Comments on: Demystifying Viral Marketing – 7 Myths of Viral Marketing Campaigns http://jfbelisle.com/2009/06/demystifying-viral-marketing-7-myths-of-viral-marketing-campaigns/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=demystifying-viral-marketing-7-myths-of-viral-marketing-campaigns Marketing, Analytics and Entertainment Thu, 26 Jan 2012 22:18:15 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= By: Sarah E http://jfbelisle.com/2009/06/demystifying-viral-marketing-7-myths-of-viral-marketing-campaigns/#comment-1262 Sarah E Sun, 12 Jun 2011 11:45:49 +0000 http://jfbelisle.com/?p=554#comment-1262 JF, love your blogs and great to read intelligent comment for a change. The biggest mistakes marketing manager/directors make, from experience are: 1. Not knowing what they are doing or really want. No idea really what strategy they are following, what their objectives are. "We want a viral campaign". So many just jump on the bandwagon. And then wonder why it doesn't work. 2. Being stupid. I could be polite and a say most are not very well informed about digital, virals and the rest but many clients haven't a clue and are easily sold dreams by 'so called experts' who can be very good at persuasion. They also fall for numbers, because it validates things, like paying for lots of analytics about nothing. Thinking hundreds matter. Getting mentioned on a few blogs or a few Tweets means nothing. Unless we are talking hundreds of thousands, stick to traditional high volume advertising media like posters, radio, press, TV and PR - we still read more papers than articles online. 3. Thinking it costs nothing. The biggest myth of all. Successful virals are expensive. The creativity is the most important element yet they expect to pay nothing (either for the ideas or execution) and want it done over night. It can cost as much, or even more than a TV ad. Then, as you point out well, add seeding, databases, monitoring, analytics - one big bill. I always say, "if you haven't got a decent dollar budget, you haven't got a hope in hell". 4. Thinking digital replaces traditional media and PR. They make great partners. It works with and alongside. PR - if it makes the big media it gets read/seen/listened to by millions who then comment to each other - news stories are one of the most common topics of conversations in the office and socially. Great TV ads soon spread via the web (with a bit of help). Some great online ads have become TV ads. According to Keller Fray (a leading research agency into WOM) only 10% of conversations about brands happen on line. 90% in the real world. Too many clients think its the other war around. And according to Neilsen, the single biggest factor in successful online is the creativity (no surprise to agencies). That's what you need to invest in most. JF, good point about use the experts but clients are left trying to work out who is the expert as every agency they employ - the ad agency, media agency, digital, direct marketing, sale promotion, PR and all those specialists who have appeared over night - all are claiming to be the experts. Great piece. JF, love your blogs and great to read intelligent comment for a change.
The biggest mistakes marketing manager/directors make, from experience are:

1. Not knowing what they are doing or really want. No idea really what strategy they are following, what their objectives are. “We want a viral campaign”. So many just jump on the bandwagon. And then wonder why it doesn’t work.

2. Being stupid. I could be polite and a say most are not very well informed about digital, virals and the rest but many clients haven’t a clue and are easily sold dreams by ‘so called experts’ who can be very good at persuasion. They also fall for numbers, because it validates things, like paying for lots of analytics about nothing. Thinking hundreds matter. Getting mentioned on a few blogs or a few Tweets means nothing. Unless we are talking hundreds of thousands, stick to traditional high volume advertising media like posters, radio, press, TV and PR – we still read more papers than articles online.

3. Thinking it costs nothing. The biggest myth of all. Successful virals are expensive. The creativity is the most important element yet they expect to pay nothing (either for the ideas or execution) and want it done over night. It can cost as much, or even more than a TV ad. Then, as you point out well, add seeding, databases, monitoring, analytics – one big bill. I always say, “if you haven’t got a decent dollar budget, you haven’t got a hope in hell”.

4. Thinking digital replaces traditional media and PR. They make great partners. It works with and alongside.
PR – if it makes the big media it gets read/seen/listened to by millions who then comment to each other – news stories are one of the most common topics of conversations in the office and socially.
Great TV ads soon spread via the web (with a bit of help). Some great online ads have become TV ads.
According to Keller Fray (a leading research agency into WOM) only 10% of conversations about brands happen on line. 90% in the real world. Too many clients think its the other war around.
And according to Neilsen, the single biggest factor in successful online is the creativity (no surprise to agencies). That’s what you need to invest in most.

JF, good point about use the experts but clients are left trying to work out who is the expert as every agency they employ – the ad agency, media agency, digital, direct marketing, sale promotion, PR and all those specialists who have appeared over night – all are claiming to be the experts.

Great piece.

]]> By: Capitalizing on Previously Created Buzz: The “Old Spice Man” Strikes Back | Blogue Marketing Interactif http://jfbelisle.com/2009/06/demystifying-viral-marketing-7-myths-of-viral-marketing-campaigns/#comment-897 Capitalizing on Previously Created Buzz: The “Old Spice Man” Strikes Back | Blogue Marketing Interactif Fri, 16 Jul 2010 18:20:49 +0000 http://jfbelisle.com/?p=554#comment-897 [...] previously stated in my post entitled Demystifying Viral Marketing – 7 Myths of Viral Marketing: “viral marketing campaigns should be considered as long-term strategies that should be used to [...] [...] previously stated in my post entitled Demystifying Viral Marketing – 7 Myths of Viral Marketing: “viral marketing campaigns should be considered as long-term strategies that should be used to [...]

]]> By: Capitalizing on Previously Created Buzz: The “Old Spice Man” Strikes Back — Jean-Francois Belisle, M.Sc. http://jfbelisle.com/2009/06/demystifying-viral-marketing-7-myths-of-viral-marketing-campaigns/#comment-892 Capitalizing on Previously Created Buzz: The “Old Spice Man” Strikes Back — Jean-Francois Belisle, M.Sc. Fri, 16 Jul 2010 13:25:45 +0000 http://jfbelisle.com/?p=554#comment-892 [...] previously stated in my post entitled Demystifying Viral Marketing – 7 Myths of Viral Marketing: “viral marketing campaigns should be considered as long-term strategies that should be used to [...] [...] previously stated in my post entitled Demystifying Viral Marketing – 7 Myths of Viral Marketing: “viral marketing campaigns should be considered as long-term strategies that should be used to [...]

]]> By: Launching a Successful Online Marketing Campaign for Buzzing the Buzz Using the Buzz/Viral/Buzz Sequence — Jean-Francois Belisle, M.Sc. http://jfbelisle.com/2009/06/demystifying-viral-marketing-7-myths-of-viral-marketing-campaigns/#comment-265 Launching a Successful Online Marketing Campaign for Buzzing the Buzz Using the Buzz/Viral/Buzz Sequence — Jean-Francois Belisle, M.Sc. Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:50:27 +0000 http://jfbelisle.com/?p=554#comment-265 [...] Viral marketing is about the techniques employed to propagate a message/video in the online environment. If the message/video sucks, you will spend plenty of time trying to spread rotten material. For a more detailed view of viral marketing myths, feel free to read my post entitled “Demystifying Viral Marketing – 7 Myths of Viral Marketing Campaigns”. [...] [...] Viral marketing is about the techniques employed to propagate a message/video in the online environment. If the message/video sucks, you will spend plenty of time trying to spread rotten material. For a more detailed view of viral marketing myths, feel free to read my post entitled “Demystifying Viral Marketing – 7 Myths of Viral Marketing Campaigns”. [...]

]]> By: Jean-Francois Belisle http://jfbelisle.com/2009/06/demystifying-viral-marketing-7-myths-of-viral-marketing-campaigns/#comment-135 Jean-Francois Belisle Fri, 16 Oct 2009 19:51:42 +0000 http://jfbelisle.com/?p=554#comment-135 @Polprav, feel free to quote me and link to me, the more we are connected the better it is. @Polprav, feel free to quote me and link to me, the more we are connected the better it is.

]]> By: Polprav http://jfbelisle.com/2009/06/demystifying-viral-marketing-7-myths-of-viral-marketing-campaigns/#comment-134 Polprav Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:01:21 +0000 http://jfbelisle.com/?p=554#comment-134 Hello from Russia! Can I quote a post in your blog with the link to you? Hello from Russia!
Can I quote a post in your blog with the link to you?

]]> By: Jean-Francois Belisle http://jfbelisle.com/2009/06/demystifying-viral-marketing-7-myths-of-viral-marketing-campaigns/#comment-26 Jean-Francois Belisle Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:22:14 +0000 http://jfbelisle.com/?p=554#comment-26 @PhilGo20 Thank you for this link, this is an interesting report. This could be helpful for someone in search for more content specific advices at the platform-level. However, I think that these results are biased upward (most respondents are way more tech savvy than the average population) due to the data collection method. Personally, even with that constraint I think that some of these insights are still interesting. @PhilGo20 Thank you for this link, this is an interesting report. This could be helpful for someone in search for more content specific advices at the platform-level. However, I think that these results are biased upward (most respondents are way more tech savvy than the average population) due to the data collection method. Personally, even with that constraint I think that some of these insights are still interesting.

]]> By: PhilGo20 http://jfbelisle.com/2009/06/demystifying-viral-marketing-7-myths-of-viral-marketing-campaigns/#comment-25 PhilGo20 Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:10:33 +0000 http://jfbelisle.com/?p=554#comment-25 Dan Zarrella wrote an interesting report based on a content sharing survey he performed : http://danzarrella.com/viral-content-sharing-report-table-of-contents It gives some good insight about who shares, why and how to reach them with content they will share. Have a good read Dan Zarrella wrote an interesting report based on a content sharing survey he performed : http://danzarrella.com/viral-content-sharing-report-table-of-contents

It gives some good insight about who shares, why and how to reach them with content they will share.

Have a good read

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