Breaking Down Viral Advertising.

Hey all; I’m still in process of rebuilding ZeroDegree’s site; here’s something I wrote yesterday for ZD; it’s a general theory of viral advertising.

Key points are breaking it down to a level wherein we can predict results. This is always limited to content; but having said that there are other ways to build some presence. Here’s the article, which will also eventually show on an introduction page on ZD’s site.

Before we get into service descriptions, lets first figure out what the term “viral” really means. The widely accepted definition of “viral” is content that gets spread organically on an exponential scale.

So lets break that down:

1. Content.
2. Exponential spreading of content.

Right? OK. So lets figure the content that can do this naturally is variable; and likely to change with the ever shifting sands of trends, interests, and emotions experienced by different cultures.

That pretty paragraph means content can not be purposely made viral; audiences determines viral merit. Forcing “viral” is like “cool hunting”; it’s inexact, unscientific, guesswork based on varying levels of intuition vs. vanity and ego gratification; you cannot predict success.

So where does that leave us?

We still have “2″ which is the exponential spreading of content. And herein lies the silver lining; why? Because we can establish online media channels like forums, SNS sites, niche commerce websites, etc in a systematic way, and then select the right channels to burst content through; so…

By establishing the online social media channel network, we can give content the best possible chance to go viral.

How does this work? Let’s get pictorial.

The common misconception leading to failed viral campaigns is content will magically create exponential viewership based on it’s own merit.

While this is true in some stellar cases; intentional viral campaigns rarely work. Some content needs more support than others. So how do we support? By targeted selection and seeding of relevant content into forums, BBS, video sites, forums, etc.

Now of course this doesn’t look as nice as the first organic viral picture; but bear with me for a moment. If we locate (through endless research) which are the best sites housing our target market, we can still get the message out to these particular people without too much reliance on “viral-ness” of the original content.

Taking this even further; we can expand our seeding campaign to target even more sites and create a virtual viral effect. Generally the message is spread to all relevant sites in the appropriate site regulated manner. This creates several unique benefits.

The first benefit is that the message gets out there. The second? By executing a focused seeding campaign the original content, if it ever had a chance, will at some point go viral if the creative mix is tuned right.

Therefore, we’re not only getting the content seen by the right audience, we’re also giving that content the ideal environment to be organically spread.

And its from these insights that derive our services; helping push your pre-created brand messages through channels; helping you to keep those messages active; and then helping you to create targeted content to drive better engagement.

So after this I try to sell you something. Stay tuned for the live page next week; I’ll announce the launch of the new ZeroDegrees site on LRB.

Related articles from around the web.

• Do Your Marketing Emails LIE? (thecustomercollective.com)
• WeAreMedia: What’s Your Social Content Strategy? (beth.typepad.com)
• Twitter expands rules to allow advertising (canada.com)
• Listen To Your Target Market And Reap the Rewards (smallbusinessbranding.com)
• I’m Confused! Conflicting Social Media Studies (socialmediatoday.com)
• Guide To Licensed Content Syndication (masternewmedia.org)
• Companies Realizing That Content Is Advertising Via Web Series (techdirt.com)

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