Talk:Viral marketing/Archives/2012

Add Ray-Ban youtube video to examples?
This video: http: // www .youtube .com/watch?v=-prfAENSh2k is really a part of a campaign for Ray-Ban glasses (source: http: // www .adweek .com/aw/national/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003585432 ). Maybe worth adding to the list? 84.217.140.70 10:04, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

Always positive?
Does Viral Marketing have to positive (i.e advertising your product). An example of this is the rumour that patene 2 in 1 shampoo is bad for your hair and might make it fall out? - robecq

Buzz (Word of mouth ) is a condition while viral marketing is a tool used to stimulate word of mouth.

Cylution is plagarizing this article too
[http: // www .cylution .com/viral-marketing/definition Cylution] is using Wikipedia articles as their "definition" content, without even attributing it. Isn't that plagarism?


 * Yes, it is. A Standard GFDL violation letter is probably in order. &mdash; Isogolem 06:44, 16 March 2006 (UTC)

Viral in another sense?
This has nothing to do with using computer viruses to turn machines into relays for e-mail spam, right? --Damian Yerrick 19:03, 26 May 2005 (UTC)

no, not at all —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.253.113.133 (talk) 02:33, 26 November 2009 (UTC)

Gorgonbox?
Is or should be Gorgon Box @ www.gorgonbox .com counted as Viral Marketing? - Bestrest.

External links and Examples of viral marketing
There is a pretty short but poignant blog post called [http: // www .cogmill .com/?p=11 "Viral Marketing In A Nutshell"] at Cogmill which is a business but I believe some of the content to be relevant. Any thoughts?
 * I think a link to that blog post from the article would be removed as spam. Its a short but very generic summary definition of viral marketing. betsythedevine 20:37, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

I'd like to suggest this german article (interview with the "aladygma" maker) about viral marketing:
 * Die Macher des Internetpuzzles Aladygma über Indie-Games, Netzkunst und Virales Marketing —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.223.100.194 (talk) 14:04, 16 November 2008 (UTC)

I'd like to suggest this book about viral marketing:
 * http: // www .lulu .com/content/892098 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 151.47.131.64 (talk) 07:23, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

I would like to add a link to http://www.tweetypoll.com/?page_id=2 as a viable way to use twitter to induce viral marketing. sites like fun140.com use polls on twitter to produce over 100 thousand unique visits per month to their website. Tweetypoll (talk) 03:43, 12 April 2010 (UTC)

I've moved the following links here from the main page: If you'd like to add some of them back per External links, please discuss it here first. brenneman (t) (c) 12:59, 8 August 2005 (UTC)
 * ad-rag .com/ Adland archives viral as well as as TV ads, reports on new campaigns]
 * adverblog .com/ Adverblog Buzz and Wireless advertising, SMS, MMS, flash games, films]
 * www.viralmeister .com/ Viralmeister viral films]
 * www.viralbank .com Viral Bank]
 * viral-power.blogspot .com Viral Marketing on the Web]
 * www.viralchart .com/ The Viral Chart]
 * sinless.org/mailman/listinfo/viralbomb Viralbomb viral announcement list]
 * www.viraladvertisingassociation .com/ The viral advertising industry body]
 * www.vbma.net/ VBMA, the Viral and Buzz Marketing Association]
 * www.crazystress.blogspot.com [The Viral Awards]
 * www.theviralfactory .com/ The Viral Factory agency]
 * www.asabailey .com/ ASABAILEY The Viral Advertising Agency]
 * goviral/ Goviral Danish viral agency]
 * Could not evaluate content, link did not work for me.
 * www.ebolaindustries .com/ Ebola Industries Italian viral agency]
 * www.ifeeder.net/ iFeeder] leading viral video repository
 * www.quozz .com/ Quozz Advertising : Viral & Interactive]

I've also moved the following examples of viral marketing here from the main page: Again, if you'd like to add some of them back, please discuss it here first. brenneman (t) (c) 12:59, 8 August 2005 (UTC)
 * www.clearahill .com Clearasil]'s snowboarding game - high traffic
 * Google's Gmail
 * Paypal
 * Blue Mountain
 * eCrush .com/ eCrush .com]'s Business Model
 * Pokemon
 * Bounty's www.brawnyman .com/innocentescapes/indexbroadband.html Innocent Escapes]
 * MSN's Hotmail
 * McDonald's The Lincoln Fry Blog
 * Sharp's Dagobert Steinitz puzzle
 * Trojan Condoms' /www.trojangames.co.uk/ Trojan Games]
 * DemaSked www.demasked .com/ DemaSked]
 * OurColony.net
 * Universal Orlando Resort's Vacation Advocacy Commercials and IWantMyVacation .com
 * beer .com/ Beer .com]'s Virtual Bartender
 * Halo's Haunted Apiary
 * Ford Motor Company's SportKa advertisements - controvesial


 * I agree with moving the corporate links here. They aren't encyclopedic and may even be attempts at building backlinks (maybe). I could see including a link to a page like http: // www .andreacoutu .com/page/blogone/what-is-viral-marketing-and-the-barcadi-liver-ad Vancouver Marketing Consultant blog, if someone wanted to point people to information, definitions and other articles on viral marketing. But even that may be dubious. So I'd keep those things here on the Talk page.

Should the reference to the 'dubious' love affair between Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes be removed or updated, considering she's expecting his child? I'm guessing further discussion re the credibilty of any of his love affairs are best suited to conspiracy blog, scientolgy bashing sites and or the Fortean Times. (PC)


 * I believe the VBMA.net link should be re-instated, as it is a legitimate trade industry group, well-known in the industry and very topical. ad-rag, also, while somewhat of a commercial enterprise, is a blog legimitately devoted to this subject, and most likely not listed here as an attempt at self promotion - many practitioners in the industry follow it, and it is a useful link for someone researching the topic. --Lizstless 05:14, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

What about the use of SMS text message marketing, where some one recieves a text message on their cell/mobile phone, likes the proposition & chooses to forward it to several of their friends, etc. See [http: // www .reach2mobile.co.uk/Viral_SMS_Marketing]

Jamie Kane
I changed the link to the Jamie Kane page. As it was written, it implied that the current Wikipedia page on Jamie Kane is viral marketing itself, and, as the contentious VfD determined, it is not. Brian Schlosser42 17:57, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

Anonymous matching
Is anonymous matching really just another form of incentivized viral? 205.217.105.2 22:17, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

History
I recently put a historical overview together for my chapter on Viral Marketing in the 'Connected Marketing: The Viral, Buzz and Word of Mouth Revolution' book that I have recently co-edited. It might be useful because I think it clearly demonstrates that the term was clearly around well before Jurvetson and Draper used it:

The earliest known use of the term 'viral marketing' is in a 1989 PC User magazine article about the adoption of Macintosh SEs versus Compaqs: ‘At Ernst & Whinney, when Macgregor initially put Macintosh SEs up against a set of Compaqs, the staff almost unanimously voted with their feet as long waiting lists developed for use of the Macintoshes. The Compaqs were all but idle. John Bownes of City Bank confirmed this. “It’s viral marketing. You get one or two in and they spread throughout the company.”’ So viral marketing initially denoted seeding designed to kick-start the copycat effect whereby people 'catch' the idea and adopt it by seeing it adopted by others.

[Carrigan, T. (September 27, 1989). New Apples tempt business. PC User; http: // www .wordspy .com/words/viralmarketing.asp]

The term cropped up again in a 1996 Fast Company article by Harvard Business School professor Jeffrey Rayport. [link: http: // www .fastcompany .com/online/06/virus.html]

Another noted use of the term was made by Steve Jurvetson and Tim Draper from Silicon Valley venture capitalists Draper Fisher Jurvetson who invested in Hotmail. In 1997, Jurvetson and Draper wrote a White Paper describing the high-profile Hotmail phenomenon, hence the frequent attribution of the term to Jurvetson and Draper.

[Jurvetson, Steve and Draper, Tim (May, 1997). Viral Marketing. Original version published in the Netscape M-Files, edited version published in Business 2.0, November 1998. Archived at http: // www .dfj .com/cgi-bin/artman/publish/steve_tim_may97.shtml]

Wherever the term came from, the practice of viral marketing in the digital domain has been around for almost a decade and has registered three major blips on the wider marketing radar screen to date:

1. In the mid-1990s when digital media started coming into its own and Hotmail went from 0 to 12 million users within 18 months

2. During the turn of the millennium when the Dot Com bust squeezed marketing purses and put the onus on accountability

3. Nowadays, as advertisers try to stand out from the increasing clutter across fragmented media to connect with more cynical, marketing-savvy consumers


 * "Some argue the term viral marketing was originally invented by Tim Draper and coined by venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson": how can a term be invented by one person and coined by another? Sdoerr 13:52, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

Logistic function
The logistic function really is the best-motivated function to describe the growth of something like this. If you let the "carrying capacity" parameter get very large, then it reduces to the exponential function, so everyone can be happy. Also, it is fully capable of modeling a decreasing population, for a suitable choice of the parameters. I therefore reverted comments to the contrary. 65.96.191.29 22:31, 15 January 2006 (UTC)

Merge Discussion
Has there been any discussion of the suggested "merge" with Word of mouth marketing? It seems to me like it could make sense to merge WoM into Viral, but not the other way around. &mdash; Isogolem 06:44, 16 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Definitely. 'Word of mouth marketing' is a type of viral marketing.

"Word of Mouth" is a much softer, friendlier euphemism for something from which no person can escape anymore. Advertising permeates all facets of modern life. It assaults the senses - constantly. My 2 cents contributes to having Viral Marketing in it's own article, if for the sole purpose of expressing what it is, in a more accurate term, with any connotations it may convey. (Unsigned comment)

I would oppose a merger. Viral Marketing is different than Word of Mouth marketing; viral seems like it involves more than just talking about the QUALITY of a product. It involves some sort of promotion, and then the talking is usually about that promotion. The Word of Mouth Marketing in itself is to direct the conversation to the product, not the other marketing. Also, I removed the line dividing these last two sections apart, since they're the same thing, I hope that's alright. Karwynn 14:21, 25 April 2006 (UTC)

A good source to read regarding the differences between Viral Marketing and Word of Mouth From a respected publication. Viral Marketing: New form of Word-of-Mouth through Internet Palto R Datta, Dababrata N Chowdhury, Bonya R Chakraborty. The Business Review, Cambridge. Hollywood: Summer 2005.Vol.3, Iss. 2; pg. 69, 7 pgs (Unsigned comment)

I also think they are different concepts. Modern technology may make them more different, as machines forward marketing virally to each other without human intervention. Stephen B Streater 09:11, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

I think they are completely different types of marketing. It would be too confusing to have them combined. -Myxomatosis


 * This is a weird discussion. It's akin to saying graphic novels shouldn't be considered comic books because they're not funny. That argument was attempted some years ago, and it failed miserably. Word of mouth marketing is a form of viral marketing. In fact, most if not all viral marketing spreads by word of mouth. The two are synonymous, but viral marketing is the proper term to use for purposes of definition. Today we may not call cars horseless carriages anymore, but they still are. Pre-Internet, viral marketing was word of mouth marketing. It's the same thing. Word of mouth is just a more archaic term for it. ZachsMind 16:26, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

I would object in the merge because it is important to make a clear difference between these two definitions. The main difference between Viral Marketing and Word of Mouth is in the position of the author. Work of Mouth marketing draws its force in the fact that the receptor has the impression the author speaks from experience, having himself used the product and wanting others to benefit from it. He is sharing knowledge in an altruist way. Viral Marketing uses sponsored, non-objective authors giving sometimes biased reccommendations. This fact removes all the impact and effectiveness of Viral Marketing.

--RyanBelanger 15:32, 26 May 2006 (UTC)
 * I agree with that. Thierry Caro 22:22, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

My understanding is that viral marketing and word of mouth marketing are the same thing. Messages can spread over the internet in a viral fashion, just like word of mouth in the real world. The messages can be good or bad, depending on your view. Messages can spread on the internet regardless of the authors intention. Viral Marketing does not always uses sponsored, non-objective authors as seen in the [http: // www .alternet.org/story/12276/ Nike Sweatshop Example].


 * Due simply to word choice "viral marketing" is not the same as "word of mouth marketing". Though viral markething can be spread via word of mouth, it is not exclusive to that channel. If anything, "viral marketing" is a term which encompases "word of mouth", not the other way around.

-- Daveb74 16:27, 30 May 2006 (UTC)


 * I believe the two are very similar, however I would oppose the merger of the two. My reasons are that, Viral Marketing has a broader spectrum of possibilities to evolve. "Word of Mouth" is word of mouth, which means that people are talking about something and spreading the word. A lot of viral marketing strategies these days are online and have technically bypassed the actual word of mouth, and are self propogating using "word of electronic transmission", "pictures in electronic transmission", "videos of electronic transmission", etc... I think the term word of mouth is becoming outdated and that viral marketing is a more evolved term with a greater spectrum to understand the concept. Word of mouth marketing is certainly a form of viral marketing, but viral marketing is certainly NOT limited to word of mouth marketing.

-- Jambhala Rinpo [http: // www .viralmarketingbuzz .com ViralMarketingBuzz .com] 13:31, 5 Jun 2006


 * The merge proposal originally suggested by Khalid hassani here is being removed due to obvious opposition in both articles. --Dhartung | Talk 22:59, 18 July 2006 (UTC)

Merge to viral video / marketing discussion

 * Oppose: viral video is unlikely to be marketing these days. Products such as FORscene allow the creation and viral distribution of video on both web by email and mobile phones over Bluetooth. The proliferation of consumer shot mobile content means that much video these days is non-commercial and used to send clips virally between friends and family. Stephen B Streater 06:27, 25 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Oppose: Viral videos, as referred to by television and print media, tend to be homemade or at least of a non-commercial nature. Think YouTube and Google Video. Entirely seperate from what is known as "viral marketing". --relaxathon 00:52, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Oppose: Not all viral video is marketing; not all viral marketing is video -- and I suspect that while they're subsets of each other, they're disjoint enough to merit separate articles. --Baylink 17:44, 14 July 2006 (UTC)
 * Oppose, as they can be non-marketing related. ... it's been long enough, and I'm seeing no "supports" so i'm ending this --Aknorals 14:33, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

The premise of viral video is false
I don't understand how viral video has a separate page on the Wikipedia. People are making a category mistake here. They are confusing the intention/consequence with the mechanism/content type.

If video should have it's own page then why not create a page for every other form of content type. So we could have viral Powerpoint presentation, viral email, viral PDF, viral word document, viral spreadsheet, viral jpeg/gif/image, viral MP3/audio file, viral etc, etc, etc, etc. All content types can be spread virally in the digital domain.

So shouldn’t the distinction simply be between user generated content and 'advertiser funded'/'branded content'?

In this case you wouldn’t merge viral video with viral marketing. You’d simply remove viral video as a category, update the user generated content category to explain how all material can and is spread virally (a key reason for mentioing it's importance), and perhaps include some notable examples of user generated content category that has spread virally.

At the same time, viral marketing might need a bit of editing to explain strategies that use advertiser funded/branded content in order to help spread marketing messages virally.

Perhaps more importantly is the distinction between viral marketing and word of mouth marketing because as far as I can see it is not a prerequisite that viral marketing campaigns use some kind of promotion or communications agent. As such, viral marketing and word of mouth marketing are one and the same thing.

The problem lies in the imperfect usage of "viral" in the term "viral video" much of the time. A video made and engineered to achieve a viral outcome is not a viral video - it only "goes viral" once people start passing it along all the time. So if you talk about a "viral video" as one that has "gone viral" and achieved great notoriety, it may be relevant in this article, but if you talk about a "viral video" as a video someone made with simply the hope it "goes viral" - and that hope has not yet been fulfilled, then it's not actually viral. --Lizstless 05:11, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

The Ring promotion
I added this, rather important historical effort. The cursed tapes had been left everywhere, hundreds, maybe even thousands, but in USA only. Endimion17 12:42 September 16th, 2006 (UTC)

I added the she-is-here reference. It tied the promotional videotape to the website where users role-played their own experiences. It is still in use today

McRib
McRib seems like an especially notable example. Why isn't it listed? H Bruthzoo 16:14, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

Viral Link
Viral links to a disambiguation page, so readers may be confused as which article pertains to the subject. -- VGF11 02:41, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

Sony PSP Failed Viral Marketing Campaign
I am not sure how to format a reference but here is the site: http: // www. searchengineguide. com/laycock/009005.html. There are many independent news items about this, so it seemed notable. --Ira-welkin 18:28, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

viral and wom are similar but different
Because viral and word of mouth marketing have some differences, it would not be appropriate to combine these two categories because the subtlties would be lost. For instance, both rely on (OPN - other peoples netowrks) whether they are socail or not. However, viral typically provides more of a catalyst than a sound byte which is primarily the underpinnings of a wom initiative. An example of a viral initiative would be a video stream, an email trailer, an image etc that is sent to one person and then the one to many and many to many models take over. In the final analysis, the concepts are similar and the results my be similar but the catalysts or the fuel for each is different. Tehrefore, the concepts should remain separated —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.5.38.75 (talk) 17:43, 4 January 2007 (UTC).

I have to agree with the foregoing...but for a somewhat different reason. As an HR professional and a recruiter, when a VP Marketing comes to me and asks for someone strong in Viral Marketing, I better not send candidates who have the ability to start WOM campaigns. Logically, in this era, in the Marketing and Sales of products, WOM will be the OUTCOME of Viral Marketing, not the marketing itself...

LBIBill 14:00, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

iPhone?
How is Apple's iPhone viral marketing? They've just announced it, they haven't done any marketing for it save a section on their own website. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.226.93.135 (talk) 13:32, 11 February 2007 (UTC).

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
So as not to start any edit conflicts on notablility and reasons for inclusion before hand, I will make my points here and see who agrees for this inclusion.

Since the English language licensing of the anime The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, there have been what could be seen as attempts by Bandai Entertainment for viral marketing on the release in the states. Here are some of my points taken from the lead of this article:


 * 1) Viral marketing sometimes refers to Internet-based stealth marketing campaigns
 * Before the announcement was made that the anime was licsensed by Bandai, a website called [http: // www .asosbrigade .com asosbrigade .com] showed up and sparked some interest in the anime community on if the series had been licensed or not. The full account of what occured can be read at The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.


 * 1) including the use of blogs
 * A [http: // www .myspace .com/asosbrigade Myspace page] for the ASOS Brigade was created and launched at the announcement of the licensing.


 * 1) seemingly amateur web sites
 * Asosbrigade .com is a very amateur looking website since it has very little content and even supplies fanmade videos to further promote the licensing.


 * 1) designed to create word of mouth for a new product or service
 * If nothing else, since the appearance of asosbrigade .com and the news of the licensing, there has been a massive amount of fans of the show voicing their own opinions about it on the internet and I'm sure through actual word of mouth as well.

So if you agree with this, I will add this entry to the list of notable viral marketing schemes.-- (  十   八  ) 10:26, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

This is the first time I've heard this term, but it would seem to me that the most famous example of this would be promotion for The Blair Witch Project in which the internet site made it look like a real event before the movie came out... --72.150.89.179 06:01, 23 February 2007 (UTC)


 * Looks fine to me, certainly made to be deceiving at first sight, with interactive polls and MySpace. Pomte 06:18, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

Potential for linkspam in section on "notable examples" of viral marketing
This section keeps growing but without more useful to someone who wants to see some examples of viral marketing. I am removing every single item that is not supported by the kind of external link to an encyclopedia-quality reference that Wikipedia considers an adequate expression of "notability." If you want to add some item to the list, please 1) cite at least one such encyclopedia-quality source supporting your claim of notablity and 2) add a sentence or two describing why this example is useful to a reader who wants to learn about viral marketing. betsythedevine 16:39, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

Promotional website is not an adequate source
If the blender example belongs here, it needs to be sourced better. It isn't a viral marketing phenom just because the company says it is. Comments welcome. -- Rob C (Alarob) 02:38, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

Citation: Montgomery
I have added the Montgomery Paper. Sorry, have only read NOT TO ADD ANY MORE LINKS after doing so. Hope you will forgive me. But I think its a valuable link, since it fills the gap, where "citation needed" was indicated.

You can find the information that is needed for that citation on page 93 of the Montgomery Paper.

Removed Video section
The Video section is incoherent, mainly due to the use of jargon. It also needs to be referenced to a source that is not involved in the promotion, such as news media. This article constantly attracts self-serving edits from company representatives, so the standard of evidence must be kept high. -- Rob C. alias Alarob 23:16, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

adding link
I think, link to this great post http: // www .techcrunch .com/2007/11/22/the-secret-strategies-behind-many-viral-videos/ will be really useful for people —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bloody dude (talk • contribs) 18:14, 24 November 2007 (UTC)

collabotrade .com
The page currently has the following list: "web startups like facebook .com, youtube .com, collabotrade .com, myspace .com, and digg .com have made good use of Viral Marketing". I was struck by the choice of sites listed, as I'd never heard of collabotrade .com before. I don't have the time to do the research to find out if including it here is worthwhile, but I would like to note that collabotrade .com currently has a google pagerank of zero, and only a few hundred google hits. Since I just stumbled onto this page and am not familiar with the edit history, I didn't want to remove it myself, but I thought I'd leave this note so someone who has this page on their watch list can check it out and remove the reference from the list if necessary. &mdash; Eric Herboso 17:49, 18 December 2007 (UTC)

The Dark Knight
Would it be good to include The Dark Knight as a good example of viral marketing seeing as there is a huge amount of internet presence. Jjkayes (talk) 14:21, 15 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Depending on what kind of info you can dig up.-- bullet proof  3:16 15:30, 15 January 2008 (UTC)
 * I added a little bit on The Dark Knight and removed the section on Cloverfield because The Dark Knight is a better example - it involves elements of an alternate reality game as well as a viral marketing campaign.Nearly famous writer (talk) 06:36, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

The Big Word Project
The Big Word Project [http: // www .thebigwordproject .com] is a viral marketing campaign that quickly spread throughout the blogging community February/March 2008. The idea is redefining the dictionary with websites. Started by two students, Paddy Donnelly and Lee Munroe. Hbkmunroe (talk) 09:23, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

Wrong date?
Under "Notable examples of viral marketing": "... A 12-second viral video posted on the station's website and on YouTube pointed to 02/04/08 @ 10:01 AM. In addition, liners that pointed to this date were also played, along with random songs from different radio formats. Sure enough, on February 2, 2008 at 10:01 AM, the ticking clock sounds came to an end, and a new format, Modern Rock Radio X 96.1 was launched." The two dates are inconsistent with each other. Which is correct?72.90.243.147 (talk) 18:53, 20 April 2008 (UTC)

Studies of effectiveness of viral marketing?
Have there been any studies done to see if viral marketing is in fact more cost-effective than traditional marketing? I.e., does viral marketing actually work? 98.216.70.211 (talk) 23:22, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

The article confuses Viral Marketing and Word of Mouth
When someone voluntarily sends his friends an email about a new website he likes - that's WOM and not VM. Even if the website has a 'recommend to your friend' button, it's still WOM. Viral Marketing is only when the product markets itself without user intervention. Example: When Hotmail added a message to each outgoing email, without user's consent. Another example: When PayPal allowed users to send money to any email. The normal use of the product caused its distribution, and not a conscious decision by the user. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.176.139.107 (talk) 21:43, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

The article assumes the theory of influencers
Which is a point of view, contradicted by Duncan Watts research Kevin Marks (talk) 08:57, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

Social network marketing
Apparently, 'Viral marketing' has become part of a group of methods now referred to in marketing as 'Social network marketing' or 'Social level marketing', and someone created an article for both the terms. Unfortunately, it was entirely Original Research, and barely readable, so was nominated for deletion. I do however think there should be an article on this subject, and was able to find two sources to back up that this is a real marketing term.

I've turned the article into a stub, quickly going over what advertisers appear to be using the term to mean. However, this is not my field of expertise, so I can't do much more than that. It does appear the use of viral marketing is an important part of 'Social level marketing', so the people who edit this article might have a better grip on it than I do. I should stress that 'Social Network Marketing' does appear to be more than just 'Viral Marketing', so I don't think a merge would be appropriate. Thanks in advance. --Barberio (talk) 12:32, 15 September 2008 (UTC)


 * I'll work on this a bit. Thanks for letting us know. -- Dan Leveille TALK 02:59, 14 November 2008 (UTC)

Notable Examples to seperate article?
Does anyone else agree that the Notable Examples section should be moved into a separate article? -- Dan Leveille TALK 02:24, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
 * I think I would prefer all examples at least sourced in the mainstream press. The we should go through a trim down the list to the top 10 most notable; again, with reliable source being the criteria. --Knulclunk (talk) 03:02, 14 November 2008 (UTC)

Referral economy
I've proposed that that article be merged in here. See discussion at Talk:Referral economy. Thanks. Itsmejudith (talk) 17:34, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

Link to Ning-article
Dunno how references work, but in case somebody care: The referenced article "Ning's Infinite Ambition" is available online here: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/125/nings-infinite-ambition.html 80.218.64.99 (talk) 06:18, 30 June 2009 (UTC)

Viral Marketing = And then a miracle occurs
I am not disputing the idea that links and ideas stuff can take off and catch the wind on the internet, but can anyone give me actual examples of successful viral marketing? That something went viral is not to say that it was marketed.

Any time the term viral is included in marketing plans, it's akin to saying 'A miracle will occur at this point.' I was having a conversation with someone who wants to learn more about Facebook and social media and all that sort of individualized push/pull. I tried to explain that a) only unimportant or b) entertainment items ever go viral. 'What about the iPod' is not an example. It was a perfect product, sold by the one company that could sell it well.

Using Facebook or Linked In to sell grape juice a business to business product is a dream.

The following is the example of something that can go viral: http://trololololololololololo.com/ A snowboarding game by unemployed students that has this or that product on a billboard in the game may be plated by them but that's not to say it's viral. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.157.183.252 (talk) 14:42, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

iamamiwhoami
Added a brief paragraph under noteable examples about the YouTube account iamamiwhoami. I'd suggest that if it does reveal itself as a major recording artist, as is being debated in numerous channels, and reported in print media, perhaps a page for iamamiwhoami should be created. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.146.27.164 (talk) 22:05, 13 March 2010 (UTC)

The campaign for S. Darko could be in this article
This could be in Notable Examples section, the viral fake videos created for the movie, where an clear example of how the producers use this kind of videos to hook the audience —Preceding unsigned comment added by 189.235.107.167 (talk) 23:30, 22 May 2010 (UTC)

Copyedit
Removed a lot of uncited junk from this, but it's still an inch deep.

List of Companies
Would we be able to get a list of companies who use forum, blog and messageboard based viral marketers (those who heap fake praise or create fake interest on boards in order to garner genuine interest for their product through faux public opinion) so that it might be easier to figure out which movies, games or events these sad individuals are hiding? It would allow so many of us to easily figure out which specific users are clearly plants and not just deluded, which we would then be able to go back through their post history and connect the dots...shutting down their complaints/praise on the board by default and significantly reducing their marketing ability. 124.169.202.48 (talk) 08:21, 6 October 2011 (UTC) Harlequin

14oct2011
Very recently there is a promoted YouTube account under this name which uploaded a promoted fake video (with fake comments and everything) which was a screamer advertising the remake of The Thing movie. It used videos like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EIbc1Nsty0 as part of the fake videos, one of which were actually removed by YouTube (titled "Hot Model goes topless on beach".) All of these videos are only a few seconds long, and never actually show the event in their title, because the screamer part in the fake video on their channel begins at that point. I think this should be added. 209.6.120.254 (talk) 02:30, 8 October 2011 (UTC)