To mark Breast Cancer Awareness Day on October 24 of last year, the National Football League announced that it would donate $5 to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation
every time someone visited its "NFL for Her" Web page. Some 600,000 NFL newsletter subscribers received emails promoting the NFL's site, which featured chats with breast cancer
survivors and the latest news on research and detection.
Those subscribers forwarded the message several times over - so much so that dozens of replies poured into the NFL's PR office. Director Brian McCarthy even got an appreciative
email from the office of then-presidential hopeful John McCain. "It was very successful," says McCarthy, "because we were potentially saving lives and promoting awareness... I
even got a call from a woman who said she'd never watch football the same way again."
McCarthy didn't realize it at the time, but he had just tapped one of the easiest ways to build buzz on the Web: viral marketing. This guerilla strategy that took root in the
movie biz in the wake of "The Blair Witch Project" has no doubt spread (oops!) into the PR plans of other industries.
Simply put, viral marketing is encouraging loyal customers to spread the word about your company to friends, acquaintances and family. In this case, the loyal customers were
the subscribers to the NFL's newsletters. Even though the NFL announced that it would cap donations to the Komen Foundation at $50,000, subscribers nevertheless felt like they
were a part of the fundraising effort and helped bring the site 1.75 million visitors in a single day. They also helped associate the NFL - an organization with a decidedly male
identity - with a high-profile, female-centered cause. Had the company simply sent out a press release saying it planned to donate $50,000 to breast cancer research, an outpouring
of support would have been as likely as a 70-yard field goal.
New-Media Catchphrase, Old-School Concept
Granted, word-of-mouth has long been a staple in the branding arsenal for companies of all sizes - from huge corporations to neighborhood restaurants. But before the Web, its
impact was minimal: individuals could only communicate with a few people at a time. Now, however, we can reach thousands of our friends and family with the click of a mouse.
And when we're vocal about something we like, our friends are likely to listen. Says Colin Campbell, president and CEO of the San Francisco-based viral marketing firm Qbiquity,
"[Viral marketing] is prime for people who have a passion for something... You're tapping people's natural inclination to share." And, he adds, companies can encourage sharing
even more by offering referral incentives like discounts and freebies.
Simple as viral marketing is, however, it's yet another new-media catch phrase that many PR pros are ignoring. One reason may be that the PR industry has been dragging its feet
on moving into the virtual space, preferring instead to rely on tried-and-true approaches to keeping corporate brands in the limelight (PRN, Jan. 1). Also, the verdict is
still out on viral marketing's effectiveness. Analyzing the Web habits of thousands of customers to gauge company image is not easy. And while shops like Qbiquity are creating
software that allows users to track email messages (not unlike how a family tree maps out generations of family), it's still nearly impossible to control the message.
Jim Sterne, Web consultant and author of the book, World Wide Web Marketing, doesn't doubt that companies can use viral campaigns to mold a better corporate image. But
this shouldn't come at the at the expense of traditional PR strategy, he says, likening such a move to relying on a trip to Vegas to finance your child's college education.
"A true viral marketing success costs very little and is self-generating," he says. "Not a bad thing to try, but a bad thing to count on."
Entertain First, Advertise Later
BJ Bueno is chairman of and CEO of the Orlando, Fla.-based iBrand Marketing. A few months back, while the Sunshine State was embroiled in electoral chaos, Bueno's company
cooked up a political-humor site called funnybreak.com. Bueno sent invites to 50,000 people who had already registered at other sites iBrand had worked on. He says on average,
users forwarded the email 3.5 of times each, bringing in 15,000 new registrants (who then provided vital personal information like email addresses and salary range.) The campaign
also prompted 35,000 of the original emailed group to visit the site a second time, he says. This is especially difficult because most Web surfers don't return to sites after they
visit once.
Bueno believes funnybreak.com helped brand his company as hip, creative and entertaining - and alleviated the need to spend millions on advertising. The trick was to make
people forget they were being pitched. "The minute you blatantly advertise in viral marketing you kill the whole thing," he says. "You have to tie your message in subtly because
the medium is so self selective."
Of course, subtle messages may be misconstrued - a fuzzy line that some viral communicators have used to their advantage. On May 25 of last year, Taco Bell sent targeted emails
to 50,000 investors about a "revolutionary new megabyte chip" that would soon make its national debut in a Wall Street IPO. Recipients were encouraged to forward the email to
others interested in tech stocks. Some 30,000 of the curious clicked to a special site called "new-chip.com," which alerted all to watch the New York Stock Exchange's bell ring
May 2. The day before, advertisements promoted the "IPO" in The Wall Street Journal and USA Today.
On May 2, Taco Bell's talking Chihuahua rang the opening bell on Wall Street - at which point it was revealed that the "megabyte chip" was of the nacho variety, a new item on
the fast-food chain's menu. Although a few investors were piqued at the deception (Taco Bell PR director Laurie Gannon says one guy even stayed home from work thinking he would
buy the stock), the campaign was largely taken as clever and good-humored, in keeping with the company's tongue-in-cheek image.
Although Taco Bell didn't monitor the progress of its viral message, Gannon says the campaign generated buzz because it targeted a group that would pass it along - young
investors hungry both for technology stocks and double-decker chalupas. It also took advantage of the fact that hoaxes and rumors are endemic to the Web, and backed up the hype
with high-profile print advertising. Says Gannon, "We found a clever way to break through the clutter... And we set it up so that once you saw the chihuahua ringing the bell you
knew it was a joke."
(Bueno, 407/854-5890; Campbell, 415/247-0265; Gannon, 949/863-3915; McCarthy, 212/450-2069; Sterne, 805/965-3184)
The Power of Viral Lies with the
Few
When it comes to identifying people who can make or break your public image, there are key individuals who have a particularly vocal presence in cyberspace. Author Malcolm
Gladwell, who wrote The Tipping Point, hypothesizes that things like fashion trends, movies, books, and social causes become popular after a small group of
influential people make them "tip," or achieve mainstream popularity. With the advent of the Internet, corporations have unprecedented access to these small, influential groups.
The easiest way to find them, says Seth Godin, author of Unleashing the Idea Virus, is to let them find you. If CEOs publish their email addresses and regularly engage
customers, a positive corporate image will ring out in cyberspace. Godin says he recently emailed Amazon.com's CEO Jeff Bezos - and got a prompt reply. "The man is reading his
email," he says. "So many [CEOs] insulate themselves from the screaming masses instead of learning from them. That's dangerous."
Viral Measurement
Sometimes a viral campaign can let you know if your messaging strategy is off target. Denise Bovo, while running marketing strategy for a Web site selling home decorations,
created a simple survey asking customers what they thought the site was about. To encourage participation, she offered a $5 discount towards purchases and included an "email a
friend" button to spread the word. She says more than 30,000 people participated, and the overwhelming majority viewed the site as a place to buy gifts, not for home
furnishings. The company adjusted its business model and her peers marveled at her bootstrapping savvy. Says Bovo, now VP of marketing for online drug store PlanetRx.com, "our
business operated with 50% margins, so a $5 discount was nothing. Talk about cost-effectiveness."
(Bovo, 901/577-2317)