Viral Marketing – The Best Knock-Your-Socks-Off Viral Marketing Campaigns Ever

**ZekeLL** · 02-10-2009 10:55 AM

The Internet has allowed us to achieve the unthinkable. Reach millions of viewers, increase sales by 200, nay 500%, and grow our business till it’s too big to fit in the garage, all for a minimum investment. We may not have the advertising might of giants like Nike, Honda, or Pepsi, but, thankfully, we don’t need it. With a budget of about 1,000 bucks (or even less!), we have the possibility to create a really great viral ad and implement a campaign that will bring us ROI beyond our wildest dreams. However, it’s not that simple. We still have to come up with this magnificent stroke of genius, the kind of ad or video that will have everyone talking, and spread faster that you can say, “Achoo!”.

If it is inspiration you seek, then take a look at these memorable viral campaigns. Hopefully, they´ll provide valuable lessons as to what kinds of things attract audiences, as well as insights into the kind of resources you can use to create a truly original viral ad.

1. The Million Dollar Homepage (www.milliondollarhomepage.com)
How many people smacked themselves on the head for not thinking of this? About a million? Alex Tew, its 21-year-old creator, made an initial investment of £50 on the domain name and a basic web-hosting package. Then, he proceeded to sell a pixel on his page for one dollar. The rest is history. He reached his goal of earning one million dollars and then some. Now, he’s selling 1000 limited edition poster prints (signed by Alex himself!) and offering an opportunity to “own a print of Internet history.”

2. Transport for London - Do The Test (www.dothetest.co.uk)
If you surprise the viewer, you will surely be successful in going viral, as shown by this brilliant ad developed by Transport for London. The campaign was created to increase safety for cyclists. It is tremendously effective in getting its point across. They have now launched a new awareness test on their website in a whodunit scenario.

3. Burger King - Subservient Chicken (www.subservientchicken.com)
A classic among viral campaign ads, this one allows you to “have it your way” with our feathered friend. It was created to promote Burger King’s Tender Crisp chicken sandwich, and the numbers prove it was highly successful in doing so. What makes it so deliciously viral is the interactivity; you send in a command in a message box and the chicken willingly obliges. There are more than 300 different commands that the chicken will act upon, thus entertaining the user for hours.

4. Blendtec - Will It Blend? (www.willitblend.com)
This is highly addictive stuff, folks! Watch Tom blend anything from iPods to a bag of marbles, and you’ll want more. Reportedly, Blendtec blenders sales increased by a whopping 800%. Sheer genius.

5. Smirnoff – Tea Partay (www.teapartay.com)
Watch these stereotypical preppy rich kids rap, and you’ll understand the ad’s viral power. By April 2007, it had more than 3 million hits on You Tube, and now has its own website.

6. Dove Evolution Video (www.campaignforrealbeauty.com)
One of the most talked about ads in recent years, it was an integral part of Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty. It has won awards, been discussed in mainstream TV programs, and the exposure generated by this spot has an estimated worth of 150 million dollars. It is inspiring in more ways than one.

7. Hotmail
No list of the most successful viral marketing campaigns would be complete without Hotmail’s emblematic campaign. All it took was a small ad attached to every outgoing email inviting the recipient to join, and in a very short time, Hotmail grew to mammoth proportions.

You’ve heard it before. Emulate; don’t imitate. Pray to the muses for inspiration and you just might make a cool million. Or at least get a million viewers.

**iVideoLocal** · 02-10-2009 11:22 AM

Originally Posted by ZekeLL

You’ve heard it before. Emulate; don’t imitate. Pray to the muses for inspiration and you just might make a cool million. Or at least get a million viewers.

This is the most important part, come up with something original.

**VCNetwork** · 02-10-2009 11:26 AM

its super hard to think of a viral marketing scheme.. I have over a hundred users but I can not figure out how to get my users to get me more users other then just keep on updating my sites content and hopefully someone will find osmething extremely useful and begin spreading the word.

**ZekeLL** · 02-10-2009 03:37 PM

Hey VCNetwork,

Feel free to contact me at info@TheOutsourcingCompany.com so I can give you some ideas on how to do it.

**Nordstrom** · 02-10-2009 04:22 PM

For me Viral marketing is the only real method to stand out from others. A majority is using everything you can read about, if you have a business you should have a viral marketing campaign as well as a "normal" marketing campaign.

I can get 10.000 viewers on any site just with a simple viral technique. If you don't have a viral marketing plan yet, just feel comfortable that you can increase your business value with one. My tips - go get one NOW.

The problem with it is that like a business you need experience to know how to find them, and without that experience and knowledge you will be looking for a random thought - much like your business-idea it might happen and it might not.

**Gopal Dev** · 02-11-2009 01:00 AM

Here is some info on ''Viral Marketing Power'' that may be of use:

The term viral marketing often evokes confusion and sometimes a little fear, but let me assure you it is harmless. If anything, when applied correctly it can be one of the most powerful tools for your business. Viral Marketing describes any strategy that encourages people to pass on a marketing message to others, creating the potential for exponential growth in the message's exposure and influence. Similar to viruses multiplying, the message can reach a huge audience in very little time. Unlike computer viruses, Internet viral marketing requires the message to be appealing in some way, in order for people to consciously and willingly pass it on.

Long before the Internet ever existed, viral marketing has been practised as "word-of-mouth" promotion, using the media (press/radio/TV), or network marketing. If you are going to implement an Internet viral marketing campaign, you will need to create what is called a ''viral agent''. This is the item that you will use to illicit a positive reaction from your recipients and makes them volunteer to pass it along to their contacts. The quality of your viral agent will decide whether people do so or not. It’s also important that the message can be passed on easily. This might mean including a ''please send to a friend'' button, or at the very least making sure that it can be easily passed on by email. It is particularly effective to have your viral agent hosted at one particular location, as people will be able to send their friends a simple link to it. This will also benefit the viral agent’s exposure in the search engines, allowing even more people to see your message.
A lot of planning should go into setting up an online viral marketing campaign. Not every campaign will work, or at its full potential so here are the main components that should be included in your viral message, in order to maximize its effectiveness.

1) Give away products or services for free (picture, audio, video, software, game, cartoon, poem, joke, survey, tip of the day etc.). "Free" is the most powerful word in a marketer's vocabulary. Viral marketers may not profit from their efforts today, or tomorrow, but if they can generate a groundswell of interest from something that is totally free, they know they will have long lasting success.

2) Make it easy for people to share your message via email, website, software download, social networks, instant messages, forums, etc…Viral marketing works amazingly well online because instant communication has become so easy and inexpensive. From a marketing standpoint, you must simplify your marketing message so it can be transmitted with the click of a mouse and without any loss in quality or content. The shorter and more focused, the better.

3) Tap into people's common motivations and behaviours (humour, greed, shock, inspiration, intrigue, urgency, compassion, desire to be popular, cool, or loved etc.) These fundamental human qualities and urges have resulted in millions of websites created and billions of e-mail messages sent. Design a marketing strategy that exploits them and you will have struck gold.

4) Use existing communication networks. Each person has a close network of family, friends, co-workers, associates, and a reservoir of their referrals. A person's broader network may therefore consist of scores, hundreds, or thousands of people, depending upon her position in society. Network marketers have long understood the power of these human networks. People on the Internet can build huge networks too using e-mail, instant messaging, forums, social networks, torrents and other file sharing communities (MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, MSN, Yahoo, LinkedIn, Flickr, etc…)

5) Take advantage of others' resources. Writing and giving away free articles, so they can get on others' web sites is a great way to establish yourself as someone who is knowledgeable in your field and will attract viewers to your site. Include your URL, brand name, and contact info within everything you post online and promote your business. This can spread like wildfire. Press releases can be picked up by hundreds of news sites as well and popularise your name. A video hosted on YouTube will not cost you any money in server bandwidth when more and more people access it. This way others' resources are depleted rather than your own.

As you can see a well-crafted viral marketing campaign can explode your business online using a variety of outlets in very little time.

Gopal (The Musical Mad Scientist and Entrepreneur)
The v-Fusion Group