Viral Falls Short

In a new report, “Viral Marketing: Bringing the Message to the Masses,” Jupiter Research reports that just 15 percent of viral campaigns achieved success in the last year. 15 percent effectiveness for any marketing tactic is pretty good. People expect viral to be a panacea, “Let’s throw some viral against it.” But just like any good creative or marketing strategy, a viral campaign needs its own big idea which is often far from what the client or agency intended. That’s not because the client concept is wrong or misguided (although this happens too), its just that the audience is more demanding, and they earn that right. After all you’re asking them to take an action -pass on a video clip, comment on a blog, send an email- so don’t expect them to do the work for you without a lot of your own effort.