Today new methods to manipulate the market are mushrooming like never before. You are stepping toward your downfall if you currently use conventional marketing strategies. Scary thought proper, but not anymore, as we have your back with examples of viral marketing.
One solution for your problem is viral marketing which has emerged as a sensational strategy. It is a marketing tactic that involves word-of-mouth promotion about a product or service. Thus, it is trendy as it cheaply derives organic traffic.
Social Media Marketing
When discussing viral marketing, we must attend to social media. While some cases are entirely accidental, where even the brand didn’t see this coming, some are intentional.
And for that, nothing can beat social media sites where most of the world’s population spends their time.
Here is an example of viral marketing: some ad campaigns went viral on social media.
A well-known instance of this is the ice bucket challenge by AL Association which was for fundraising. No one could have believed that it would be this successful. However, it turned out to be and completed its mission.
Old Spice’s “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” is another case to count. This ad campaign made personal links with the audience and hit the market instantly.
Another example is Wendy’s Twitter and retweet challenge, which presents an exact instance of accidental viral marketing. In Wendy’s “Nuggs for Carter, “one person asked on Twitter how many tweets are needed to get free chicken, and the reply was enormous.
After it, he asked people to help him, and he received help from millions of people. However, he didn’t reach the targeted goal, but the company awarded him anyway.
Video Marketing
Social media marketing is another form of marketing that aims at engaging people. Through video marketing, brands and marketers approach the audience and engage them.
These videos are based on various themes and can be educational, funny, or something else. Sometimes promotional videos are also a part of video marketing.
Studies have proven that videos have a longer-lasting impact on the audience than any other form of communication. Video marketing makers have the complete liberty to design their campaigns.
Blendtec is a trendy brand that produces blenders and is already widespread worldwide. However, it became so because of Blendtec’s “Will It Blend?” series. This was a video series where influencers and experimenters tried to blend different things that didn’t blend anyway. This way, they engage people by exciting them with new experiments and promoting their blenders.
Another example is Dollar Shave Club’s “Our Blades Are F***ing Great” video, which was hilarious. Through this video, the brand displayed some important yet unknown uses of its products. After this video, their sales took off, and they had massive traffic on their website.
One more famous example is squatty potty’s “This Unicorn Changed the Way I Poop” video. Although it may sound strange initially, the video was successful soon after its launch. The video showed the benefits of squatting position interestingly and targeted its audience directly.
Interactive Marketing
As you can guess, it is about interacting with and engaging the customers, and it is one of the exciting ways to engage customers with brands through various tasks.
Moreover, it makes the relationship between the brand and customers transparent and genuine. When customers know about the company, they will trust it more. Eventually, it will also impact the company’s image and make it credible and reliable.
Therefore, through the below-mentioned examples of viral marketing, various companies tried successfully to interact with their customers.
At the top is the Coca – Cola’s “Share a Coke” campaign, which was the most effective ad campaign hit ever. Designed to make the production process and company products more personalized than ever. It asked people to share their cans and bottles of Coca–Cola having their names with others. It was a very strategic move and made people not only want to publish their names on the brand bottles and share them with others.
IKEA’s “Become a Kitchen Designer” interactive tool is also noteworthy here. As you can guess what this campaign was about because it was a huge hit. It requested people to share their kitchen designs with the company and to use the best ones. In addition to this, it also encouraged the creativity of its audience.
Dove’s “Real Beauty Sketches” interactive video is a perfect example of when the company hits the right emotion of its audience. As the significant customer base of this company is women, it targeted their main fear. Moreover, they made these women more confident about their looks and personality.
See Also: L’Oréal SWOT Analysis Beauty Brand’s Strategy Breakdown
Guerrilla Marketing
Unlike other marketing mentioned above, it aims to drive publicity. In guerilla marketing, the company wants to create brand awareness. For that, it switches to insane ways to attract public attention to widen its customer base.
In this, a few examples of viral marketing are as follows:
· Carlsberg’s “If Carlsberg Did” stunt campaign was a show. In this campaign, they used some insane stunts, which excited and motivated the people. In this way, it created brand awareness for its beer company and broadened its customer base.
· Red Bull’s Stratos jump with Felix Baumgartner is a breathtaking stunt that surprised the entire world. It was a skydiving project in which the stuntman reached the stratosphere and then freely fell off, backed by a parachute.
· Another example is Sony’s “Jobs for Dogs” campaign, which announced recruiting the most drooling dogs. Through this, it wants to show the high quality of their phones. However, this news was bizarre and attracted a lot of attention.
See also: What is Database Marketing? How to Utilize it?
FAQs
Is viral marketing benefit businesses?
Yes, viral marketing benefits businesses that want to derive organic traffic in insane ways. The ideas for viral marketing are rather exciting and have to be one of a kind.
Are there any drawbacks of viral marketing?
Well, there is this fact about viral marketing that it has some limitations too. You can't scale it, and its failure is possible too. It is evident from various cases that its failure and success depend on the audience and other circumstances.
Conclusion
Thus, this article explored how some brands used unique and exciting ideas to advertise their products. While some aimed at creating brand awareness, some companies wanted to augment lead generation.
Above – mentioned viral ad campaigns were not only products of genius minds but, in some instances, mere accidents. Altogether these examples of viral marketing proved that sometimes breaking the league is also essential.
Therefore, you can also try new and unconventional ideas for better results as a marketer or a brand. They can help increase your brand awareness, generate leads, and sometimes free and organic sales.
See also: 10 Best Cooperative Marketing Examples
