Web 2.0, noun: the second generation of web content, development and design. Primarily incorporating collaboration and participation on and over the World Wide Web.
What is viral marketing?
Viral marketing is a volunteer-based advertising technique because it’s the audience that moves the campaign forward, not the creator. The creator, if you will, plants the seed. It’s up to the audience to make it grow.
Viral campaigns comprise a whole spectrum of new media advertising and products, from Youtube videos, to Flickr galleries, Facebook accounts and Myspace pages, Twitter, Second Life, iPhone applications and texting, to video games and a whole host of new digital enterprises that are just waiting to be invented, updated and explored.
Viral campaigning works when someone watches your video, or plays your flash game, or joins your Facebook group and passes it on to their friend, who in turn passes it on to their cousin in Australia, who sends it to a friend in America, until it’s been seen or played all over the world, by thousands, and potentially millions of people. It’s viral – it spreads.
It’s a lot to take in, and it’s a lot to choose from, but get it right and your campaign could reach international notoriety.
Generaction C
According to the latest research by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), recently highlighted by Third Sector magazine, Generaction C – those born between 1979 and 1994 – are more in touch with each other than any other age group before them. “Charities must prepare for this generation” is the main message touted by IFC’s research, which revealed that young people today are more likely to share content with each other via new media.
Looking at the options available, it’s clear to see why many charities balk at the thought of dipping their toes into the digital bath. The key is to remember that a lot of these applications are built with you in mind – and they are often interlinked.
New media products come as a package
“New media products come as a package,” Sara Ashton, Web and New Media Manager at Amnesty International UK, told the audience at the latest CharityComms seminar in July 2009. “You can’t rely on one – you have to use them all.” Speaking of Amnesty’s success with Twitter on International Women’s Day, Sara pointed out that social media products are a network and their users rely on this packaged deal in order to communicate.
When you have something to say – and that’s the important part, the having something to say bit – find out what your audience wants, and think about what resources they have to move your message forward. Much of the online community know how to hop from channel to channel, as Sara argues, but there’s no point, for example, jumping forward with a state-of-the-art phone application if only half of your target market own corresponding mobile phones.
ComputerTan campaign
One of the most successful viral campaigns embarked on by a charity was implemented by The Karen Clifford Skin Cancer Charity (SKCIN) – which launched its viral campaign to thousands of hits, generating a wealth of awareness for skin cancer amongst young people.
By creating a spoof product entitled ‘ComputerTan’ – an ‘innovative’ technology that allowed its young customers to tan themselves with the rays of their computer screens – SKCIN garnered attention from the national press and generated over 70, 000 hits, increasing the website’s traffic by 1000 percent.
The campaign, which employed a combination of new media and traditional PR, even included an advertisement launch and an internet infomercial which had its own website, ComputerTan.com. Paper-based campaign posters were also used in the sophisticated hoax, which advertised the site and its services.
“The campaign was hugely effective,” Kathryn Clifford, SKCIN’s Marketing, Creative and PR Consultant tells CharityComms. “Not only did it raise the profile of our charity, it provoked huge media attention.”
The campaign, which was dreamt up by the UK’s second largest advertising agency McCann Erickson, has gone on to win a number of awards for its originality and effectiveness. But was it easy to do?
“I wouldn’t say it was a straight forward process. An incredible amount of time and creativity went into producing and launching the campaign.” However, Kathryn does agree that virals are especially useful to charities. “I think the internet does provide both businesses and charities many cost-effective ways in which to get their message across on varying scales.”
Not all charities can afford to commission huge advertising agencies, either. “Smaller charities may struggle to get behind the launch enough to give it the initial impact required to gather momentum.”
Whether you come up with a traditional video narrative that you can post onto YouTube, set up an elaborate game that can be played on Facebook, or start up a Twitter account under the name of a character you have created as a mascot for your charity, make sure it’s coherent, catches your audience’s eye and imagination, and gets the charitable point across. Make use of free content, link that content, and start conversations. In today’s world, the most memorable advertising is the kind that makes you want to pass the message on.
Teri Williams, is an intern at CharityComms and nfpSynergy, and is currently completing her Masters in Publishing at Edinburgh Napier. A published author online and in print for CMU, Clash Magazine and The 405, she has a degree in Film and Media Studies and divides her time between London and Edinburgh.