Mr. McKee

Sales & Marketing

The Profits and Perils of Viral Marketing

By Steve McKee, President, McKee Wallwork Cleveland

Viral marketing. It's all the rage today, and sometimes it seems like everybody's going viral. But what exactly is viral marketing? How does it work? And when should you try to employ it?

Contrary to popular belief, viral marketing has been around forever. It's basically word-of-mouth, only instead of the "virus" spreading through conversation it's spread through user groups, websites, email, instant messaging and a host of other technologies.

There are two main differences between today's viral efforts and yesterday's word-of-mouth marketing: intent and intensity:

• First, intent. Word of mouth has always been the most valuable form of marketing, for the simple reason that when a trusted friend or colleague recommends a product or service, a) they have a level of one-on-one intimacy with the "target audience" (typically a friend or family member) that no marketer could replicate, and b) they have no ulterior motives. That makes their recommendations personal and trustworthy.
  
  But while companies have always respected and valued word of mouth marketing, for most of recorded history they had no way of generating it beyond providing quality customer experiences. If they did a good job people would spread the word, and if they let customers down the same would happen. While the people on the operations side of the company made it their goal to please customers so that positive word of mouth would be generated, it was rarely a task the marketing department tried to take on.

• Second, intensity. Word of mouth, by definition, has always been spread person-to-person. In the past that transmission took place one conversation at a time, at whatever pace life allowed. If you had dinner with a friend you might tell her about a wonderful hotel or vacation experience you had, but there was no reason (or ability) to email her the news. Except for the occasional consumer boycott or letter-writing campaign, the virus spread slowly.
  
  But in the age of the Internet things have changed dramatically. Now anytime an advertiser does something noteworthy-for better or worse-word of it can travel around the globe in minutes.

So what is a marketer to do in this brave new world?

• First, approach it with intent. Don't' be intimidated, but simply recognize that it's a new game we're playing, with a 24-hour news cycle, short consumer attention spans and unprecedented communications capabilities. Somebody somewhere is always looking for the next interesting thing, and no matter what you're selling there's an angle that can generate interest.

• Second, respect the intensity with which your ideas can succeed or fail. Launching a viral marketing campaign is like striking a match-it may burn itself out with a small puff of smoke or it may set a forest of interest aflame. That's both the beauty and the risk of viral marketing-despite your best efforts you never know ahead of time what will or won't catch on (now you know how Hollywood feels). You must be willing to take risks and you must be willing to fail.

Here are some guidelines my company has learned (sometimes the hard way) about viral marketing campaigns:

• Rule number one is that a successful viral campaign is likely to involve some element of risk. If it isn't somehow bold or daring it probably won't get noticed and certainly won't go viral. However, risky means, well, risky. You probably remember the Cartoon Network campaign in Boston where they planted small boxes with LED displays around various points of the city. When the campaign came to the attention of the Boston police department (and bomb squad), a lot of people got into trouble. The risks you take don't have to involve law enforcement (it's a good idea to stay away from that one) but they could cost you time, money and maybe even a little egg on your face if things don't work out.

• Second, you must plan carefully so that if the campaign does go viral, it goes viral to the right people. It may be easy to get teenage kids excited about passing along your idea, but if your target is upscale vacationers it won't do you any good. And the more sophisticated your audience, the less time they'll have to participate-and the harder it will be to impress them. Miss your target audience and you'll miss the whole point.

• Which leads to the third guideline: if a viral campaign doesn't fit your overall brand strategy, don't do it. The business press loves to feature hot, new ideas, and viral campaigns qualify as both. If you're not out there with a viral effort you may feel like you're missing the boat. But if you read between the lines in some of those articles you'll see comments from campaign sponsors like "it's really starting to take off" or "it's exceeding our expectations" without any supporting hard numbers. That may indicate the campaign isn't working out the way it was intended. Be smart, and don't do viral just for the sake of doing viral.

That said, one of the biggest mistakes a company can make today is thinking viral marketing is limited to crazy YouTube videos. Sure, an online video is one way of creating interest, but there are an infinite number of other ideas. I can't think of a single hotel or destination for which an effective viral campaign can't be created. It may take more imagination, but it can be done. Our 2006 effort for Taos Ski Valley, a small, family-owned resort in northern New Mexico, is still paying dividends (check it out at www.ThePurification.org ).

In one sense, viral marketing is no different from any other type of marketing. It must put the customers' interests first, it must be interesting to them, and it must offer some form of reward-even if it's just the satisfaction that comes from passing it on. The fact that your customers are active participants in the process just makes it all the more fun.

Like a four-dimensional puzzle in a three-dimensional world, viral marketing is more challenging than running an ad or sending a direct mail campaign. You'll never fail if you never try, but you can't succeed that way either.

Steve McKee is President of McKee Wallwork Cleveland, a full-service advertising agency with significant experience in the tourism, travel and hospitality industries. He is considered a growth company marketing expert and understands the unique challenges growth companies face.Named to the Inc. 500 list of America’s fastest-growing private companies in 2002, the agency is a two-time winner of the American Marketing Association’s EFFIE Award for marketing effectiveness. Mr. McKee can be contacted at 505-821-2999 or smckee@mwcmail.com Extended Bio...

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