June 26, 2007

Is There A Method To The VIRAL Madness?

Viral marketing has long been considered to be a serendipitous affair of awareness through traditional approaches such as refer-a-friend programs and clever gimmicks. One viral marketing firm is pioneering a new platform that offers measurable results.

George Assimakopoulos
Principal Manager

I recently was introduced to a scientific viral marketing company based in San Fransisco, CA. PopularMedia allows clients to create measure and fine-tune viral efforts with an extensive set of publishing and analytic tools. What I really embraced from PopularMedia was their philosophy to successful viral marketing. As they state, viral marketing offers attractive benefits to any marketer. It allows a marketer the ability to generate leads, drive revenue, build brand awareness, and more. Marketers who harness the channel can leverage networks of socially connected consumers to spread their messages and offers, driving significant returns with relatively low costs and effort.

I agree with PopularMedia's points on the benefits of viral tactics online. Even though tactics like funny videos and refer-a-friend (RAF) programs are common, they are not sufficient to deliver on viral marketing’s full potential. It is now possible to create successful, profitable viral programs that deliver long-term revenue, leads, and more. The best approaches offer predictable, measurable results and enable marketers to sustain program performance over the long term. Achieving this kind of success doesn’t depend on luck, a huge budget, or a great creative idea — just a good understanding of the viral marketing process.