Viral marketing

If it was too hard to find a reason for telling your girlfriend that you rather watch football at Valentine's day than a big sports brand had the outcome. You just had to send the movie down below to your girlfriend and it would all be all right.

If you just saw thirty (or so) mean-looking guys singing a love song for you than you can't say that you are not impressed and that is just the effect that such a movie needs to create. In other words the movie needs to create a buzz in order to reach a big audience.

The movie was a part of the campaign of Puma and is a good example of how well a brand can use their target group to spread their communication message. This way of communicating a message is called viral marketing and can be (if done rightly) very effective. Viral marketing means that it goes from mouth to mouth or in digital terms from web user to web user in the form of movies, pictures, e-mails, websites or games. The main aspects of an effective viral marketing campaign are:

• That it is interactive and easy to send to other people
• That people want to participate and send it to their friends
• That it should not be clear right away that the message is a campaign message
• That it is shown on social network sites
• And above all, that it is striking, surprising and unique to stand out from the crowd.

Next to Puma, there are a lot of other famous viral marketing campaigns like the Dove Evolution campaign, Nike touch of gold or the "learn how to play guitar like this too" Guitar kid. In my opinion, it is a very interesting way of communicating a campaign throughout the internet and in specific, social media. It is cheaper than using traditional media, it is fast and it concentrates really on the target group. Side effects are that is almost impossible to stop a campaign and that a campaign have to be really creative in order to be succesful.

"If the Internet can be described as a giant human consciousness, then viral marketing is the illusion of free will."

By George Pendle

Google yourself

It is interesting to Google yourself from time to time; knowing that it is hard to keep things secret owing to the internet and the search giant.Especially when you are an artist it can lead to very surpising outcomes, ask Kate Perry. A few days ago she googled herself and it led to the the suprisingly fact that her boyfriend was planning to do her a proposal. No doubt that she is not the only artist who Google him or herself sometimes.

These are not the only secrets that are revealed with the aid of Google. Not long ago, a robbery was solved by means of Google Streetview. In Groningen (the Netherlands), a young boy had been robbed by two older boys. Unfortunately, the police had not had any clue about who the robbers were. Six months later the young boy was surfing on the internet and bumped into the photo that had been made by the Google streetview car. He recognized the place where he had been robbed and the two boys walking behind him. immediately he called the police who requested Google to obtain the photo without the blurred faces. The police recieved the photo and recognized one of the boys wich allready had a criminal record. That eventually the boys are released right after the arrest, is a different story to write about.

Nike: True City

Nike is a company that knows how to trigger you again and again with their marketing campaigns. On the television your attention is getting dragged to how people Hurt themself and online you get confronted with the brand at exactly the right time and place.



In line with the writing above, Nike launched a new application for the iPhone. With this application some different cities are shown troughout the eyes of some Nike-'experts' (Amsterdam is for example, shown by Nalden) but you can also upload your own point of view of the city. The experts will show you the hottest spots and events of the city. The cool and smart thing about it is that people create their own little community with nike addicts and feel connected with the brand. The application is about making people aware of new products and events but also contains a QR-reader (QR=Quick Reaction), which means that you can make a photo of a QR-code somewhere which immediately will lead you to the specific URL. Of course is the application launched together with a new shoe collection (each colors are limited and only available in the cities from the application).

This is in my opinion a good example of how companies can use social media to extend their marketing reach. It is a relative cheap and exciting way of communicating and make people feel connected with a brand. They use the Internet in an optimal way by triggering the consumer to download the application and create a vibe where it is cool to be a part of such a community. Well.... if Tilburg was one of the cities available in the application, I would be a member too :)

Media use in organisations

Uvt - Business Communication and Digital Media - Media use in organisations - Assignment - Bloggin