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Are you having trouble coming up with a killer viral marketing campaign? Perhaps you can do what The Bargain Queen is doing. They are asking other people to do it for them.

If you think you have what it takes to create a winning viral marketing campaign, the Queen wants to hear from you. They are holding a contest to find the best viral marketing idea for their website. The prize is one funky new iPod Touch. Check it out

(via Crap Hammer)

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Clarity is Key for Viral Activity
Here’s a great article on the importance of clarity when designing a viral marketing campaign. Sometimes, as marketers, we can get a bit too creative for our own good.

Photo credit: jeffhurlow

Pew Internet has released a study on how people view and share online videos. There’s some interesting statistics within this report. More than half of online video viewers share links with others and the average online video viewer consumed more than two video streams per day. Check it out

Whether you’re developing a microsite or a simple magazine ad there are three questions you should always ask your creative team/agency:

Why Stop
What’s going to make someone stop and look at the ad?

Why Continue
What’s going to make someone explore the ad?

Why Act
What’s going to make someone take action?

After asking these questions, don’t be afraid to act like a two year old and follow up with a “why”.

Photo credit: stevegatto2

Recently, CommunityNext held a viral marketing conference called Viral! From Zero to 10 Million Users.

I wasn’t able to attend this event; however, thanks to the Internet, I’ve been able to experience all the marketing goodness through other people’s blogs:

Emergence Media
Summarizes the conference’s themes and general information about widgets, Flickr, and 4 lessons from Keith Rabois.

Digital Musings
5 takeaway points from the “Online Communities To a Million and Beyond” session.

Meta Muse
9 takeaway point and a link to an article on why PR doesn’t work (conference session).

Lightspeed Venture Partners
5 lessons from the conference.

Daniela Barbosa
Numerous viral marketing tips and some insight from Dow Jones.

TINEyboppin
Christine Songco shares 4 things that she learned at the CommunityNext conference.

Let me know if you’ve blogged about this event, and I’ll add you to this list.

Photo credit: photo of Dave McClure taken by TedRheingold

AT&T recently launched a new service that allows people to send a live video from one cell phone to another.

This got me thinking. With cell phone subscriptions numbering in the billions, what would it take to launch the world’s first cell phone distributed viral video? Perhaps a cheaper rate plan?

Dare to dream!

Photo credit: Steven Wilke

A couple of days ago, Advertising Age published an article called What’s Plaguing Viral Marketing, which discusses professor Watts’ research on viral marketing. According to Watts, marketers and books like “The Tipping Point” rely too much on influencers to trigger big change.

Mr. Watts argues that influencers have little impact beyond their own immediate neighborhood. As a result, marketers should target large numbers of easily influenced people. He calls this technique big-seed marketing (the rest of us call it mass marketing).

Although, I still don’t see the need for a new term like big-seed marketing, I think Mr. Watts brought up a few interesting point worth exploring. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m not the first person to say this, but I think it’s worth repeating. If your product or idea is not remarkable, don’t expect it to do remarkable things. You must find a way to stand out, be different and unique.

As marketers, we often tend to gravitate toward the familiar. We mimic and reproduce past examples of success. Why? It feels safer, reassuring, and comfortable; however, this seldom produces remarkable results.

The next time you develop a viral campaign, ask yourself if it is truly remarkable. Why is it viral worthy?

Photo by: CarbonNYC

Trade show tactics by Seth Godin
Great idea for a trade show promotion to spread the word about Squidoo.com.

Paper, Rocks, Scissors
Fun little promotion where people play Rock Paper Scissors with the cashier to win a discount on their food.

One of the most important things you can do when developing a viral marketing campaign is to ensure that the concept is kept simple.

Is it simple to explain? Is it simple to interact with? Is it simple for people to spread? If it’s not simple, it’s probably not going to be viral.

So how do you know if the viral concept you want to develop is too complicated? Here are a few clues: Read the rest of this entry »