Viral and Word of Mouth Marketing

While the panel (Brad Pick/Edelman, Luis Cabrera/The Bravo Group, Gene Derose/HouseParty.com) was very knowledgeable, gave enjoyable presentations, and offered great examples of big business ventures in this area of marketing, they offered nothing for the little guy.  In the online world viral and WOM ventures have grown and developed from the actions of marketers operating on a fraction of the budgets necessary for most of what was displayed in this session. Except for, oddly enough, the panel’s own selections of their favorite viral campaigns.

The big business concepts need to be discussed, but so do the concepts that are the foundation of this marketing approach.  There was no mention even of the risks involved in going too far, and there are plenty of examples of rogue marketers getting burned when they really push the envelope.

A perfect example of cheap viral marketing would be a campaign by the fairly large brand Six Flags.  In order to drive people to their site and into their theme parks, their agency placed a posting on craigslists.com “I heard you could get two free tickets to six flags by…” They gave away 45,000 tickets in one day, and it barely costs them anything.  This is no longer a legal option according to craigslist.com’s terms and conditions, but a wonderful example of what you can do when you think outside the box.

This point budget limitations was brought up by an attendee and, thankfully, the panelists acknowledged that there is a lot you can do on a limited budget as long as you are focused on and present a honest message.  It just would have been nice if they had spent sometime on examples for this very large part of the online community.  They may not write the checks for big campaigns, but they do drive that highly coveted traffic we all look for.