient marketing, ambush marketing, and viral marketing (Hutter & Hoffmann, 2011).

From year to year the Internet is being filled with new names and words, such as

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube. These represent social-communities, where people can communicate, share information and spend time. Because of the technological development and popularization of social networks, expensive traditional marketing strategies became an ineffective tool. The internet gave to people an opportunity to come closer to others more quickly, subsequently becoming a new Maulen7 platform for marketers. Due to the fact that the internet allows companies to reach a wider range of consumers for a cheaper price, in less time this channel is increasingly popular for companies seeking to engage with consumers. The focus of this paper is called viral marketing. Today people do not like to be manipulated and advertised toward overtly. Consumers are aware of tricks or gimmicks, which in the past have been used by marketers. However, viral marketing allows marketers to easily involve customers in the promotion without their awareness.

2. What is Viral marketing

According to Justin Kirby, viral marketing is also associated with “word-of-mouth”,

“creating buzz”, or “network marketing” is a trend that creates an exponential growth of the marketing message by encouraging people to spread it around (2006).

The idea of viral marketing is to create a buzz around the product, to make people share and talk about your advertisement, without knowing that it is an actual advertisement

(Kirby, 2006). The main advantage is that when implementation is successful, it can bring worldwide popularity and profit for small amount of investment. One of the perfect examples is the “Evian baby & me” video campaign. This video has been viewed almost 116 million times and had an incredible popularity among people (Evian babies, 2015). Most of the advertisements become viral accidentally, as an example someone creates a funny video and sends it to his friend. This friend sends it to another one and so on. Sometimes even an author does not expect it to be viral. David Meerman

Scott an expert from the Wall Street Journal, states that viral campaigns should have some interesting web content, preferably free, which is unique, funny or creative, and celebrity would be an advantage. Also, marketer should have a group of people, who Maulen8 will start sharing it with all the links (2010). This being said it is almost impossible to forecast if a campaign will go viral or not.

Marketers can use one or more of the different networks to push their content, such as blogs, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube. Most of the networks on the Internet are free; therefore, this presents opportunity for companies with a limited budget. They only need to start sharing it, and other people will do all the work for them. David Scott names it as World Wide Rave, when people start sharing content with others and start talking about it (2010). David gives some advice to make your idea worth of sharing; he calls it Rules of the Rave (2010):

1. Marketer should create something interesting, which will entertain others. Most

of the time, people start browsing Internet, because they are bored and have

some time. They search for funny and unusual things, and sometimes something

that will solve their problems.

2. You cannot force someone to share your idea, and you need to make your

content free. You cannot use some traditional advertising tricks, such as sales,

coupons or free presents.

3. Marketers should always remember that concept of the World Wide Rave is to

make your product recognizable in the web.

2.1 History of Viral marketing

PC User magazine was the first, who used the term “viral marketing” in its article in

1989 (Kirby, 2006). It was used to explain the phenomena when a person is more willing to do something after someone else does it. After, in 1996 Jeffrey Rayport, Maulen9 professor of Harvard Business School wrote an article “The Virus of Marketing”, where he named a new way of marketing: viral marketing or v-marketing. He asserts that virus as a “marketing program” one of the efficient ways to succeed with limited budget and time (1996).

However, this term gained popularity only after successful Hotmail.com free email services (Kirby & Marsden, 2006). During that period people needed to pay for emails and could send them only in particular service area. Therefore, Hotmail gave them an opportunity to send their emails for free and from any part of the world. The campaign allowed this only if the consumer put a small message in the end of their letter “Get your free email at Hotmail” (Kirby & Marsden, 2006). This campaign became extremely popular among customers and brought to Hotmail unbelievable success. They spent only $50000 and gained 12 million sign-ups within just eighteen months

(Jurvetson, 2000). Kirby and Marsden claim that marketers started to use this tool, because it was cheap (2006). At that date, traditional marketing techniques were expensive and marketing managers needed high Rates of Return (ROR), and viral marketing gave them a better outcome for lower cost.

In the early 2000s, any creative advertisement, such as video clips, funny texts or

Photoshop edited images could be considered as a viral. This trend created difficulties for marketers with their campaigns until they decided to use v-marketing as a part of the whole long-term marketing strategy, rather than just one separate tool (Kirby &

Marsden, 2006).

2.2 Types of Viral Marketing Maulen10

There are two main types of viral marketing: organic viral marketing and amplified viral marketing (Stokes, 2012).

2.2.1 Organic Viral Marketing

Organic viral marketing is an uncontrolled marketing campaign, which spreads among people (mostly word-of-mouth) without the help of the marketer. This is a low cost trend that can dramatically increase brand awareness, because it stems from the communication of consumers (Stokes, 2012). In an example Dettol, antiseptic liquid, gained most of his consumers by word-of-mouth (WOM). Initially, they were having difficulties growing in China, and traditional advertising techniques, such as TV or

Radio ads were expensive; they decided to use word of mouth marketing. Dettol gave away 4000 kits with 100 ml and 30 ml of bottles with liquid to “influencer moms”.

Moreover, they gave each of them ten additional kits for their friends (Adweek, 2011).

Results were amazing: within five months their brand awareness increased to 25% and sales raised twice. Overall 46% of their consumers were reached by word of mouth

(Adweek, 2011).

Negative effects are not elusive using this type of marketing campaign as people easily can change their opinion on the product. Therefore, Cindy Cordon, vice president of new media and marketing partnership Universal Orlando Resort, advises, “to always listen to what is being said about you” (2008). The best example of bad word of mouth marketing is the story of Dave Caroll. He is a Canadian musician, whose guitar was broken by baggage-handling crew on a United Airlines (Gregoire et al, 2011). Caroll asked for compensation, but United Airlines refused to pay any fees and did not take Maulen11 any responsibility for the loss. Later, Dave wrote a several songs about this incident and uploaded it on YouTube. The first video had almost 150,000 views in one day, and 15 million plus to date (Gregoire et al, 2011). This video caused a lot of negative publicity about United Airlines all over the world. After the personalized uncontrolled campaign took shape, United immediately paid compensation to Dave Carroll. The Sunday Times reports that United Airlines’ stock price fell to 10%, and it cost $180,000,000 to shareholders (Ayres, 2009).

2.2.2 Amplified Viral Marketing

Amplified viral marketing is a strategically planned campaign, which can be controlled by marketer via tracing results. This viral marking can use social networks to implement and track promotion. For instance, companies can create websites or videos to advertise their product (Stokes, 2012). For example, after their campaign

Hotmail.com became one of the largest e-mail providers, even in countries where they did not use marketing at all (Juvertson, 2000). Another great example is Mad Men

Yourself by AMC. This program is an online avatar creator that allows you to make 60’s version of yourself, which was launched before the premier of Mad Men third season

(Kadyan & Aswal, 2014). The outcome was great; the third season had recording ratings. They still update this advertising each year.

Unfortunately, some companies have implemented too loosely causing failed campaigns. Cheetos was not an exception. In 2008, Cheetos launched their “Random

Acts of Cheetos” campaign, which was one of the biggest mistakes. The idea of the advertisement was to encourage people to make some prank with Cheetos, create a Maulen12 video and upload it to the website (http://www.orangeunderground.com) the Orange

Underground (Tynan, 2008). However, it did not work out, because no one was interested to buy lots of packs of Cheetos just to make a prank.

2.3 Advantages and disadvantages

According to the research by Terry Vavra, president, and Douglas Pruden, Senior Vice

President of Marketing Metrics, the below the line marketing technique is the most effective in creating brand awareness (2004). That being said risks are important to analyse even in marketing. Every marketer should first examine all the possible risks and issues before implementing viral marketing.

2.3.1 Advantages

One of the main advantages is that viral marketing needs less funding to reach more consumers than above the line marketing. Most of the companies in film industry use this technique (Mohr, 2007). Boswell states that, viral marketing creates more buzz around a film than a two minute trailer (2002). For example, Christopher Nolan decided to use viral marketing to promote new film “The Dark Knight”. He created an actual website and political campaigns for Harvey Dent, one of the comic characters. They tried to maximally engage fans in participating in campaign (Forest, 2014). In the end, they had more than 10 million fans all over the globe, and movie became one of the best superhero movies (Forest, 2015). Moreover, viral marketing is a great opportunity for small businesses. Business Link asserts that it can reduce a company’s costs and Maulen13 increase profit (2008). For example, a lot of web hosting services provide their services for less than $100 per year (FindWebHosting.com).

Secondly, this is a good opportunity for companies with an ordinary product without any special features, because they can create a buzz around promotion itself. For example, the Subservient Chicken by Burger King. This advertisement was created to promote new TenderCrisp chicken sandwich in 2004. They created a website where a person in a chicken costume performs variety types of people’s commands such as; jumping, dancing, running (Mara, 2004). Everything was pre-recorded, but looked like an interactive webcam. This promotion brought to Burger King enormous popularity and increased sales. Burger King reported that during the first 12 month sales hit

$500,000,000 an increase of 6,9% (Howard, 2004). This example also proved that viral marketing takes less time while offering the creation of brand awareness.

Figure 1: Subservient Chicken advertising (Source: barbariangroup.com)

2.3.2 Disadvantages

The main disadvantage of viral marketing is lack of control. When a campaign is introduced, the marketer has a little power to control its place of distribution or Maulen14 perception of the meaning by consumers. Specifically this refers to images or texts, users could alter them in a negative way (Kirby, 2006). Exactly this happened with

Turner Broadcasting Systems. In 2007 an unidentified electronic device was found in

Boston. A lot of money and time were spent to neutralize this threat. It turned out to be a marketing campaign by Interference, a marketing company to promote the late night cartoon Aqua Teen Hunger Force by Turner Broadcasting Systems. This campaign occurred also in Los Angeles, Seattle, Atlanta, New York and Chicago (Zuo &Veil,

2006). This hidden strategy not only inconvenienced thousands of people, but also broke the law. Some of the electrical devices were attached on private property without permission (Zuo &Veil, 2006). Eventually, Turner and Interference’s reputation were defamed and they were forced to pay 2 million dollars.

Another issue is connected with attention. Because of the diverse information on web, it is difficult to attract people’s attention. Justin Kirby, a managing director at Digital

Media Communications, claims that the campaign should be more interesting and more innovative than others. Sometimes it would take more time and money to create a better product (2006). Furthermore, research by Emerald Insight showed that marketers sometimes have difficulties with targeting a specific audience on the web (Cruz & Fill,

2008). Some believe that success of the advertisement depends on the size of the audience; others believe that reaching right target is more important.

3. How to create a viral marketing Maulen15

It is difficult to create a viral marketing and as David Meerman Scott, marketing and sales strategies, said “it is virtually impossible to create a Web marketing program that is guaranteed to go viral” (2008).

Firstly, the advertising should encourage people to spread it around. For instance, with

The De Beers, diamond manufacturing company’s website customers can create own rings and send it to friends or family, or Procter and Gamble, multinational manufacturer of consumer goods website offered a visitor to win travel-sized styling spray and enter into competition for a year of shampoo supply by adding 10 friends.

This campaign was created to support a new shampoo, Physique. It worked well, because Physique became one of the most successful shampoos in the United States

(Dobele et al, 2005).

Another example of successful word-of-mouth is The Blair Witch Project. In 1999

Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Mynick, for $100.000 wrote and directed fiction documentary film about the local legend the Blair Witch. It was about three student filmmakers, who disappeared into the Black Hills. They created a website, www.blairwitch.com, before premier of the film. The website created a buzz and mystery around the film, because website contained some “real” footage about the disappearance of students (Dobele et al, 2005). For example they posted some police reports which looked realistic creating the 18th century legend about Blair Witch and one of the student’s journals. Most of the people believed, and some still think that it was real. They continually updated facts to keep people interested. The website became popular and had two million hits a day (Thevenot & Watier, 2001). In the beginning Maulen16 distributors chose to show the film only in 27 art house theatres to support their legend, because this location fit their documentaries. The Blair Witch Project earned $1.5 million in its first week, and overall $136.2 million after two months of screen time

(Thevenot & Watier, 2001).

Figure 2: Blair Witch Project (Source:blairwitch.com)

According to Dobele, Toleman and Beverland, authors of “Controlled infection!

Spreading the brand message through viral marketing”, customers will spread the message if: (2005):

1. The promotion is fun and interesting. In need to attract people’s attention and

make them talk about it.

2. The message is well targeted. Marketers should release promotion at the right

place and time.

3. Marketers use different social networks, and marketing techniques within the

perspective viral campaign.

4. The advertising has credible sources. People more willing to listen someone who

they trust, identify with or respect.

5. Message is tied with a highly visible product. Maulen17

It is important for promotion to be believable. Marketers need to know the opinion of leaders in their target segment to provide them with the right message. A consumer is more willing to forward the message when marketers are uninvolved (Dobele et al,

2005). Knowing this information, Sony decided to create a fake blog All I want for

Christmas is a PSP in 2006. The author of that blog was Charlie, who wanted to convince his friend’s parents to buy their son Jeremy a Sony PSP. To make it seem real and to reach the target audience, they used an informal language such as typos and abbreviations. Moreover, to engage more teenagers they created a Cousin Pete, who was hip and posted videos of himself in his blog (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). The blog did not last long because one user understood that it was not real. The blog was registered by Zipatoni, which was one of the Sony’s advertising agencies. Initially they denied having a relationship with fake blog. After a few weeks they admitted and deleted it. However, Sony’s brand image was already damaged (Kaplan & Haenlein,

2010).

Porter and Golan examined more than 250 advertisements to understand the cause of them becoming viral. They found that most of promotions included: sexuality, humour, violence, and nudity (Porter & Golan, 2006). Research by Golan and Zaidner, proves previous examination. They discovered that 91% of promotions consisted humour, 28% used sexuality and 17,8% animals appeals (2008). The case of Old Spice is further validates this research. In 2010 Old Spice launched short video campaign “Your man could smell like me”. The 30-second YouTube video immediately went viral and created big buzz around Old Spice brand. Handsome National Football League player Maulen18

Isaiah Mustafa on the video directly spoke to women. He was them that their man could smell like him with new Old Spice’s Body Wash. The video was entertaining and dynamic with sense of humour and animal appeal in the end. This video completely changed Old Spice’s brand which had been associated with elderly now shifted to the one of the sexiest brands. According to Nielsen, an American global information and measurement company, sales of Old Spice’s Body Wash increased by 107% and deodorant by 30% after the promotion (O’Leary & Wasserman, 2010). P & G spokesman Mike Norton said that Old Spice became number one brand of body wash and antiperspirant based on sales and the volume with growth in the high single to double digits (O’Leary & Wasserman, 2010). After this big hit they made a 185 response video to the fans. They have been viewed 40 million times, and generally more than 110 million (Old Spice, 2010).

Figure 3: Your men could smell like me

(Source:youtube.com/watch?v=owGykVbfgUE)

Maulen19

Kaplan and Haenleine created some basic rules which companies should follow in spreading viral marketing (2010). They are outlined below as:

Figure 4. Five pieces of advice when spreading a virus (Note: from Kaplan & Haenleine, 2010)

Viral marketing is only as good as the remaining marketing mix:

Even after the promotion went viral it is only supported by change in marketing strategies of the entire company (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). Looking back to

Subservient Chicken by Burger King we see that after success in promotion, they redesigned employee uniforms, to drive-through areas, to ketchup packets. Viral marketing makes customers come, but they need reasons to come back (Kaplan &

Haenlein, 2010).

Viral marketing needs to be backed-up by traditional forms of communication Maulen20

The buzz created by viral marketing is a short term outcome; therefore, advertising should be supplemented by traditional forms of communication (Kaplan & Haenlein,

2010). For instance in Wilkinson’s Fight for Kisses promotion they released not only a video about a child fighting his father for kisses from the mother. The group also made an interactive computer game. Moreover, they made some press announcements, radio spots and sponsored the France-Ireland rugby match (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). They spent only $90,000 and their market share increased by five percent.

Excessive planning and intervention kills any viral marketing campaign

Before launching a viral promotion it needs to be thoroughly planned. Companies should give space for the virus to spread however. They should not control it and ask customers to spread it around (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). Because true viral marketing should work by itself, and Evian managed it well. The Roller-Skating Babies video became one of the most viewed advertising, it received 45 million online views. They had a success, because of the right topic, good music and right messages (Kaplan &

Haenlein, 2010).

Highly provocative and edgy messages are double-edged sword

Successful viral marketing needs to have an interesting component and should be unforgettable (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). Companies should be careful in using provocative messages. As resulting in cases where inappropriate content was the subject such as Microsoft’s Perfect Dark Zero game for the Xbox 260 platform, failures take form. Users needed to give a name and email of another person, whom the Maulen21 assassin should “take care” of. That person received a message with a video, where a body wearing a toe tag bearing recipient’s name (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). Most people were shocked and disgusted. Therefore, companies should be extremely careful on choosing a scenario of their promotion.

Successful viral marketing requires a little bit of luck and gut feeling

Marketers should know that even with a careful planning there is always a chance to fail. What worked yesterday or is working for competitors, might not work for you.

There is no answer why one idea becomes viral and other does not (Kaplan & Haenlein,

2010).

4. How Viral marketing works

In 2001 Honda understood that they need a new campaign to increase its market share.

They wanted to explain that buying a car is not an easy decision. Moreover, they wanted to reach person’s peer group, family, colleagues, to gain their support of a brand

(Dobele et al, 2005). They released a video named “The Cog” where hundreds of individual pieces of a new Honda Accord were connected with each other as a domino.

Initially the promotion was launched on United Kingdom television during the Brazilian

Formula 1 Grand Prix. The video was available on the website, so people could download them and share. They had a huge success around the world. In the first quarter of 2004 they had a record-breaking sales and increase in brand awareness

(Honda, 2004). Additionally, visits to Honda dealerships in the United States grew from

3500 to 3700 per month (American International Automobile Dealers, 2004). Maulen22

Figure 5: The Cog campaign (Source: youtube.com/watch?v=_ve4M4UsJQo)

Dobele, Toleman and Beverland, authors of “Controlled infection! Spreading the brand message through viral marketing”, believe that Honda had success in viral marketing, because (2005):

1. Video was interesting and unusual.

2. They chose a right time to release advertising.

3. They used different types of marketing strategy, such as traditional (television

advertising) and below-the-line marketing.

4. The word-of-mouth factor expanded the audience.

5. The brand message and product were connected with the real world.

Another example is Trojan “Games” by Trojan a condom manufacturer, which was launched in 2003. On special website they released several parody sex-and-game videos during the Olympic Games. The site had over 9 million visitors by March 2004 (Kirby,

2006). QuickWise, a consumer market research agency reported that 73% of respondents had a positive impression, 80% thought that advertising is unique, and 50% would be more likely to purchase Trojan products (2006). Maulen23

Moreover, Dr. Ralph F. Wilson one of the pioneers of Internet marketing noted in his article “The Six Simple Principles of Viral Marketing” wrote that in order to make successful viral marketing companies should include some free products or services to attract attention. These items should be easy transmittable, exploit common motivations with people and placed in right place (2000).

According to the research by Cruz and Fill, there are three goals why an individual marketer or company chooses to make implement marketing. They want to create awareness of a brand and reach customers; to count number of hits or download, and rate how much is transferred and shared to increase revenues of return (ROI) and brand equity. The Cognitive goal is when a marketing manager wants to make consumers aware of product or services. The behavioural goal shows popularity of the advertisement. Thus, the financial goal indicates a promotion is working and bringing a profit (Cruz & Fill, 2008).

First, a company should determine its target audience, after they need to create a message which will attract the target’s attention. The next step is to choose right channel or place to spread a message. After creating the advertising by using the correct format, companies should evaluate results according their goals. Finally, after Maulen24 evaluations, companies can decide to abandon, contain or reignite the commercial.

Figure 6: VMC evaluation framework (Note: from Cruz & Fill, 2008)

5. How to spread Viral Marketing

According to Leskovec (2007) and Chen (2010) there are two paths leading corporate messages into virality without any investment: consumer-initiated viral marketing and business-initiated viral marketing. Consumer-initiated viral marketing is when consumers mention the message though social media networks such as Facebook,

Twitter, YouTube or Pinterst (Chen, 2010). Alternatively in business initiated cases networks such as iTunes Store or Amazon.com recommend it to people (Leskovec,

2010).

There are different ways to spread viral marketing for companies. The internet has thousands of varieties of websites, which could be used by companies. Moreover, it Maulen25 could be customized, not limited by airtime and global. One of the main advantages is inexpensive cost compare to traditional media (Rollins et al., 2014).

One of these is creating video and uploading on YouTube. YouTube is a free service where users can upload videos and share them with millions of people. Advantages of this site are that links of videos can be easily forwarded to others, increasing number of viewers (Freeman & Chapman, 2007). According to comScore’s Video Metrix, US

Internet users watched more than 25 million online videos in August 2009.

The idea of creating a video for Web marketing is still new. However, it is not difficult, all that is needed is digital camera and YouTube account. David Meerman Scott gave some advice in creating a future viral video:

1. A person can shoot a video using digital camera or even a phone.

Enhancements are added by shooting different angles, to make it more

interesting.

2. It is not important to hire professional. Sometimes a poor quality video works

better than overproduced TV commercials.

3. Video should be no longer than 3 minutes. Shorter is better.

4. The main element is the name of the video. It should be interesting, unique and

eye catching.

5. A person should notify others about his video. He needs to start a buzz by

posting or spreading links via email or social networks.

6. Links to the video could be sent to bloggers. It is another way to increase the

audience. Maulen26

Chipotle used a video as an addition for their game campaign. Chipotle is a Mexican food chain of quick-service restaurants. Their brand image is based on producing food only with high-quality raw ingredients. To increase brand awareness they created an iOS game called “The Scarecrow” with a video trailer. Moonbot and CAA Marketing created a game, where you should open new farms, transport animals from factories to the nature, and serve people fresh food (Nudd, 2013). In other words, they turned

Chipotle’s brand story to the game. Also gamers could get coupons for free food if he would have at least three stars from five in each game’s worlds (Nudd, 2013).

Additional video is a short three-minute dark animated film, about city, where machines produce all the food. In the end a Scarecrow, worker of the factory, opens a small burrito stand where he uses ingredients, which he grew in his garden. The cover song

“Pure Imagination” by Fiona Apple gives the mood and makes it more emotive.

Overall the video has almost 15 million views (Chipotle Mexican Grill, 2013). It got different responses, some farmers accused Chipotle in misrepresentation of present agriculture, but some people gave positive feedbacks (Weiss, 2013). Eventually,

Chipotle got what they wanted: many media publications, bloggers’ reviews, music and game downloads. In estimation they got 614 million media impressions (Dougherty,

2015). Maulen27

Figure 7: The Scarecrow advertising (Source: scarecrowgame.com)

Another place where viral marketing could be spread is on the social community sites.

Today, number of people, who use discussion forums, bulletin boards, email, social networks and blogs is rising (De Valck et al., 2009). These new platforms are a good opportunity for companies, because mostly they are free to use and help immediately reach large numbers of people. Moreover, they can be used not only for creating a web page, but also uploading videos or games. One of the best examples of unique using of social networks is a case of Grey Poupon “Society of Good Taste”. Grey Poupon is a mustard production company, which launched one successful promotion in 1980 and was silent since. In 2012 they decided to come back with a new promotion on

Facebook. They created Facebook page “Society of Good Taste” as a private club, which only special people can join. The promotion was in stages, a person needed to like the Grey Poupon’s Facebook page and apply for entrance. Upon application person’s page would be checked on a grammar, restaurant check-ins, movies and books list. If a good taste consumer got high score, he/she would be accepted for membership

(Olson, 2012). The idea was to make sure that the applied person suits to the brand story of the company. They were one of the first who started to decline its customers. In the end they had 100, 000, 000 impressions, and 3000% fan increase (Carter, 2009). Maulen28

Figure 8: Society of Good Taste campaign (Source:mashable.com)

The social communities could be specialized in different topics. People join communities because they have same interests with others or want to make new friends.

De Valck et al., examined several types of community members in order to focus the viral marketing advertising to the right target (2009). According De Valck et al., there are six member types (2009):

1. The core member is a most frequent visitor and long-term member. He retrieves

and supplies information and socially active. The core members spend more

time than others; it is about one and a half hour.

2. The conversationalists visit three to four times a week to communicate with

others.

3. The informationalists visit less than others but for longer period. Mostly, they

supply and retrieve information.

4. The hobbyists focus on personal web page, uploading music, pictures or writing

guest book messages.

5. The functionalists visit community for only 15 minutes once a week. They only

retrieve information. Maulen29

6. The opportunists are the least active members. They visit community once a

week for no more than 15 minutes only to retrieve information.

It is important for marketer to know the right target group. He needs to be informed about leaders of the community, who are influential in others’ decisions. Also, marketing managers should be aware of any new trends in social media in order to choose the right content and social network for a future viral campaign (Rollins et al.,

2014).

Another way of spreading viral messages is online games. David Murphy states that viral e-mails and branded online games are not only the most useful components of the

Internet, but also, it could be used to build awareness, drive site traffic and capture visitor data (2001). For example, Tiger Tiger, the bar and restaurant chain, launched a game where users can win 500 free meals at the restaurant. However, in order to get a chance, they needed to send the link to four other players, who then should visit the site and register to the game (Murphy, 2001). Luis Halpern, chief executive of toe-Design, states that advantage of online games for clients is that customers give their personal information without realising it (Murphy, 2001).

As it was mentioned before, online games also could be used to create brand awareness.

For instance, interactive agency Abel & Baker created an online version of Microsoft’s

Age of Empires game to promote the PC version. They asked players to mail the link to others, and got two million subscribers, which increased their sales in the future

(Murphy, 2001). Maulen30

Figure 9: Age of Empires game (Source: ageofempires.com)

Wayne Arnold, managing director of Profero, affirms that potential viral games should be easy to play and fast in loading, because marketers have only several seconds to grab people’s attention and interest them in their message (Murphy, 2001).

6. Additional successful practices

According to Visible Measures the Number one viral campaign of all time is Blendtec videos “Will It Blend” (2010). Blendtec released 120 video clips, which consisted of same music, scenario and host, Blendtec CEO Tom Dickson (Learmonth, 2010). The idea of the videos is to use a blender and blend unusual things: toys, telephones, DVD discs, and make it entertaining. One of the most viewed videos was about blending iPhone in 2007 and iPad in 2010 (Learmonth, 2010).

They claim that original commercial cost them only $50 (Blendtec Media Kit). The outcome was amazing; “Will It Blend” clips became very popular and had about 134.2 million views (Learmonth, 2010). Moreover, sales dramatically increased by 500 Maulen31 percent (Nicole, 2007). Blendtec’s annual sales increased from $8 million to “around 40 million dollars” (Blendtec Media Kit).

Figure 10: Will it Blend videos

(Source:youtube.com/user/Blendtec/videos?sort=dd&view=0&shelf_id=2)

Another great case was a promotion by Chevrolet. In 2012, Chevrolet released a car called Chevy Sonic (Healey, 2010). They decided to give one car to a band “Ok Go” for free, if they will use it in their video clip “Needing/ Getting” (Rollins et al., 2014).

In a music clip the band was riding a car, which was equipped with instruments. It was not an overt commercial, however person could clearly see the brand of the car. This video was shown on breaks during Super Bawl XLVI (Rollins et al., 2014). This video created a buzz around Chevrolet, by November 2015, the “Needing/Getting” video has been viewed more than 33 million times (YouTube, 2015). Maulen32

Figure 11: Needing/ Getting (Source: youtube.com/watch?v=MejbOFk7H6c)

In 2008, on the Internet appeared videos where Kobe Bryant, a famous basketball player, jumped over a speeding Aston Martin car and a pool of snakes. In the beginning of the video Kobe Bryant shows Nike shoes, also it can be noticed that he wears Nike sportswear. From the first sight it was difficult to say that was it commercial or not, because quality of the video was unprofessional it looked like homemade video. It made people shocked and confused, they could not tell was video legitimate or not, however they like it and shared all over the Internet (Rollins et al., 2014).

Figure 12: Kobe jumps over a speeding car

(Source:youtube.com/watch?v=BIWeEFV59d4)

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After success of the first videos, Nike launched series of videos “the Kobe System”.

These videos are about celebrities, who attended a self-help seminar hosted by Kobe

Bryant (Rollins et al., 2014). It was funny seeing celebrities such as Kanye West and

Richard Branson asking Kobe Bryant’s advice to achieve “success at success at success”.

Figure 13: the Kobe System videos

(Source:youtube.com/watch?v=Dp9dT5HEIHA&list=PLliC_u8E2js66nmqxLHuQrFeD

0qxmSclY&index=7)

All successful examples, which were mentioned in this paper, have common features.

Companies created something interesting, unusual, humorous and spreadable. For example: Nike used celebrities and showed them in a funny way. Old Spice used every single appeal from sexuality to animal appeal, which can be used in order to attract customers. Blendtec changed a simple idea to a success by using humour. These practices proved that if company has a good product and advertises it with a good message and content, they could get not only a high rate of return, but also earn recognition among customers.

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7. Failed viral marketing campaigns

It is always easier to learn on someone’s mistakes. Therefore this research paper consists of several examples of failed attempts in viral marketing.

In 2013, Samsung launched a video promoting their 840 EVO Solid-State Drive. This three-minute video narrates how Samsung Solid-State Drive can improve speed of the computer and make people’s lives easier. Three different people: a woman, a businessman and a student, were telling how they use computers and complaining that sometimes it could be very slow (Dabs, 2013). Some women thought that this commercial was disrespectful and sexist (Garun, 2013). Firstly, because of the scripts of the video, while men was telling that they use computers for work, university or games, females mentioned that they used it only for watching some picture or videos of her children. Secondly, actors were very bad in actors. It seemed like Samsung did not have money to hire professional actors. In the end, Samsung removed the video from the web, but its reputation was already damaged (Garun, 2013). In some forums, women decided to stop using and buying Samsung products.

From the first sight that video looks harmless, but after one realizes that something is wrong. I think they just did not properly thought female character. They showed a typical stereotyped woman, who thinks only about her family and does not know anything about electronic equipment, which is offensive for female consumers. Maulen35

Figure 14: 840 EVO Solid-State Drive advertising (Source: digitaltrends.com)

During the Sunday Super Bowl, BlackBerry released its 30-second advertising of

BlackBerry Z10 Smartphone. Video was about a man who flared into flame, walked on elephant feet, disappeared into rainbow smoke, and in the end turned a truck into many rubber ducks. The idea was to show what BlackBerry Z10 Smartphone “can’t do”

(BlackBerry, 2013). However, commercial did not succeed, because people did not understand the message, leading to mixed reactions. Also, some of them offered to

BlackBerry make a video about what can actually do this Smartphone, because they already know what it cannot do. After, BlackBerry released several videos with chief marketing officer, Frank Boulben, explaining the meaning of the advertising (Strange,

2013). Overall, they spent about $4 million for this commercial, but did not get expected results. Maulen36

Figure 15: What BlackBerry cannot do video (Source: pcmag.com)

Another failed case is Pearl Izumi’s attempt to promote their running shoes. Running shoes maker Pearl Izumi, launched an advertising where dog has a heart attack, while running with owner. They used not only an image, but also a video with the same script

(White, 2013). All of these made people sad and frustrated. Mike Johansson, a lecturer in the communications department at the Rochester Institute of Technology and social media strategy consultant, claimed that this promotion would upset people, because they cannot do anything except sympathize with dogs. In its turn, Geoff Shaffer, global marketing director of Pearl Izumi, asserts that people should take this advertising with humour, because they did not want to offend anyone (White, 2013). However, this commercial ruined their reputation, because some customers decided to stop buying their shoes. Maulen37

Figure 16: Run longer advertising (Source: nbcnews.com )

In 2009 Toyota decided to use viral marketing to promote their new Toyota Matrix car.

Campaign “Your other you” was aimed at a 20 year old who loved pranks. A person needed to sign up for a game and give information about his friend, for example telephone, address, and social network profile. After, the stranger would stalk person and send him messages by telling that he would visit the receiver (Hill, 2011).

Unfortunately, one day Amber Duick got a message from unknown male, who was informing her about his arrival. At the beginning, she thought that it was a mistake, but after several messages with photos, she got scared. After five days she got a video link where Toyota admits that it was a prank. Consequently, she sued Toyota for a $10 million for damaging her emotional wellness (Hill, 2011). Instead of positive media publications, they got negative publicity. Toyota from the beginning chose the wrong strategy. First a car is an expensive purchase, so their target segment is people above 25 years. Second, pranks are mostly aimed to younger male audience and are risky from a legal perspective. Therefore, it is not surprising that they had this outcome. They Maulen38 wanted to have more publicity and they got it after the lawsuit. It is know now that people will associate them not with a great viral campaign, but with a silly prank.

Figure 17: A photo, which Duick got from a stalker. (Source: forbes.com)

All of these examples perfectly illustrate how important it is to make sure that your message is comprehendible. Before releasing a commercial companies should make sure that customers would understand their story. For example BlackBerry could have has success. First, because they had an opportunity to promote their product during

Super Bowl when millions of their potential customers were sitting in front of the TV or computer. However, they failed in sending the right message and creating a brand story.

Pearl Izumi, which managed to offend its customers and lost their support. Based on these examples we can analyze common mistakes:

1. All of them did not test their advertisings before publication. They could have

created a focus group and asked them about the message of the commercial.

Content is the base of the commercial, most of the success depends from it.

2. In case of Samsung, they had bad actors and very long length. Video was about

three minutes, and by the end of it you feel frustrated, because actors Maulen39

overreacted and spoke very slowly. It seemed like Samsung thought that its

customers are stupid.

3. Toyota and Pear Izumi chose the wrong tactics. They tried to grab consumers’

attention, but instead scared them and lost a lot of money.

8. Viral marketing campaign typology

Woerndl et al. in their article “Internet-induced marketing techniques: Critical factors in viral marketing campaigns” wrote that there are three types of viral marketing campaigns: social interaction, unintentional, commercial (2008). All previous examples could be classified under a given category.

These three types differentiate from each other with an actual motive, the visibility of product or services, the intention of the originator and the basis of communication. The motive of social interaction and unintentional campaigns is communication. In the commercial type, they create interest on company or product/service. The visibility is different in each category: social interaction does not contain an obvious message; in the unintentional type customers can easily identify advertised product or service.

However, the visibility of commercial type is driven by intention, which can be an open viral or concealed viral (Woerndl et al., 2008). The intention of the other two types is similar: social interaction campaign is not viral, and unintentional could be concealed viral or not viral, or even both. It must be noted, that openly viral intention is when targets can identify which company is being promoted. Concealed viral intention creates some ethical risks for companies, because sometimes consumers could be discontented of being secretly marketed (Woerndl et al., 2008). Finally, the communication base of Maulen40 social interaction is social, in an unintentional group it is social or commercial, and in commercial type it is commercial.

Type Social Interaction Unintentional Commercial

Motive Communication Communication Create interest

Visibility Intangible Identifiable Intention driven

Intention Not viral Not viral or Open viral vs.

concealed viral concealed viral

Basis Social Social and/ or Commercial

commercial

Table 1: Viral marketing typology (Note from: Woerndl et al., 2008).

9. Personal Research

It is important to know that literature about viral marketing can be divided into four types (Woenrndl et al., 2008):

1. Viral marketing comparisons: Comparing different marketing techniques with

others such as television advertising (Porter & Golan, 2006)

2. Consumer-to-consumer viral marketing: For instance, investigating specific

issues on consumer standpoint about how advertising impacts on customer value

or loyalty (Gruen et al., 2006)

3. Studies of communication media: For example, examining specific tools such as

e-mail (Phelps et al., 2004)

4. Viral marketing positioning: For instance to identify placing characteristics of

viral marketing campaigns (Dobele et al., 2005) Maulen41

This research work matches with the second type, consumer-to-consumer viral marketing, because it is based on consumers opinion and their attitude towards viral marketing strategies.

The previous background examination lead to several questions: is the internet as powerful as we think, how much time people spend on social networking pages, and what exactly make people share the videos. Ultimately researcher want to know do people share videos consciously or is it just an impulse.

The researcher conducted two separate research studies to answer those questions. First research gave overall information about how much time people spend on the Internet, which social networks they use and their opinion about trust on the Internet.

The second research study let the researcher find individual opinions about viral marketing from a consumer standpoint. Also, it helps to identify if they can differentiate traditional marketing from viral marketing. The research further enters into the discussion about consumers’ video type preferences and what make them share it with others.

9.1 Research 1

9.1.1 Method Maulen42

In order to determine how much time people spend on the Internet the researcher conducted a survey with 19 questions. The survey was anonymous, but respondents needed to indicate country, age, gender and occupation, in order to determine any correlations between their answers. This survey consisted of demographic questions in the beginning, multiple-choice questions in the middle, and final open question where respondent could write suggestions or opinions.

9.1.2 Response rate

First the survey was posted on a Facebook university group (UNYP life). The response rate was poor, from 1100 members the survey retrieved only 25 answers. Meaning that respond rate was approximately 3%. It could have be low due to lack of motivation to fill the survey, or that this survey was not the first one presented.

Next it was posted to the researchers VK page asking two friends share the link on their pages. By the end of the third day were 70 responses achieving a response rate of 45%.

Response rate here was much higher as the more localized element of friendship was utilized.

Lastly the survey was posted on a LinkedIn Digital Marketing group to achieve a more diverse audience. Here were 100 responses with a response rate of 10%

Overall from these three channels the response rate was 58%.

Maulen43

9.1.3 Results

Demographics

Where are you from?

The research used four demographic questions: country, age, sex and occupation.

Results determined that 23 countries participated in this survey. Most of the

respondents were from Kazakhstan, Russia, Mexico and The Czech Republic.

Chart 1: Information about homeland of respondents

How old are you? Maulen44

Majority of respondents were from 21 to 24 years old. This was not surprising, because according to Nielsen Online Global survey centre, millennials (21-35 years) are more likely to browse the Internet (2014).

Chart 2: Age information of respondents

What is your occupation? What is your gender?

About 77% of the responders were students, and more than half were females. Also proving that students spend more time on Internet, and that women a more likely to participate in surveys (Curtin et al., 2000). Thus, companies whose target segments are students or females which could unconditionally use the internet in their marketing strategy.

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Chart 3: Occupation information of questionnaire respondents

Chart 4: Gender information of questionnaire respondents

How often do you log on to the Internet each week? How much time on average do you spend browsing the Internet? (weekly)

According to the results almost all respondents log on to the Internet everyday and spend more than 10 hours weekly. It is a positive index for marketing managers, who use or want to apply a below the line technique.

Chart 5: Information about weekly consumption of the Internet Maulen46

Chart 6: Information of weekly browsing of the Internet

How often do you use social networking sites?

Results showed that most of the respondents use social networks several times per day or every day. It is may be because, majority of respondents were students, and they are more likely to use social networks. Also, the survey was presented solely on social networks.

Chart 8: Social network sites usage

Which social network site do you mostly use? Maulen47

Furthermore, the top three popular social network sites are Facebook, VK, and

Instagram. Therefore, today, Facebook and Instagram are already filled with advertisements. Advantages of social networks are that they offer various way of communication with consumers. For instance: Facebook or VK allows uploading videos, using communities and chatting in real time. Moreover, social networking pages are advantageous for companies, because they can save some money.

Chart 7: Consumption of the network sites

Do you trust word of mouth on the Internet? Could you purchase product/ service because of commercial?

Results were unexpected, 70% of the respondents claimed not to trust to word of mouth on the Internet, and only 52% agreed that a commercial could influence them on purchasing products. The researcher expected to see higher results on this question, because as we saw on previous examples, the right promotions can increase demand. I assume, that some people do not understand or do not want to accept the idea of manipulation by marketers. By answering “No”, perhaps they want to convince themselves that most of their purchases are made independently. Maulen48

Chart 9: Information about how much the respondents trust the Internet

Chart 10: Information about influence of commercials

Greed questions

Marketing managers should be aware that almost 100% of respondents are informed that viral videos could contain advertising messages, which complicates work for them.

Also, they should pay attention to the peers of their target segment, because according to the results 84 respondents from 100 most likely to purchase product/service after advice from intimates. Thus the previous case by Honda “The Cog” is a perfect illustration of this.

Agree Disagree

I am more likely to 84 16 purchase product/service Maulen49 after advice from people I know I generally trust e-mails 58 42 received from people I know I regularly watch videos 76 24 on the Internet I know that viral videos 93 7 can contain marketing/advertising messages I have spread videos to my 56 44 friends/ relatives before Table 2: Grid questions

Do you view message/videos sent or recommended by your friends/relatives?

Furthermore, about 80% of the people view messages or videos sent by their friends or families. It means, that targeting surroundings of potential customers could increase probability of video becoming viral. However, it should be noted that only 58 respondents trust e-mails sent by people they know. It means, that today people are more selective.

Chart 11: Amount of respondents who view messages from relatives/friends

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Video

What would make you to share a video on your social network page? Please, select content of the video, you are more likely to spread?

This research proved that content is one of the most important elements of the video.

Versus to six different contents, funny videos are most sympathizing among respondents; it also proves hypotheses that people on the Internet would like to be entertained. No one chose the sad content, which means that marketing managers should avoid using pessimistic plots.

Chart 12: Motivators which make people to share video

Chart 13: Respondents’ preferences of video contents

Maulen51

Blog

Do you read/watch bloggers?

According to the results more than half of respondents do not read blogs. Therefore, companies should not rely only on this tool.

Chart 14: Amount of people who read/ watch blogs

What type of blogs do you read/ watch?

The top three types of blogs are personal, how to tips and reviews. Personal blogs are about common things, such as travelling, food, education. Mostly, in those blogs people share their experiences. In “how to tips” blogs people give advice to each other, for example, how to bake a cake or make a funny prank. Thus, blogs could be used as a target segment, because it already consists of people with same interests. Maulen52

Chart 15: Types of blogs

Can blogs influence you to purchase product/service?

Result showed that responders split into two main parts. Some people believe that blogs can influence them sometimes when others have opposite thoughts. However, companies can use blogs as an additional marketing tool, because their target segment can belong to the first group.

Chart 16: Respondents’ perception of blogs

Please, select the most trustworthy tool of the Internet Maulen53

Respondents decided that the most trustworthy tool or channel of the Internet is e-mail.

Next on the list a split between video and social networks. Therefore, new companies, which want to gain trust among its consumers, can use e-mails. Also, e-mails help to reach not only the target, but also its surroundings: family, friends, and colleagues. E- mails probably are the most trustworthy because the process in the channel is based on relationship between consumers without participation of outsider.

Chart 17: The most trustworthy tool of the Internet

Feedback from respondents

Do you have anything to add? Did I forget to mention anything?

The feedbacks on the last question left by several respondents included writing that they believe that there is no trustworthy tool on the internet. Therefore, they chose e-mail, because at least they get it from their friends or relatives or companies who they previously had interaction with. One respondent was very distrusting about the research

Writing; ‘before purchasing any product he should see everything by himself, because he does not trust anyone.’ Another respondent wrote that he believes that social networks are the best tools to spread information, advertise products or services, or to Maulen54 increase sales. Also, one person was interested in final results and asked to publish them somewhere.

9.1.4 Issues regarding research

Difficulty arose in trying to force people to fill the survey out, because most of them wanted to get something back. Several people asked, what is the motivation for them to take 15 minutes to fill out the survey? It also proves that people need some incentive to do something.

9.1.5 Summary

In conclusion, research points toward todays Internet being the best tool for advertising and creating brand awareness, because according to the research almost everyone is in that place, on to the Internet. It was shown that Internet could be a powerful tool for marketing managers, because people spend enormous amount of time for virtual life.

Unfortunately there is not conclusive finding about people’s trust on Internet. One can assume this is because most of the respondents were from Kazakhstan, where online marketing is still developing. Secondly, there is an always possibility that respondents answer under duress skewing the data.

Moreover, Internet offers several different options at once. For example: companies can easily communicate with its customers and increase their trust. Furthermore, companies can choose the way of communicating; it could be blogs, social networks, or e-mails. Maulen55

Advantage of using social networks in viral marketing strategy is that most of the people have profiles and use them everyday, also, there are various types of communities and offered tools. E-mails also have an advantage, because it attracts customers in the process. To conclude, according to the research, promotion on the web can bring enormous popularity of the product.

9.2 Research 2

The researcher conducted an interview with five people. Interview was divided into four parts with 18 questions overall. The first part of the interview was about interviewee’s background knowledge about viral marketing. The second part consisted of questions related to a video. The last two sections were about two cases. The first case is a video, which was launched by Disney approximately eight months ago. The second video was about Jonathan Pie, an angry reporter, who presents the ‘real’ news on the Internet.

Video 1

“Disney characters surprise shoppers”.

This video was recently released and already has about five million views on YouTube

(Disney Parks, 2015). To promote the Disney Theme Parks they installed an opaque window in one of the shopping malls in New York. When a person passed in front of this wall they could see their shadow in the form of one of the Disney cartoon characters. The hidden cameras captured true emotions of shoppers. Disney was able to Maulen56 interest different ages of people from children to the elderly.

Figure 18: Disney characters surprise shoppers

(Source:youtube.com/watch?v=Hd_2Y29_FLU)

Video 2

“Reporter gets angry and tells us the REAL news”.

This video was chosen because the researcher noted its popularity and seemingly viral nature. Some friends of the researcher shared the video on their profile pages with comments such “He is genius”, “He should keep going”, or “Why all news are not like this”. All these comments made more individuals curious and spread the video further.

This video was about an English reporter Jonathan Pie, who got angry because producers told him to continue delivering the news under cold weather and rain. The video has already reached almost one million views on YouTube, and 7,5 million on

Facebook (Welsh, 2015). Moreover, Pie has 22000 likes on his Facebook page and this number is increasing every day. Maulen57

Figure 19: Reporter gets angry and tells the real news

(Source:youtube.com/watch?v=Syjp9lsWBhc)

9.2.1 Method

The researcher chose five people from different countries, age, gender and occupation to have more precise results. Each of them was interviewed separately; they could choose time and place of the interview to make sure that they felt comfortable with the surroundings.

First the subjects were introduced to purpose of this research and thesis premise, after they were reassured about anonymity. In the end each interview took about 30 minutes.

Interviewees

Female, Kazakhstan, 23 years, student of New York University in Prague

Male, Kazakhstan, 19 years, student of New York University in Prague

Female, Mexico, 22 years, student of New York University in Prague Maulen58

Male, Italy, 25 years, co-founder Blanca Creations

Male, Lebanon, 28 years, employee of Hilton Hotels

9.2.2 Interview Results (all the answers are mixed to keep anonymity)

- Have you ever heard the term “viral marketing”?

Only one interviewee heard about viral marketing before while the other four never heard this term.

- Do you know what it means?

“It is like an online marketing”

“It is a marketing, which should be spread by people with a little help from companies”

“Marketing which should be spread by people, because they liked it”

“Marketing supposed to be viral and need to be wide spread”

“Similar to word-of-mouth”

- What is the difference between viral marketing and traditional marketing?

“Use of the Internet and social media in viral marketing”

“Viral marketing is cheaper”

“Traditional marketing is expensive and less effective”

“Viral marketing is aimed to younger generation” Maulen59

“Viral marketing is more computer oriented”

- What do you think about advertising though social networks, e-mails, blogs?

“I think it is one of the effective ones”

“It is a common thing, because people earn money from it”

“It might be annoying if it is irrelevant for the person, but it could be a good source of information if it is relevant to the receiver”

“For companies it is a good opportunity, because it is cheap and allows embracing wider amount of people”

“It is a new tool to generate profit”

Video

- Do you often watch videos on the Internet?

Three respondents told that they watch video regularly, and two respondents told that watch it rarely.

- What kind of videos do you like?

Political news is the most viewed among my respondents (three interviewee). Also, some of them watch new commercials, vlogs and music videos

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- Do you often send video links to your friends/family? Why yes? Why not?

“Yes, if it is funny”

“Yes, music videos, because they are awesome”

“Yes, because I want to share with them things with mesmerizes me”

“I send, if it is very interesting and unusual”

“No, because I do not think that it would be interesting for them”

- Have you ever purchased product/service, after watching video about it? What type of video it was? If no, why?

“No, because I knew it was a commercial”

“Yes, it was review about shampoo”

“Yes, presentation of the product”

“Yes, trailers of games”

“No, promotions annoy me”

Case 1: "Disney Characters Surprise Shoppers"

- Have you ever seen this video? If yes, where?

Three respondents have never seen this video before. One respondent watched it on

9gag.tv, and other person saw it on Facebook. Maulen61

- Did you like this video? Why yes or why not?

“Yes, because it is sweet, has a lot of humor. Moreover, positive side of the video is that it is for all ages”

“Yes, it is cute and has good quality of costumes”

“Yes, because it is very creative, it might be a good example of viral marketing”

“Yes, because the idea was presented in unique way”

“Yes, entertaining”

- Would you send someone the link for this video? Why yes or why not?

“Yes, because it is very nice video, good idea”

“No, it is cute, but not impressive”

“Yes, because it is interesting to watch, and not so long, and well shot”

“Maybe only to my younger family members, because it could be interesting for them”

“Yes, to entertain receiver”

- Can you please distinguish or highlight one element that you liked most?

“I liked the idea of shadows, you don’t know if they are real, or made by computer”

“Quality of costumes was impressive” Maulen62

“Shadow play was interesting”

“Overall idea”

“Shadows, which do exactly the same thing as people”

Do you want to visit Disney after this video? Why yes or why not?

“No, because I was in Disney, but video brought good memories”

“No, because I do not like Disney, I think it does not have a message or purpose”

“Yes, because I always wanted to visit it, and this video strengthen the desire”

“No, video is interesting, but did not induce the desire”

“No, because I have already been there”

Case 2: “Reporter gets angry and tells us the REAL news”

- Have you ever seen this video? If yes, where?

Only one interviewee from five have watched this video on Facebook.

- Did you like this video? Why yes or why not?

“I liked it, because he was funny and kind of told the truth about politics”

“Yes, it was awesome and funny; the way he talked was hilarious. He was talking about everything what is popular today: refugees, war, and politics” Maulen63

“Yes, because it is funny and he might be telling the truth”

“Yes, I liked overall video: idea, topics and emotions”

“No, because he tells everything what everyone already knows”

- What did you like most about this video? If you did not like it, what did not you like the most about this video?

“That reporter told everything in easier way and made understandable for everyone”

“He was talking about popular topics”

“Emotions of the reporter”

“British accent”

“Reporter does not have any point he only criticizes everything”

- Would you share this video on your social network page? Why yes or why not?

“Maybe yes, because he presented news in a funny way”

“Yes, it is funny and hilarious”

“No, because it is controversial and subjective”

“No, video is not interesting to watch”

“Probably yes, because mostly all the news are boring and this one is funny”

Maulen64

Did this video encourage you to watch other videos with this person?

Only one person from five did not want to watch other videos with Jonathan Pie.

9.2.3 Summary

Interview results showed, even though people had not heard the term “viral marketing” they could understand what it means. Moreover, they could precisely distinguish viral and traditional marketing. Also, the group as a whole had positive feelings about advertising through the internet, because it is inexpensive tool for companies and good source of information for consumers.

The second part revealed that people share videos which entertain them. However, according to the answers respondents mostly watch political videos, it could be because of the difficult political situations affecting lives more substantially. Therefore, marketing managers always should trace all new trends in the world.

According to the results of the Disney video, it can be said that videos should be very impressive, unique and spellbinding to make people share it with others. As interviewees claimed the Disney video was interesting and entertaining, but it did not have element “wow”. However, most of them distinguished overall idea using cartoon characters in shadow play. The findings can lead us to think that the Disney video had success because it combined different generations, so everyone could enjoy watching it. Maulen65

The video about Jonathan Pie proved the hypothesis that people prefer to watch funny videos. Moreover, it also proved that it is not crucial to have a new idea. That being said an idea should be presented it in a right unique way. Thus, marketers should carefully analyze their target segment and create interesting viral promotion with some funny element. Moreover, marketing agencies should be careful with provocative videos, because some people could be disgruntled. There is an always a thin line between provocative and tasteless video.

10. Guideline

Referring to the conducted research and literature review with all provided examples, the researcher derives a short guideline for marketing managers, who want to make a viral marketing campaign:

1. Promotion needs to be visualized. Companies can create a video, image, game,

or blog but the importance is to make sure that visuals coincide with company’s

brand. For example, marketing agency of Blair Witch Project created web page,

images, story; all of them represent brand story of the product.

2. Message of the campaign should be well thought out. Message needs to be clear

and easy understandable for consumer. The case on point is Blendtec’s “Will it

blend” campaign. They perfectly showed their brand story and message in two-

minute videos.

3. Promotion should have interesting content. It should not be overloaded with

information, the simpler the better. For example, Nike’s video with Kobe Maulen66

Bryant. There was not a direct promotion, but viewer could clearly see the logo

of the brand.

Figure 20: Kobe jumps over swimming pool with snakes

(Source:youtube.com/watch?v=_Dcv9qzWrps)

4. Preferably content should be emotion provoking. This content can be funny,

ridiculous, exciting or even nostalgic. For example the Disney video brought

some good memories to interviewees. The goal here is to entertain potential

customers or evoke his feelings. Perfect examples are Old Spice’s short videos.

They grab attention not only with sex appeal, but also they use humour, animals,

or cause astonishment.

Figure 21: Make a smellmitment campaign

(Source:youtube.com/watch?v=X12MxvqhTd4&index=7&list=PLoF_PWSjd6x

UhLw-Ca4CaWo5vRAlCfggE)

5. It should be short and pointed regardless if it is a video or game, because people

get bored very fast. If it is a video, it should be no longer than two minutes, if it Maulen67

is a game, it should be fast in downloading. Individuals dislike waiting, are

easily distracted, and while waiting can lose interest.

6. Marketers should use different web sources to create a buzz around his/her

promotion. For example, he can use different social networking sites, at least

three of them (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube), the more sources used the bigger

probability of a promotion becoming viral.

7. Content must be relevant to current events. For example, Jonathan Pie in his

news talked about all actual political events, which brought him a success.

Another company is Coca Cola, which always releases campaigns related to

national holidays. For example their Christmas campaigns always have a

success.

Figure 22: Coca Cola Christmas campaign (Source: coca-cola.co.uk)

8. The headline or title of the campaign must be eye-catching. It must grab

people’s attention, because without good headline few choose to interact. Jon

Morrow, Associate Editor of Copyblogger and Boost Blog Traffic founder,

suggested several examples: threat ‘the shocking truth about’, mistake ‘do not

do these’, how to ‘how to without (objectionable action)’ (2015).

9. A marketing manager must know the target audience. He must know what they

like, what they want from the product, what will make them to share messages

with others, also he should know what they do not like. Each target segment is Maulen68

different from others; therefore marketing managers need to make sure to know

incentives, which would influence on the target segment.

10. Marketing agencies should always trace results. It is important to know what is

being said about you, because negative information circulates faster. As it

happened with United Airlines. Even though they did not create any viral

commercial, their annotation caused them enormous money.

Figure 23: United breaks guitar music video

(Source:youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo)

11. Promotion should be an easy to share. It must include at least links, again, if it is

a game or video it should not be heavy, so customers could send or pass it to

others.

12. The more different marketing tools would marketer use the higher probability of

a campaign becoming successful. For example, they can combine video and

games as Chipotle did, or they can use blogs to promote a web page. There are

various different opportunities to work with.

13. Finally a commercial should not be necessarily expensive. Big investment does

not guarantee any success. Sometimes even companies make them look like a

home video, to make it more realistic. For example Grey Poupon did not spend

any money for launching their Facebook campaign, but gained enormous

popularity among people. Maulen69

These rules do not guarantee to make a campaign viral, they do increase possibility.

Therefore, marketing agencies should try to follow all of them.

11. Conclusion

In an era of high Internet consumption, there is an always chance for some commercials to become viral naturally. Thus, it is crucial for companies to understand which campaigns are more likely to benefit from viral marketing. Viral marketing campaigns have power to spread marketing messages quickly and effectively by bringing popularity to the company. It is important for consumers to know that they will benefit from spreading the message. Moreover, viral marketing is beneficial for any type of companies. Small companies can use it for gaining consumer’s trust and establishing a good reputation. Bigger companies can increase brand awareness, profit or renew its brand story, while consumers can benefit socially.

Since birth of the Internet, use of viral marketing is dramatically increasing; therefore, marketing managers should know how it works. In addition, consumers became more selective towards products and broadcasted messages. Companies are expanding their networks by using social network communities on the Internet. There they discuss and share personal opinions with each other, thereby spreading their thoughts around the world. These communities could be used as a platform for a viral commercial, because they can influence on others opinions. However, it can also change consumer’s opinion in a negative way. Therefore, after releasing the commercial marketing manager should trace results, in order to know that message was perceived by customer in a right way. Maulen70

Primary research gave an overall idea about viral marketing, but in order to understand viral marketing characteristics, how it works and how to make it successful, I examined a secondary research. This study demonstrated accuracy of Golan and Zaidner’s research. Once again, it was proven that content is very important element and humour is the one of the main initiators for sharing a video. Furthermore, it is important to create an emotional connection between customer and commercial, because it can influence on spreading it. Based on the research, the guideline with 13 rules were created for a future use:

1. Visuals are important

2. Promotion should include a clear marketing message

3. Interesting content is a part of the success

4. Commercial should provoke emotions

5. Length of the commercial is important

6. Different sources should be used

7. Content must be in trend

8. Name of the campaign must be eye-catching

9. Right target audience

10. Result should be traced

11. Campaign should be spreadable

12. Do not afraid to mix marketing techniques

13. Cost is not important

The guideline needs a further refinement and testing, which is the next aspect of the future research. Also, scholars in their research could create their own guidelines based Maulen71 on their examination and compare with each other. Moreover, they can discuss when a source is considered credible? What are the diffusion patterns of viral marketing in different countries? And what technologies could be used in transmission of the viral marketing message? Currently, there are a few researches relating to legal or ethical issues of viral marketing. They can investigate legal aspects of viral marketing and create ethical standard rules for viral marketing campaigns. Maulen72

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Appendices

Viral marketing research

Thank you for participating in my survey! It will take maximum 15 minutes. Everything is confidential. Where are you from? *

How old are you? *

What is your gender? *

o male o female What is your occupation? *

o student o employed o unemployed How often do you log on to the Internet each week? *

o 1-2 times per week o 3-4 times per week o 5-6 times per week o Everyday How much time on average do you spend browsing the Internet? (weekly) *

o 2-3 hours o 4-5 hours o 6-7 hours o 10 hours o 10+ hours Which social network site do you mostly use? *

o Facebook o VK o Twitter o Linkedin o Tumblr Maulen80 o Instagram o Other: How often do you use social networking sites? * o Once per day o Once per week o Several times per week o Several times every day o I don't use social networks Do you trust word-of-mouth on the Internet? * o yes o no Could you purchase product/service because of commercial? * o yes o no Please, agree or disagree on following statements

agree disagree

I am more likely to purchase product/service after advice from people I know

I generally trust e- mails received from people I know

I regularly watch videos on the Internet

I know that viral videos can contain marketing/advertising messages

I have spread videos to my friends/relatives before Maulen81

Do you view messages/videos sent or recommended by your friends/relatives? * o yes o no Please, select content of the video, you are more likely to spread * o Funny o Sad o Provocative o About your favorite celebrity o With animals o Social What would make you to share a video on your social network page? * o discounts o free samples o financial incentives o group membership o content of the video o to be in trend Do you read/ watch bloggers? * o yes o no What types of blogs do you read/ watch? * o Personal o Political o Sport o How-to, tips o Reviews o I don't read/watch blogs Can blogs influence you to purchase product/service? * o Sometimes o Yes o No Please, select the most trustworthy tool of the Internet * o e-mail o video Maulen82 o blog o social network Do you have anything to add? Did I forget to mention something?