Viral Marketing

Presented by:
M. Salman Khan
Mohammad Ali Jinnah University,
Karachi.
What is Viral Marketing
Viral marketing describes any strategy that
encourages individuals to pass on a marketing
message to others, creating the potential for
exponential growth in the message's exposure and
influence. 

Like viruses, such strategies take advantage of rapid

multiplication to explode the message to thousands,
to millions.
Objective
The primary objective of this technique
is to circulate your message and get
people to know about you and your
company on the Internet.

Go to: 1st Video

The Classic Hotmail.com Example
The classic example of viral marketing is
Hotmail.com, one of the first free Web-
based e-mail services.
 Cont…

In December 1996 Hotmail had 

500,000 registered users less than a year
later they had over 12,000,000 users. This
astonishing growth rate was down to the fact
that every single email sent from Hotmail
included a small advert promoting the service
in the footer The strategy was simple: Attach
a simple tag at the bottom of every free
message sent out:

"Get your private, free email at http://www.hotmail.com"

 Viral Marketing comes to Pakistan
via Facebook
Coke Studio fever has overtaken the
country and has become impossible to
escape.
Saba Imtiaz
The News
Instep Today

There are two Coke Studio billboards on my route

home. When I flip through television channels there
are Advertisements running on at least two of them for
the show. If I log on to Facebook, my home page is
full of updates from either Coke Studio or links to
videos that friends have re-posted on Facebook from
Coke Studio’s official page or their Youtube channel.
There are hundreds of comments and ‘likes’. My phone
will ring with alerts from Coke Studio, they registered
my number the first time I used it to download a
ringtone.
Elements of viral marketing 
An effective viral marketing strategy must include some of the
following elements:

 Free products or services – this is an effective method to

create faster results
 Effortless transfer of message to others – employ
emails, podcasts, websites, graphics, software downloads or
videos to transfer your marketing messages
 Use of pre-existing communication networks
 Exploiting common motivations and behaviors (Zaid Hamid)
 Taking advantage of others' resources to place links on
other websites. (e.g: Link Exchange System)
 Types of Viral Marketing
 Pass-along: A message which
encourages the user to send the message
to others. The crudest form of this is chain
letters where a message at the bottom of
the e-mail prompts the reader to forward
the message. (e.g: www.hotmail.com)
Types of Viral Marketing
 Incentivised: A reward is offered for
either passing a message along or
providing someone else's address. This
can dramatically increase referrals.
(e.g: www.friendfinder.com)
Types of Viral Marketing
 Undercover: A viral message
presented as a cool or unusual page,
activity, or piece of news, without
obvious incitements to link or pass
along. This is where you really don’t
know or understand that you are
being targeted for a marketing
campaign.
Example of Undercover Marketing
Sony Ericsson used stealth marketing in 2002
when they hired 60 actors in 10 major cities, and
had them “accost strangers and ask them: Would
you mind taking my picture?” The actor then
handed the stranger a brand new picture phone
while talking about how cool the new device was.
“And thus an act of civility was converted into a
branding event.” (Taken from Walker, Rob. The
Hidden (In Plain Sight) Persuaders. New York
Times Magazine; Dec 5, 2004; New York Times
pg. 68)
Viral Marketing in Action

A message should be:

(1) Fun, intriguing, and capture the imagination

(2) Attached to a highly visible/easy to use product and be

communicated with various available technologies

(3) Well-targeted to reference groups and other opinion

leaders who play significant roles in consumers’ decision
making

(4) Associated with a credible source to enhance

believability. Go to: 2nd Video
Lot More to share but enough for today

to be cont…
Thanks