Comments on: 3 Rules For Managing Viral Marketing – What Every CMO Needs To Know http://experiencecurve.com/archives/three-rules-for-managing-viral-marketing-what-every-cmo-needs-to-know Learning and writing about emerging internet culture Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:06:05 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: links for 2007-03-18 : Narrow Blog http://experiencecurve.com/archives/three-rules-for-managing-viral-marketing-what-every-cmo-needs-to-know/comment-page-1#comment-342 links for 2007-03-18 : Narrow Blog Sun, 18 Mar 2007 10:20:14 +0000 http://experiencecurve.com/?p=172#comment-342 [...] 3 Rules For Managing Viral Marketing - What Every CMO Needs To Know at ExperienceCurve (tags: viral marketing advertising blog articles tips content) [...] [...] 3 Rules For Managing Viral Marketing – What Every CMO Needs To Know at ExperienceCurve (tags: viral marketing advertising blog articles tips content) [...]

]]> By: Tad http://experiencecurve.com/archives/three-rules-for-managing-viral-marketing-what-every-cmo-needs-to-know/comment-page-1#comment-341 Tad Thu, 22 Feb 2007 05:11:55 +0000 http://experiencecurve.com/?p=172#comment-341 Karl, Great post on viral. One observation I've noticed is that we tend to associate viral marketing with glamorous PR stunts. However, the most valuable buzz- product recommendations- come from little acts that surprise and delight consumers: JetBlue's free DirectTV, Apple's design asthetic, and Scion's no haggling price policy. Get an entire company, product designers, customer service reps and all, to start thinking about viral and now you truly unleash the power of viral marketing. Karl,

Great post on viral. One observation I’ve noticed is that we tend to associate viral marketing with glamorous PR stunts. However, the most valuable buzz- product recommendations- come from little acts that surprise and delight consumers: JetBlue’s free DirectTV, Apple’s design asthetic, and Scion’s no haggling price policy. Get an entire company, product designers, customer service reps and all, to start thinking about viral and now you truly unleash the power of viral marketing.

]]> By: karl long http://experiencecurve.com/archives/three-rules-for-managing-viral-marketing-what-every-cmo-needs-to-know/comment-page-1#comment-340 karl long Wed, 21 Feb 2007 18:35:36 +0000 http://experiencecurve.com/?p=172#comment-340 Thanks for the comment Dan, and I think you have a point about costs. Maybe what I should say is success bares "little" relationship to cost, as opposed to "no" relationship. Your point about making something remarkable and staying on brand is an obvious challenge especially when you are in a very large company. I personally think that marketing and branding theory is somewhat behind the times, companies are becoming more prorus (as demonstrated by this conversation) and therefore monolithic command and control is a hindrance to the innovation that can happen at the edges. That being said I have never created a viral adversing campaign, and my theories about how to manage them are just theories. The theories mind you actually come from product innovation process that I learned on my Design Management MBA, I haven't invented the idea of an innovation portfolio approach, just adapted it from industrial design theory to viral marketing. Thanks for the comment Dan, and I think you have a point about costs. Maybe what I should say is success bares “little” relationship to cost, as opposed to “no” relationship. Your point about making something remarkable and staying on brand is an obvious challenge especially when you are in a very large company. I personally think that marketing and branding theory is somewhat behind the times, companies are becoming more prorus (as demonstrated by this conversation) and therefore monolithic command and control is a hindrance to the innovation that can happen at the edges.

That being said I have never created a viral adversing campaign, and my theories about how to manage them are just theories. The theories mind you actually come from product innovation process that I learned on my Design Management MBA, I haven’t invented the idea of an innovation portfolio approach, just adapted it from industrial design theory to viral marketing.

]]> By: Dan http://experiencecurve.com/archives/three-rules-for-managing-viral-marketing-what-every-cmo-needs-to-know/comment-page-1#comment-339 Dan Wed, 21 Feb 2007 18:24:55 +0000 http://experiencecurve.com/?p=172#comment-339 Interesting thoughts about viral. Some of what you say is not in doubt, but I would disagree with your point about costs not being at all proportional to success: a "viral" campaign it is much more likely to succeed if the right amount of money has been put into two things: the creative development, plus the seeding. That is not to say that there are not expensive flops or no-budget successes, of course, but I think a correlation does exist. Since you mentioned it on our Nokia intranet, I would like to point out that I didn't personally call the www.The-Passenger.com site viral (… at least not yet, though viral is an ambition), but what we have tried to do is take the product demo of car products to another level, and I think we have definitely succeeded in that sense. It is also a site that people are starting to talk about, which was an aim: to create a piece of advertising worth mentioning in the right blogs. That process is just starting, and hopefully will continue. In general it is very difficult to ensure that what is created is cool enough to make people want to pass it on, especially while staying on brand etc: I would be interested whether you have ever created a successful viral campaign, perhaps even utilizing your rules? Perhaps test and learn is the best strategy though: a sort of real options theory for creative development. Interesting thoughts about viral. Some of what you say is not in doubt, but I would disagree with your point about costs not being at all proportional to success: a “viral” campaign it is much more likely to succeed if the right amount of money has been put into two things: the creative development, plus the seeding. That is not to say that there are not expensive flops or no-budget successes, of course, but I think a correlation does exist.

Since you mentioned it on our Nokia intranet, I would like to point out that I didn’t personally call the http://www.The-Passenger.com site viral (… at least not yet, though viral is an ambition), but what we have tried to do is take the product demo of car products to another level, and I think we have definitely succeeded in that sense. It is also a site that people are starting to talk about, which was an aim: to create a piece of advertising worth mentioning in the right blogs. That process is just starting, and hopefully will continue.

In general it is very difficult to ensure that what is created is cool enough to make people want to pass it on, especially while staying on brand etc: I would be interested whether you have ever created a successful viral campaign, perhaps even utilizing your rules?

Perhaps test and learn is the best strategy though: a sort of real options theory for creative development.

]]> By: Susi Ma http://experiencecurve.com/archives/three-rules-for-managing-viral-marketing-what-every-cmo-needs-to-know/comment-page-1#comment-338 Susi Ma Thu, 01 Feb 2007 11:20:11 +0000 http://experiencecurve.com/?p=172#comment-338 Great post! But just a suggestion from a non-native english speaker "Success bares no relation to investment..." wouldn't you use "bears" instead of "bares"? Great post! But just a suggestion from a non-native english speaker

“Success bares no relation to investment…” wouldn’t you use “bears” instead of “bares”?

]]> By: jenerous - Podcast Interviews with Entrepreneurs and Marketers » Blog Archive » Karl Long of Local Zing on CGM and Viral Marketing http://experiencecurve.com/archives/three-rules-for-managing-viral-marketing-what-every-cmo-needs-to-know/comment-page-1#comment-336 jenerous - Podcast Interviews with Entrepreneurs and Marketers » Blog Archive » Karl Long of Local Zing on CGM and Viral Marketing Sat, 27 Jan 2007 00:37:08 +0000 http://experiencecurve.com/?p=172#comment-336 [...] From that tagline, his experience running an Internet marketing company called Local Zing, his great blog posts, and his sweet podcast, I knew that doing a podcast with him was going to be great and I was not disappointed. [...] [...] From that tagline, his experience running an Internet marketing company called Local Zing, his great blog posts, and his sweet podcast, I knew that doing a podcast with him was going to be great and I was not disappointed. [...]

]]> By: Ed Reif http://experiencecurve.com/archives/three-rules-for-managing-viral-marketing-what-every-cmo-needs-to-know/comment-page-1#comment-337 Ed Reif Thu, 25 Jan 2007 17:35:45 +0000 http://experiencecurve.com/?p=172#comment-337 Experiment. Monitor. Respond. Check out the 2000 Blogger Project at http://hotelanyware.blogspot.com Ed Are we there yet? Experiment. Monitor. Respond. Check out the 2000 Blogger Project

at http://hotelanyware.blogspot.com

Ed

Are we there yet?

]]> By: The Advertorialist » Blog Archive » Introduction… and Reverse Graffiti http://experiencecurve.com/archives/three-rules-for-managing-viral-marketing-what-every-cmo-needs-to-know/comment-page-1#comment-335 The Advertorialist » Blog Archive » Introduction… and Reverse Graffiti Thu, 28 Sep 2006 00:22:55 +0000 http://experiencecurve.com/?p=172#comment-335 [...] I picked this up via BoingBoing a few days ago, but I’m still thinking about it.  We work hard at madison.com to differentiate ourselves from the newspapers. We’re really trying to build a site that is representative of all of Madison, including but not limited to, the newspapers.  To that end, we’re always thinking about methods of viral marketing (tks gapingvoid.com) we can use to set our brand apart. [...] [...] I picked this up via BoingBoing a few days ago, but I’m still thinking about it.  We work hard at madison.com to differentiate ourselves from the newspapers. We’re really trying to build a site that is representative of all of Madison, including but not limited to, the newspapers.  To that end, we’re always thinking about methods of viral marketing (tks gapingvoid.com) we can use to set our brand apart. [...]

]]> By: Eric Kintz http://experiencecurve.com/archives/three-rules-for-managing-viral-marketing-what-every-cmo-needs-to-know/comment-page-1#comment-334 Eric Kintz Mon, 18 Sep 2006 15:15:34 +0000 http://experiencecurve.com/?p=172#comment-334 Karl, Thought you would enjoy the research HP Labs completed on viral marketing Eric http://h20325.www2.hp.com/blogs/kintz/archive/2006/09/17/1612.html Karl,

Thought you would enjoy the research HP Labs completed on viral marketing
Eric

http://h20325.www2.hp.com/blogs/kintz/archive/2006/09/17/1612.html

]]> By: aaron http://experiencecurve.com/archives/three-rules-for-managing-viral-marketing-what-every-cmo-needs-to-know/comment-page-1#comment-333 aaron Wed, 23 Aug 2006 04:57:10 +0000 http://experiencecurve.com/?p=172#comment-333 OK, here's a question for everyone. How do I get a viral marketing campaign to succeed? I mean, of course I want people to talk about my product and service, but that doesn't mean that they will. We tried tell a friend campaigns, creating a free flash game, and it's minimal. It seems like it's just luck. I mean look at "Snakes on a Plane". Why was there a pre release buzz about that movie, and not others? How did people even know enough about that movie to create the buzz before it was even out? We just found a company at fmnmedia.com that gets down to the core of the situation. Viral buzz is people writing about your company online in forum posts, blogs, etc, etc. This company will get people and do that for you. The fastest path between two points is a straight line, no? OK, here’s a question for everyone. How do I get a viral marketing campaign to succeed? I mean, of course I want people to talk about my product and service, but that doesn’t mean that they will. We tried tell a friend campaigns, creating a free flash game, and it’s minimal. It seems like it’s just luck. I mean look at “Snakes on a Plane”. Why was there a pre release buzz about that movie, and not others? How did people even know enough about that movie to create the buzz before it was even out?

We just found a company at fmnmedia.com that gets down to the core of the situation. Viral buzz is people writing about your company online in forum posts, blogs, etc, etc. This company will get people and do that for you. The fastest path between two points is a straight line, no?

]]>