Viral Marketing

A lot of the energy behind the Internet is the ability for everyone to be a publisher. Consequently, we are in a land grab for precious spectrum - people's attention. Attention is finite. Rising above the noise of a thousand voices requires creativity. Shouting is not very creative. Just hanging up a web shingle and hoping for visitors is not very creative. Rather, new companies can structure their businesses in a way that allows them to grow like a virus and lock out the existing bricks and mortar competitors through innovative pricing and exploitation of these competitors' legacy distribution channel conflict.

In 1996, Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith pioneered a great new product category -- free web-based email. But many great ideas and great products have withered on the vine. The special catalyst for Hotmail's torrid growth is what we at Spydernet have come to call "Viral Marketing" -- not because any traditional viruses are involved, but because of the pattern of rapid adoption through exponential networks. Viral Marketing powerfully compounds the benefits of a first-mover advantage, and it's something we eagerly look for when evaluating any Internet Marketing Campaign for the New Year.

In Focus

Why all the fuss over Viral Marketing. Lets put things into perspective - Your company has just launched a brand new website loaded with products and services that you eagerly want to market promote and sell. You're now faced with a few expensive decisions 1. How to reach the maximum number of potential customers? 2. The most cost effective solution that doesn't minimise the effectiveness of the campaign. We focus on a make belief case study to outline the overview of a viral marketing campaign.

Case study 1

Company: New Age Products (fictional)
Budget: Under 10 000