There seem to be five rules of viral marketing

Following a viral, almost guerilla-type marketing incident that went horribly wrong, Sean Carton of Clickz deducts 5 rules for this kind of marketing that should be obeyed.

  • If you want to generate word-of-mouth, don’t try to be hip.

Just because it seems to the latest buzz around the blog, doesn’t mean it spreads. Don’t try too hard, people will inevitably notice and block it.

  • Destruction of property or intruding into people’s comfort zones will only backfire.

Some viral marketing is very obtrusive and tries to surprise people by being as drastic as damaging or at least defacing public spaces. This might cause more trouble than anythings else.

  • You can’t fake authenticity.

No, of course you can’t. And marketers should never ever think they can, because the truth behind every little marketing trick will surface these days.

  • Know your audience.

You better do! Obvious, as it seems, but sometimes viral marketing expectations are formulated in a way that goes completely beyond what would be sensible or even possible with a certain target audience.

  • Love your customers.

This shouldn’t be a new concept to anyone, otherwise – well…

A study about user generated content

Clickz references a study about user generated content – or consumer generated content, as it should rather be called. This is from August 2006, but nevertheless quite interesting, as there seems to be some interesting findings even related to „traditional“ internet advertising:

Almost three-quarters of people who publish amateur video content online are under 25, and of those, 86 percent are male. […] Other findings of the „Generator Motivations Study“ include that as many as 73 percent of content generators notice Internet advertising, a much higher ration than what’s found in the male 18 to 24 year-old demographic as a whole. Also, 57 percent of all content creators surveyed said they are willing to feature brands in their videos, and many within the group have already done so. […] The report suggests opportunity for marketers, if campaigns are executed properly. „Approaching the right communities, with the right tone and incentives can motivate users to generate content featuring brands,“ the report said.

Sounds good, being from Germany, I now wonder if the situation is (or will be) similar in Germany?

Superadvertisers skip advertising during superbowl

Interestingly enough, many super-advertisers skip this years super-bowl. P&G, Unilever, Microsoft all won’t show a single ad during the game.

There are some noteworthy quotes in that article:

A quote of John B. Williams, general manager-Windows global communications

We think we have a product and a message that stands alone. Borrowed interest is always something you look at, but [our marketing] will give us more pop, in our opinion, than going into a Super Bowl environment.

A P&G spokesperson stated via email:

Simply put, we’re looking to optimize the intro of the new campaign, and the Super Bowl was not part of the strategy

Seems like the main advertising sports event had reached its peak last year and is now on the decline. At least as long as they don’t change something about the setup – i.e. prices, integration with other media/events/channels, whatever. Does that mean advertisers will shift more to online? Not necessarily so. Dove experienced good results with outdoor last year and expects more resonation of the academy awards.

In the end it shows that currently everything is under close scrutiny, even events like the superbowl…

Online spending will increase even more in 2007

Clickz mentions a survey in which 500 direct marketers were asked about they spending plans in 2007. The result? A visible shift towards online.

As many as 85 percent of direct marketers and service providers say they will move dollars to e-mail and Internet channels

Now this is great, but:

Meanwhile, a comparatively meager 51 percent say they will increase their offline budgets.

Hey, that’s still half of the sample asked in this survey! The reason: there will be a general increase of budgets in DM:

“The survey indicated there’s going to be a lot of growth across the board, but especially online and e-mail marketing,” Alterian Director of Marketing Joe Stanhope told ClickZ News.

E-Mail will be the winner, so watch out for even more clutter in your inbox:

Eighty-one percent plan to increase spending on the channel, while 50 percent intend to up their direct mail budget and 45 percent say they will spend more on personalized landing pages.

The last quote once again proves that one of the main benefits of the online channel – the measurability – is yet to be discovered by many. But if they do, they know.

Companies most comfortable with online and e-mail marketing are in large part the ones that have invested in analytics. “There is a correlation between channel integration and analytics,” said Stanhope. “If a marketer has gotten to this sophistication level where they’re doing integrated marketing campaigns, those are the people sophisticated enough to have that kind of infrastructure to carry out analysis.”



Ad Agency of the year: The Consumer

Advertising Age calls out the Ad Age Agency of the Year: The Consumer

After Time Magazine had already named their person of the year to be “You” it was about time to recognise the “agency” who did much of the advertising work during the last year. All the Consumer Generated Advertising that took place during the last year – most of it in the US, of course, but even in Germany we had some. Hey, even I had one project like that and in our agency we had – I think – 3 in total this year. Well deseverd, consumers. And keep up the good work!