Viral Marketing.

Advertising has been going on for many years. If human kind had something to sell, then they advertised it, ranging from a simple sign written on a piece of paper to a full blown campaign. The only difficult part however, is continually thinking up of new ways to appease and intrigue the general public, to make them want to buy your product, or visit your theme park, or whatever it is you are advertising. Clever poster designs, well made adverts and catchy tunes will only stretch so far. This is where the magic of Viral advertising (or marketing) comes in.

Viral marketing is a form of advertising that forms a kind of alternate reality for the consumer to browse and interact, it is essentially hyper-reality. For example, the band Nine Inch Nails created an entire fictional version of America for their concept album Year Zero, which tells the tale of a dystopian Earth, ravaged by totalitarian politics and economic chaos. To make this seem more real and engage the consumer/listener, the created fake websites, documents and video/audio clips to convince the listener they were hacking into some kind of  'alternate dimension' through the Internet.

By using this kind of advertising, products can be advertised in a completely unique way. It's an interactive form that makes the consumer feel like they have become part of what they are being convinced to buy, destroying the traditional values of consumerism and supply-and-demand and making advertising into more of an art form. This kind of social interaction with the masses therefore creates 'buzz': people will talk about it to other people, as the novelty of something as immersive and as 'cool' as viral advertising gives people the urge to share this information.

Another good example of a good viral marketing campaign is the Guinness stout 'Tipping Point' campaign.
Videos were posted on YouTube by a town mayor, calling for assistance to help his town prepare for upcoming celebration and a link to a website is posted at the end. By following this link, you are taken through a series of games, which after some time brings you to the latest advertisement (involving said town).

Viral marketing is a costly business however. To have a good campaign, you will need to create many websites, documents, audio clips, videos etc to generate enough 'buzz' for the masses to pay attention and be drawn in. This is where things get costly and it would appear that viral marketing is only available in an effective manner to large companies. The individual salesman would not be able to use this kind of marketing efficiently, and if they did try it, the effect would be very small. Regular advertising still has it's place in the world and is still effective, but viral marketing is slowly but surely taking over.

Year Zero related videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spw1EIn_490&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhf9RQdgucU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_oObh6VUIk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ori4KGvRoY