David Meerman Scott makes an excellent point about the challenges marketers face when they try to capitalize on the viral marketing opportunity.

“The way to create viral programs is a lot like the way venture capitalists invest in start-up companies and studios create films,” he says. “A typical VC has a formula that states that most ventures will fail, a few might do OK, and one out of twenty or so will take off and become a large enterprise that will pay back investors many times the initial investment. Record companies and movie studios follow the same principles, expecting that most of the projects that they green-light will have meager sales but that the one hit will more than pay back the cost of a bunch of flops. It’s the same with viral marketing campaigns.”

The best way we’ve seen to to address the cost disadvantages of the portfolio approach is by testing and optimizing viral elements. When you’re tracking the right metrics, you can optimize towards what is most effective for a specific brand or business goal. This reduces the cost of those “failures” in your portfolio. Couple that with upfront best practices for building the initial viral testing elements, and your viral portfolio becomes a much more manageable challenge.

We recently launched a viral program to support the U.S. Fund for UNICEF. The program gives people a unique way to learn about UNICEF, get their friends involved, and support UNICEF’s mission: to save, protect and improve children’s lives around the world.

Public response has been overwhelming. In just a few days, word of the program has spread through communities in a wave of positivity and goodwill, as people take a few minutes out of their busy days to make a difference and learn more about UNICEF. The team at UNICEF USA had a clear marketing objective, and we’re proud to have helped them achieve their goal in short order.

Founded in 1947, the U.S. Fund for UNICEF supports the work of the United Nations Children’s Fund by raising money for its programs and increasing awareness of the challenges facing the world’s children.

Visit the program at friends.unicefusa.org, and stay tuned for more details!

I’ll be speaking at the Word of Mouth Marketing Summit this year. It’s Dec. 12-13 in Washington, D.C., and there will be tons of great speakers, authors, and keynotes, of which I am just one! Plus, they promise there will be food — lots and lots of food. If you want to learn more about word of mouth marketing, this is the place to do it.

The organization has arranged for a special $75 discount as a courtesy to my colleagues and associates. Just use the code “speakerdeal.”

I’m spreading the word about WOMMA’s Word of Mouth Marketing Summit. Scheduled for Dec. 12-13 in Washington, D.C., this is the ultimate word of mouth marketing event. There will be more than 70 speakers, several big-name authors, and three incredible keynotes. Anyone who wants to get into word of mouth, viral, buzz, or blog marketing needs to be at this conference! Register online now at www.womma.org/summit2.

ad:tech radio interviews Joe Fahrner, our VP of Client Services, about next-generation networks. You can download the MP3 to learn more about viral marketing and social networks by clicking here

Michael Greenberg, the VP of marketing for LoyaltyLab, wrote a great piece in Chief Marketer advocating for simultaneous concept testing. It’s a technique we use with our clients with great results, although it’s sometimes difficult for clients to understand the importance of testing in real-world situations (with large enough samples of customers). Give the piece a read…

Posts tagged Viral Marketing per day for the last 30 days.

I’m writing a monthly column about viral marketing in Adotas, an interactive advertising publication on the web. My first piece appeared earlier this month, and it talks about the balance between art vs. science in viral marketing. You can find more articles by me (Jim Calhoun, on the site as they become available. There’s lots of great content at Adotas.com, so check it out!

As interest in new, edgy “word of mouth” marketing techniques grows, so does the confusion. It’s bound to happen. What separates fact from fiction? Hype from hope?

This article originally appeared in the Show Daily for Ad:Tech San Francisco on April 27, 2006.

At PopularMedia, Inc., we’ve developed a platform for rolling out sophisticated private-label viral marketing campaigns for advertisers and publishers. For years, we’ve delivered repeated viral successes to our clients – long before the viral marketing space really took off. So we decided to share a few thoughts on the subject.

Viral marketing isn’t as easy as it sometimes looks. As funny as you think your latest video clip is, it is not truly infectious. Clients come to us all the time, stunned by the lackluster results of their first viral campaign. They wonder why a mountain of traffic failed to materialize the instant they published this Flash game or that video clip.

The answer? In nearly every case, the advertiser made the deadliest, most common mistake in viral marketing: they expected their brilliant creative to work magic. They dreamed of riding to the OMMA awards perched proudly atop the next subservient chicken.

Rest assured, strong creative is critical to viral success. But it’s the things the marketer neglects to consider that ultimately guarantee a viral flame-out. They fail to test messaging, different versions of the creative, ways of framing the pitch, or calls to action. They don’t analyze how their audience reacts to the creative, explore rates and methods of pass-along, or test for the optimal viral user experience. Finally, they don’t provide tools – even simple instructions – making it easy to share their offer, game or video with friends.

We call this the “hope as a strategy” or “catch lightning in a bottle” approach to viral marketing. Sadly, it doesn’t really scale.

There are many factors involved in the success of a viral program. Contrary to popular belief, these are well within your control as a marketer, advertiser or publisher. Focus on the process of sharing. Understand which factors motivate someone to move your message out to their social network. Analyze what happens when someone is invited to an experience by a friend. Is your offer, video clip, game, product or service compelling in that context – or are you annoying people? Provide a clear, compelling value exchange that is motivating not only to your customers, but to the prospects your brand advocates bring to you. Make the experience rewarding, and you’ll be rewarded.

When you get all the elements and processes in alignment, you create a virtuous loop. You are successful in leveraging your customer’s social network. Your customers feel good because they’re introducing their friends to a compelling offer or experience. Your customer’s friends enjoy the program. And you’re getting a sustainable flow of high-quality customers, introduced to you by the friends they trust.

This scales all day long. Your company can craft a truly sustainable viral marketing strategy. It takes patience, willingness to test, rigorous analysis, and a razor-sharp focus on the experience. This year, forget hope as a strategy. Get serious about your viral marketing efforts, and get rewarded.

Jim Calhoun is the CEO of PopularMedia, Inc. based in San Francisco and backed by Sequoia Capital. PopularMedia offers private-label viral marketing services to major brands, powered by the company’s Pop Commerce™ Technology Platform. For more information, visit www.popularmedia.com.