Understanding Viral

You hear the term "viral" in advertising all the time it seems. People talk about viral videos, viral web sites, and viral everything.

The thing is, viral is a very specific and incredibly misused term. To help clear the air, this article talks about viral for what it specifically means, and ways to use the "v" word without confusing people.

This is a virus. Note how it doesn't look like a video or cartoon.

When You Hear "Viral," Think "Virus"
A virus is a not-complete piece of genetic material that gets into the cells of animals and replicates itself. By itself, it's useless. Once it enters a cell, however, it takes control of that cell, using it to propagate itself.

When you apply that to advertising, a viral advertising element is simply something that requires you to do stuff in order to make it work. In other words, if you don't do something to help pass the virus along, there are no laughs, and there's nothing special.

Once again -- if you laugh at an online video and mail it to ten friends, that's not a virus. You laughed at it. The video did it's job. If you had to forward the video to ten friends before you were able to view the punchline, then it would be a viral video.

But People Say It's Viral If You Forward It
Yes, they do. People also say pregnancy is 9 months, when it actuality it's more like 10. No matter what people tell you, if they consider something "viral" simply because it got popular, they're wrong. According to their logic, television shows, Pokemon, and naming your kid "Hunter" would all be viral advertising elements, which they are not.

The chicken had a viral-like response. Had he flopped, nobody would have used the "v" word.

To address advertisements or advertising elements that grow in popularity quickly, one could say that the element had a viral-like response. By this, it specifically means that something was passed in relationships of one person to many people, and was distributed to many people in short time. For example, one of those "forward this to 10 friends and win an X-Box" type emails is forwarded to ten friends, who forward it to 10 friends, who forward it on; and by the end of the day, the email has gone around the world. Of course, the emails never deliver the prize they promised.

Some experts use the term "viral" to describe these emails simply because they often contain computer viruses, but that's a whole different topic.

But Some Say Word Of Mouth Is Viral
No, it's not. Word of mouth is the medium -- it's the way people spread the message. It doesn't mean that they'll want to spread the message, or in any way be compelled or encouraged to do so. If you spend $25k to have Snoop Dogg tell 10 kids that broccoli is great and that everybody should eat it, it doesn't mean those kids are going to spread the message. In fact, kids are pretty smart, and will figure it's some kind of ad campaign, and will ignore it.

One sure way to kill a word of mouth campaign is to tell your audience to tell their friends. People are smart, and suspicious. If they think you're up to something, they'll tell you to go away.

Remember, viral is the strategy and the tactic, not the medium.

You Can Build Viral Campaigns

This guy will tell you he makes viral videos. Remember him?

Here's the deal, if you're simply making a Flash cartoon, online movie, or cute email, you're not building a viral campaign. Sure, your cartoon may get a viral-like response, but in no way was it viral. The reason is simple: there are literally thousands of Flash cartoons and online videos published on the Internet every single hour! You cannot tell a client that you will make a viral online video, because you can't control if people will like it, or send it out to friends.

Once again, the online video is the medium. Creating a viral campaign is a strategy, and using viral concepts are the tactics. Simply making and posting a video is like buying a lottery ticket.

Making Something Viral
First of all, to make a viral effort, you need to treat your campaign like you would all campaigns. Make sure you identify your target audience. Set your goals, budgets, and all those wonderful things you'd normally do. No campaign works for everybody.

Next, elements of your advertising effort have to remain unfinished. In order for someone to get the complete message, they have to perform some action. You need to make it very clear to them what will happen once they complete the action, you need to make it very clear what that action is, and then you most definitely have to give them what you promised them once they do. In the best viral efforts, people can continue to reap the reward every time they repeat the required action.

People won't pass it along simply because you tell them how.

Lastly, even without the viral action, the campaign has to have some kind of substance. Saying, "Send this to 10 friends and we'll give you something" isn't enough. Give them something that excites them, and make them want more and more. Then, when they're most interested, hit them with the viral element.

An Example Of A Viral Advertising Effort
You client is SNAZ Cola, and you want 7-11 to carry your product. 7-11 agrees to carry your product if you can prove that people are interested in your cola.

So you set up a viral campaign, co-branding it with Cingular. People visit your web site, and enter in the address of a 7-11 that doesn't carry your product. Players can "win" prizes in many ways:

• For each store they enter in the database, they receive a chance to win the Grand Prize, and 5 free mobile phone minutes. Any store already listed won't count.
• For each friend they invite to play the contest, they get 5 free mobile phone minutes. If that friend has already been invited, or is already a player, the entry doesn't count.
• For every store owner that signs up, the player who entered them into the database receives two entries into the Grand Prize drawing, and 15 free minutes from Cingular.
• Store owners who complete an order form for SNAZ Cola receive one case for free, and a $50 gift certificate from their drink distributor.

As you can see, not everybody would be interested in playing. Obviously people with non-Cingular mobile service providers might not be inclined to play. Likewise, if the prizes aren't interesting to the potential player, they may decide not to play.

What's important is that you can see how a good campaign offers many ways for someone to spread the message, with each action ending in a direct reward.

The Viral Explosion
What's important to learn here is that viral is an active, incomplete campaign. When done properly, it offers a huge return on investment, and great publicity.

What's important to note is that the technology communications explosion (what I like to call the Evernet) is making it possible for more people to do more things offline. As the online world grows, the backlash will be strong, with people craving offline, in-person events and activities. There is no better advertising element to use in a campaign to utilize this phenomenon than viral marketing.

By becoming good at viral marketing (and not viral-like results) now, you'll be a hot ticket when companies are clamoring to find people who can take advantage of the offline explosion that's coming.