Just because I sneeze on you doesn't make me a Viral Marketer

The good people at BoingBoing recently posted a fascinating story about how the BBC allegedly posted fake information on Wikipedia about a boy-band themed (?!) alternate reality game they gear towards teenage girls.  Immediately, red flags were raised, and dirty pool was alleged, and other sports-related metaphors were drawn, accusing the BBC of deceitfully devaluing a knowledge source by knowingly adding false information in an effort to attract visitors and (in theory) game customers. Critics artfully (and accurately) compare this tactic to the wave of fake blogs that are similarly designed to drum up buzz through deceit and which are being pooped out by some of my none-too-intelligent marketing peers with reckless abandon. Ahhh, deceit. The perfect way to start a relationship with my customers, isn't it?

On a side note, I had to grit my teeth a little bit every time one of the articles reporting on this tidbit mentioned that the BBC was doing this in an attempt to draft off "viral marketing." I respectfully suggest that Jeff Nolen add this term to "Moore's Law" and the "Long Tail" in the list of catch phrases that many people misapply on PowerPoint slides. Viral marketing is NOT coming up with a really neat, underground campaign to which your customers will flock through word-of-mouth by the zillions, thereby sturdily affixing a hockey stick graph to your annual growth charts until the end of days. This is, by definition, word-of-mouth marketing (and, arguably, a pipe-dream, but that's a different post).

Viral marketing references, by comparison, a service or product that, through it's very use, encourages the spread of the offering to other potential customers. Hotmail's free email product that appended its own ad at the bottom of each outbound email is a good example of this. Every time you use the product, you are subconsciously attempting to infect (no judgment here- just trying to keep the analogy going) all of your colleagues with a promotion for it. Anyone who signs up for it then becomes a carrier and the cycle continues.

So let's review:

LinkedIn - Viral - to use this effectively, you have to invite your colleagues to join.
Subservient Chicken - Word of Mouth - Fun? Yes. Popular? Indeed? Viral? No. (even asking the chicken to "advertise for Burger King" will only get the chicken to give you a thumbs-up)
Plaxo - Viral - To keep my address book up-to-date, the people in my address book have to opt-in.
Fake boy-band member listing on Wikipedia - Word of mouth (and frankly, but for the publicity the detractors are providing, this is a staggeringly misdirected word-of-mouth campaign. Who at the BBC thinks that 14-18 year old girls spend their time on Wikipedia?).

That is not to say that word-of-mouth doesn't factor into the viral play significantly. Obviously, no one would send promotions on behalf of LinkedIn or Plaxo if they didn't think the products had innate worth. And I've probably told about as many people about LinkedIn as I've sent emails through their system (not that many).

But still, a little accuracy please.

Comments

[George Silverman]

Finally someone got it right. I would only add to the definition of viral marketing "encourages 'and often requires' the spread of the offering to other potential customers."

For instance, long ago, the fax machine was viral: I had to require my clients to get fax machines to receive my messages.

[Brian Clark]

I'm not sure I *totally* agree with your definitions, but they are as good as any. I come from a more memetic background (call it a Rushkoffian approach), so to me "viral" implies "non-obvious" -- not everything that is "infectious" (as in your Hotmail example) is necessarily "viral". This isn't the same thing as stealth, mind you (where you're just trying to cover up the source), but it's different overt word-of-mouth.

"Bill Gates will send us all a million dollars if we forward this email on to 1 million people as a test of their new email tracking software" is a viral message. The hidden messages are "Microsoft can track your email" and "you'll still forward this on because you want something for nothing." It was a launched by memetic engineers (rather than appearing naturally as folklore) as a way to send a viral message about privacy of email. You're right that people become the vector of infection of other people, but the viral point is the hidden memetic message rather than the overt text.

Otherwise, by your definition, all pyramid scams and multi-level marketing are viral (and I don't think they are, even though they are infectious and social transmitted.)

But I've seen alot of those Powerpoints that are using "viral" as a synonym for "free promotion that we don't have to invest media spend on!" They are horrible to behold, and my tounge has permanent teeth marks from biting it during those meetings.