6 rules for "viral" marketing

Virals, eh? If there was another such misused, misunderstood and misinterpreted term in the history of marketing, then I'm yet to stumble across it. And it seems that over the last decade the problem just hasn't gone away. So, I'm taking proactive steps to rid the world of this particular albatross through the medium of Powerpoint. Well, and this blog.

My top six pain points with "viral" are listed above. And over the next few days, I'll try and flesh each of them out in seperate posts. If I stuck them all in one place the collation of that much concentrated angst may make Typepad fall over.

Would love to hear your thoughts on viral. Good and bad examples. Painful stories of woe and the odd glimmer of success. Do share. It will be cathartic for us all.

Here are the completed Rules to date:

Rule #1 "Viral" is NOT a noun

Rule #2 This is still marketing, never forget that

Rule #3a Not all virals are videos

Comments

[Mike Laurie]

Never forget seeding.

[Matt Law]

I used to know a guy who made electric lights, but whenever he talked about it, he insisted on calling them "lights" and holding his fingers by his head, making inverted commas either side of the word.

He insisted that "light" was not a noun, it was a verb and it is something that happens rather than the physical thing itself. He was an expert in his field, so some people believed him. The rest of us thought that it sounded slightly ridiculous.

Joking aside, I think it is fair to have the word "viral" as a noun, in the same way that there are many other nouns defined by their intent (e.g. Planner, Creative, jolly, dance, light, speech, etc).

I am happy to use "viral" from now on, as long as we agree to refer to the planning team as "planners" :)

Agree with the rest of the points very much though. Looking forward to reading it.

Rave safe

[Ewarwoowar]

Ahhh, the insightful sarcasm of Mr Law. How we shall miss it as you jaunt across the States.

But annoyingly you are totally correct. I couldn't think about a new way to spin the line, so I blindly wrote out the post as I originally intended. Just don't tell anyone.