Editor’s note: What are the latest viral marketing trends? What are some best practices, tips and tricks to do your viral marketing campaigns just right? To find out, eM+C hosted an eChat with three leading viral marketers. Below, you’ll find highlights from the discussion. If you have an idea for an eChat or would like to participate in one, contact mcampanelli@napco.com.
Melissa: Welcome to eM+C’s second eChat. Today, we’re going to be discussing viral marketing programs. Could each participant briefly describe a recent viral campaign you’ve done?
Scott Madlener: Performance Communications Group helps organizations sell their products in ways they have not been able to before, and with proven effectiveness. We were called in when Chicken of the Sea wanted to create a viral impact at the School Nutrition Association’s Annual Conference. The goal was to create a viral marketing campaign around a new single-serving Chicken of the Sea product that meets the new demand for healthy choices in school lunchrooms.
Scott Madlener: We used our video postcard product, which allows for real-time video authoring for a video postcard that is then e-mailed to a recipient of their choice. Once produced, the videos are sent to others and nominated for a prize. The nominated videos are shown on the Chicken of the Sea Web site, where viewers vote on each entry and forward their preferred videos to other potential voters.
Scott Madlener: The really fun part of this campaign was the audio/visual component. The video was recorded with trade-show attendees inside a digital mermaid cutout where they were asked to sing the Chicken of the Sea jingle.
Bob Kodner: We recently posted a “Sopranos” spoof involving Mr. Happy Crack on YouTube. One of our franchise partners put it together, and I think it’s gotten over 2,000 views since it’s been up. It was fun and informative, and we’ve gotten a nice response from potential franchisees as well as end users of our services, which is great.
Lance Callaghan: To support a TV campaign (see maplestory.com/free) for our MapleStory game, we created www.maplestorymob.com. We wanted to recruit, build and manage a pervasive, aggressive, motivated (and incentivized) MapleStory Mob to promote MapleStory and drive traffic to maplestory.com/free and generate new users.
The Players:
Scott Madlener, executive vice president of interactive strategy, Performance Communications Group, www.performcom.com
Bob Kodner, president, The Crack Team, www.thecrackteam.com
Lance Callaghan, marketing manager, Nexon America, www.nexon.net
Paul Kim, vice president of marketing, Mozilla Inc., www.mozilla.com
Melissa Campanelli, editor-in-chief, eM+C
