Feel Good Viral Advertising. Does it Work Good?
Posted by Scott Dunn on August 20, 2008
Stride Gum has a YouTube four-and-a-half minute world-wide dance routine that has achieved over 20 million viewers. It makes you smile and want to get up and dance.
How many sticks of gum has it sold? Don’t know.
I think that it’s now very important for advertising to be liked. Not like the old show-and-tell days, when all you needed was a benefit and a reason-why.
But how do the marketers of Stride Gum hope it works? I guess the sequence is—
- I identify with (like) this brand, because
- It makes me want to dance, and that is true because
- It makes a lot of people want to dance, therefore
- I will buy Stride Gum.
Maybe that’s all implied, but I am so old-fashioned that I think it has to be stated, it must be true, and that the brand name must somehow be linked to the benefit.
What’s the buzz, and where’s the beef?
Small budget advertisers must make their dollars stretch far. Once it awhile a Stride may be a stride ahead (intended), but all froth must fizzle. “It’s not creative unless it sells” and “Advertising is salesmanship” are good words to live by.
Viral Advertising of course is Word of Mouth gone bonkers. It works short term— like an endorsement from a friend. How many times have heard this conversation—
“Hey, have you seen the ad about—-”
“No. Who’s it from?”
“I forget.”
Does Viral Advertising have the seeds (germs?) of its own demise? Its unfortunate connotations are about disease, spreading destruction and death.
Branding is based on a substantial benefit and a continual delivery of that promise. Healthy brands are self-nourishing, growing, and vibrant. Lawyers are advised if your argument is weak, shout louder. If your brand is weak, make noises and hope it spreads.
George Lemmond
mannx said
Good observations and I think that too many people are hopping on the viral bandwagon with high and unrealistic expectations. BUT depending on the product or service and the way the viral material is distributed the identification problem you discuss may not be an issue.
The virtual voicemail star Gotvmail recently launched a viral campaign with Gary Busey. What does it have to do with voicemail? Well, nothing. And it’s easy to forget who’s behind the camera. But, the video took off as a link that got distributed rather than an ad that was simply talked about. This is key. It allowed them to shepherd interested parties into a branded space (like http://www.garybuseyonbusiness.com for example) and probably spiked their traffic, too, since they hosted it on their own url.
You’re right about short term but isn’t it true that the brand name can simply be LINKED (as in hyperlinked) rather than linked to the benefit?
George Lemmond said
Thanks for your comments. Once a brand is well known, just the presence everywhere of the name is good. But I’m a believer that every ad should stand by itself, with the name,promise, and reason-why at least inherent.
Lbug said
“Hey, have you seen the ad about—-”
“No. Who’s it from?”
“I forget.”
^ This hits the nail on the head. I think so much advertising (especially viral advertising) falls down on this point.