502 CHAPTER 15 E-COMMUNICATIONViral marketing campaigns work best between groups with strong common interests. Th is
implies that they allow marketers to spread selective messages to selective groups. By using viral
marketing tactics carefully, marketers may avoid negative reactions and gain an excellent
return on investment by increasing the reach of a marketing message to a targeted group that
is much larger than the audience originally covered. Viral marketing is increasingly popular
for three reasons. Firstly, entire social networks are online today as a large number of every-
body’s friends and family members are using social media. Secondly, contacting individuals
online is virtually cost-free, and it is possible for each individual to contact hundreds more
without much eff ort or cost.^59 According to a survey, 81% of those who receive viral messages
pass them on to at least one other person, and almost half of those receivers are likely to pass
the message along to two or three other people.^60
Finally, for 68% of surfers, word of mouth is the top source for learning about new web-
sites, which puts referrals and viral marketing in second place aft er search engines (74%) and
above links on other sites (65%), ads (46%) and online advertising (45%).^61 Several studies
prove the power of word of mouth: 90% of the consumers trust recommendations from
people they know; even 70% trust unknown users; 14% trust advertising while only 8% trust
celebrities; 92% have more confi dence in information found online than they do in anything
from a salesperson or other source; 70% consult reviews or ratings before purchasing. Th e
peer consumer has the power today.^62
Just as with off line word-of-mouth advertising, word of mouse is not driven by marketers
and it is hard to keep control over the messages. Th is could imply negative associations with
the brand and a dilution of brand assets as the same strengths could work against a company
if dissatisfi ed customers share their anger with their contacts. Th erefore, marketers should
consider pre-testing viral marketing campaigns on a small scale. If viral messages contain
audio or video components, some Internet users might consider them as bandwidth and
mailbox space-consuming ‘spam’ (unwanted and unsolicited e-mails).to be part of the conversation that day. The day after the big game the homepage of YouTube was secured to
capitalise on the post-game buzz. To further sustain the buzz, additional video content (like behind the scenes,
bloopers, etc.) was released. On YouTube, the award winning ‘ The Force’ commercial received over 53 million views
and 203 000 likes by mid-May 2012. During the week of the Super Bowl, daily Facebook interaction rates (likes and
comments) were up 214%, and VW added over 12 000 fans in just one week. On Twitter, the average click-through
per tweet was 820, an increase of 925%. During this same time period, VW added more than 500 followers.^56
The second most shared ad of all time is a promotional video posted by the American TV channel TNT for its
launch in Belgium. The flash mob-style PR stunt was launched exclusively via social media and on the TNT website,
though there was also a short trailer in cinemas on the continent for two weeks. It has taken YouTube by storm,
getting 10 million views in 24 hours, and 23 million views and 214 896 likes in just one week. TNT placed a large
red button in the middle of a quiet square in a Belgian town along with a ‘push to add drama’ sign hanging near it.
It then captured the reaction of the bemused, astounded crowd when one of them actually pushed the button.
A series of dramatic events followed: the arrival of an ambulance with attendants dropping the ‘patient’ from the
stretcher several times, a cyclist ramming into the ambulance’s open door, and a fist fight between the cyclist and
the burly ambulance driver. Including a scantily dressed woman on a motorbike being chased by a car, a fake
encounter that left a person ‘dead’ and the bizarre arrival of a team of rugby players, led to a video that was dramatic
in the true sense of the word. At the end of June 2012, the video had reached over 35 million views and 280 000
likes.^57 The ad has clearly been very successful at driving exposure for the brand. WaveMetrix analysed the nature
of discussion around the video, to investigate how exactly it affected consumers’ perceptions of TNT. The analysis
reveals that consumers discuss the effectiveness of the video as an ad more than anything else: a great deal of
comments praised the video as great advertising and said that they wish more ads were like this. However, only a
small proportion of those comments discuss the TNT channel itself, a few saying they ‘want to watch’ because of
the ad. The ad drives consumers to perceive TNT as a unique, clever brand.^58M15_PELS3221_05_SE_C15.indd 502M15_PELS3221_05_SE_C15.indd 502 6/6/13 8:55 AM6/6/13 8:55 AM