How Do You Know When Something Has “Gone Viral”?
There’s a common misconception that you can make an e-blast, video or other social media piece viral.
Not true.
You can only create a great piece of creative and promote the heck out of it in the HOPES that it goes viral. Your target audience is the only one who can take action by forwarding it to friends, talking about it with co-workers, etc.
That said, I wanted to share an e-blast that was sent to me recently from juice giant, Jamba Juice. In my opinion, this is an example of viral marketing that works. Take a look and see if you agree.
First off, the title intrigued me “New Cheeseburger Chili Smoothie.” I receive emails from Jamba all the time, but this was so weird, I HAD to open it to see if it was for real.
The format of the email was the same as the other ones I receive so that looked legit. And even after I watched the video I still didn’t know for sure if it was real. They peaked my curiosity so much that I had to visit cheeseburgerchill.com to find out if it was for real (which, of course, was their intention).
Turns out, the burger shake was a hoax (thank goodness). The whole ploy was a reaction against McDonald’s recent venture into the smoothie business. If you’ve seen the burger chain’s recent TV spots (see above), you know what I’m talking about. A great stunt that had a really good strategy behind it. Genius.
Even better? After you read the message on the landing page there is an option to forward it to a friend, post it on multiple social media sites AND (here’s the best part) get $1 off your next smoothie. A pretty nice little reward for reading all the way through to the web page, huh?
As an advertiser, I consider myself keen to most marketing ploys—much like a white v-neck at a wet t-shirt contest, I feel I can see through most of them. But I fell for this one, even sending it out to multiple friends and doing a blog post about it.
So did it go viral?
Did I like it enough to send it to my friends? Check.
Did I talk about it with co-workers? Check.
Did it make it make me interact with their brand for a considerable length of time? Check.
The “Cheeseburger Chill” YouTube video has been viewed 203,336 at the time of this blog post. Not many if you compare it the over 16 million views of the kid on laughing gas, but a pretty good start considering it only debuted two weeks ago.
What do you think makes a piece of media go viral?
My coworker and I totally sat at the computer and were like, “is this real?” “click here!” “watch this!”. I printed the coupon off and used it! I say it totally went viral.
Megan´s last blog ..Asaggios Pizza is a place for lovers 1
awesome idea! can you think of any bg clients who might benefit from the same type of approach? we are IN if you do!
[...] Blog Title: Don’t Drink the Koolaid Description: A blog about public relations, advertising, social media, design and online marketing in simple terms. This blog is produced by Bailey Gardiner, a San Diego Interactive Ad and PR Agency. Many of the employees contribute and post to this blog which makes it great in its diversity of topics and writing styles. It really doesn’t feel like a “business-run” blog, IMO, which is why I recommend it. Get the business insight without the business feel. Another great feature of Don’t Drink the KoolAid is that the blog entries are relatively simple and short. Sometimes I see an interesting blog title that lures me in. However, usually when I click and see 10 paragraphs, I tune out immediately. This blog always seems to keep it short and sweet with relevant and interesting posts. Some of my favorite posts include: Ten Signs You May Be A Prepress Pro, How to use Foursquare: New Updates for Users and Marketers, and How Do You Know When Something Has “Gone Viral?” [...]
thanks for this … i’m quite a regular user of your blog because you’ve got some exceptionally good content here !