You can find it but it’s beyond elusive. We experience it everyday and we hardly know it. It’s something brands and marketers can only dream of. To them it’s beautiful, glorious, challenging and seemingly impossible. What is word-of-mouth (WOM) and viral marketing worth to you? And how do you measure it’s success?
The complexity of this type of marketing can only be answered with an equally complex answer. It’s mesmerizing to watch it happen. But what true value does it bring? Is it about brand exposure, awareness and “getting the word out-there”? Or is it about increased sales, dollars and “moving the product”?
The essence of WOM and viral marketing is mystifying in itself. The outcomes can be good, bad and simply viral. What a curious set of circumstances you can get stuck in. Luckily enough for us – and my blog post – there are two viral and WOM of campaigns in the works. And to start things off, we’re going against the grain here. Let’s introduce “the Bad”.
The Bad
For those of us that are savvier online individuals, we came across Fast Company’s The Influence Project in one way another. It’s only been a week and I don’t even care for it anymore. Does anyone? I hardly see anything in the Twitter stream anymore. And other than myself, no one in my Facebook world has even pursued it. I must admit, I went from thinking it was an “ok, whatever, just another social media” idea, to being against it and ultimately starting an anti-movement, The UNfluence Project.
And unknowingly I ultimately unfluenced myself right out of my own idea. It seems that asking people for support is a hundred times harder than what Fast Company did. Though deception is a harsh word, they in fact got people to show support unwillingly. People will always be curious. And that curiosity will lead to people click on link’s trusted people like us provided for them. That false sense of influence is a betrayal of that trust we have built with people online.
Ultimately, as I wrote in the first link above, Fast Company did create a viral campaign that can be deemed successful, created awareness around a niche company and ultimately influenced everyone to blog, tweet and go on about their campaign. We all did this whether we even liked it or not.
Something that got 6,000 people to sign up in the first 24 hours has only seen a growth to just over 11,000 people (as of today) in the 8 days since. That works out to an average of 625 people after the first 24 hours. It’s uncertain to what thoughts Fast Company has on all this. In my original article on the idea, I wrote that their wouldn’t be a backlash and that it wouldn’t fizzle out. But it appears that negative PR all over the web and the fact many people actually don’t know about Fast Company at all – something I learned from my own investigating – has really caused the idea to turn from hot to cold in a matter of days.
The Good
Not all is bad though. In fact, there is something really, really good that has been happening over the past week. And it all has to do with Old Spice. We loved the original commercials. And the new one has brought another world of laughs. But the recent personalized online videos have magically topped off their either idea. It is really hard to believe that a men’s body wash has created a viral masterpiece.
Unfortunately, the personalized videos have ended today. I must say, on an absolutely fantastic note. But in total, there are 186 personalized YouTube videos dedicated to fans, commentators and everyone else who had the audacity to share an opinion. Talk about great customer engagement. After looking at the Old Spice’s YouTube channel, those videos have generated a total number of views that is easily in the millions just after a few days.
What’s brilliant here is that you begin to see Twitter feeds full of comical anecdotes. Not to mention all articles about the subject. “Just maybe I’ll get a response if I write something clever enough”. Heck, I even sent a tweet off. What’s important to remember here is that Old Spice built a funny, memorable and relatable platform. Then they went looking to engage the online world. And lastly, producing an even more powerful reaction that millions were engaged with.
And the Viral
Some of you might think that the comparison between such differentiating companies might be unfair. After all, Old Spice is part of a larger and more elaborate framework. But what I’m concerned about here is the comparison in WOM and viral strategies. In the end, any reaction can been seen as a positive one. However, there are a series of circumstances that are distinguishable between the two.
The differences here in “the Good” and “the Bad” is one is actively pursuing a reaction and the other is passively pursing one. Further, the Old Spice campaign is well known and never asked for immediate engagement. Everything that happened was consequential to an amazing platform. On the other hand, Fast Company is a niche company. They were able attract their core audience and maybe some stranglers here and there. But by actively pursuing people to engage in their project, parts of their core audience and closer secondary audiences reacted negatively. It makes me question if they understand their audience and whether displeasing them would be acceptable attrition.
When you break down the numbers, Fast Company has got 11,000 users for their Influence Project however their Twitter profile has just under 140,000 followers. Maybe I have inferior searching abilities, but I couldn’t find a Facebook page or YouTube channel. In my mind that’s only a 7% reaction from people who are their followers (I know these are rough numbers but it’s still something to consider).
Old Spice on the other hand has about 64,000 Twitter followers, 89,000 YouTube subscribers and 590,000 Facebook fans. At a few million online views, there is a reaction anywhere between 200%-300%. And after all my crude math, I think it’s safe to say that no matter what Old Spice clearly understands “the viral”. As for the Influence Project, I’m graciously bowing out. So no more articles about it. I promise.
Just remember, the viral idea isn’t about you or what it will bring to you. The viral idea is about the followers, the fans, the subscribers and the customers. Engage them and they will respond. And you will see the results. Even though those results might not exactly be what you want. Results give you the opportunity to learn something. Old Spice learned pretty quickly. Too bad it’s going to take the other guy until their November issue to learn the same lessons.
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