Viral Marketing Campaign - Essay Example

Introduction Viral marketing is an explosive concept which took over the main marketing space of the modern world and has produced results for the brands beyond their normal potential. Building on the adventurous instinct of growingly more complex consumer, this marketing technique have deviated from the traditional mindset of marketing to bring in something which has proved too profitable for the companies and brands who adopted it. The movie Cloverfield is a biggest example of how the viral marketing techniques can be used to achieve results beyond the calculated expectations of analysts and experts. The marketing for this movie was solely based on exploiting the adventurous instinct of the humans and a deliberate effort was made to create an environment that greatly boost the chances of the movie to do good on the box office and it did. Many sites on the internet boasted the marketing campaign of the movie which many termed as mouth watering technique to money and consumers closer to you. The recent presidential campaign of Barak Obama is also dubbed as viral marketing technique to raise funds for his electoral campaign as he has been able to better the fund raising efforts more than the money making machine of Clintons’. Thus no technique, no source has been more effective and efficient than viral marketing in terms of exploiting the social bond between people. In a world where community concepts are being limited to the FACEBOOK.COM and ORKUT.COM virtual spaces, viral marketing is something which have the power to tap the changing social structures of the society. So what actually Viral Marketing is? The subsequent section will discuss about it so be prepared to read about one of the most fascinating tricks of modern corporate world Viral Marketing Viral Marketing is a technique which uses already existing social networks to produce and increase awareness of a brand or to achieve other marketing objectives through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of Pathological and computer viruses. In its essence, viral marketing is marketing phenomenon where people use to spread word of mouth for a product or service and it spreads, it tend to get much bigger and bigger in its scope and influence. This kind of viral marketing can take place through various means mainly through the use of internet. The sources on internet include video clips, flash games, eBooks etc. since most of these tools are feely available to most of the people using them therefore it becomes fun and adventure to follow the marketing techniques used in this. In its essence, Viral Marketing is an activity which forces people to spread a message thus it is largely dependent on the creation of networks through which a particular message is spread across the targeted audience. The most basic principals of viral marketing including giving free products and give-aways to the customers. This is done in order to attract the attention of the readers or listeners of the message. Secondly, the message that is intended to be spread must have the power to be spread effortlessly. Since the aim is to spread the message as far as one can therefore transmission mechanism of viral marketing should be seamlessly easy and smooth-without incurring cost to the consumers. However, in order to make viral marketing more successful, viral marketers tend to exploit the common motivations and behaviors of the consumers and than by utilizing the existing networks, the message is spread to the desired audience starting from small scale to very large scale audience magnitude. The whole idea was to bring out the adventurous instinct of the humans and attract them towards the movie which is also evident from the fact that movie did excellent on the box office. Working for the Movie There are various reasons for which this marketing technique worked. Firstly, the marketing technique used for this movie was unusual and unconventional. Most of the movies which are now being produced usually have one website to advertise however Cloverfield had potentially five websites. The most important thing that worked for the movie through this marketing technique was the strong word of mouth which spread like a wild fire and it was well targeted and aimed at the correct and chosen niche of the viewers. This therefore helped company to create pre-release awareness of the movie. This movie itself is unusual as compared to the mainstream movies and the marketing technique used was basically aimed at creating suspense and adventurous instinct as the idea was to launch the movie websites along with its sub teaser sites which potentially have the capability to pull through the viewers through many games and other tricks too that finally lead them to the actual site of the movie. The notion that the brand need to evolve into the minds of the customers so that a distinct identity for brand can emerge has further helped the movie to achieve its targets by clearly evolving the brand identity rose through potentially an unconventional manner. (Simmons 2005). Thus the viral marketing strategy for the movie was based on two pronged strategy of spreading a message at large scale, in unique way to the targeted audience and than back the same message with excellent and unique story to tell on bigger screen. Thus quality of the contents of the movie were actually re-enforced through quality of viral marketing techniques. Thus the most important element behind the success of this marketing technique was the creation of suspense and thrill especially in young surfers. The movie got the box office share because of the fact that movie is about youngsters and most of the surfers who followed the games on the internet were youngsters therefore the marketing technique was well targeted for its chosen market segment of the viewers. The viral marketing therefore helped achieve a record breaking $41 millions in its opening week. Thus the most important contribution the viral marketing made to the success of the movie was the fact that it helped bringing the young moviegoers back to the theaters to decode the clues about the movie’s plot and even its title. Gains achieved from the marketing campaign One of the most important criticisms of this technique of marketing is the fact that most of the companies direct their marketing efforts without defining their target markets. (Ferguson 2008) However one of the most important advantage or gain which can be achieved through the use of this marketing is the fact it has helped companies to evolve an approach which is potentially cheaper and high penetration power into the minds of the customers. Since viral marketing mostly rely on word of mouth therefore through the repeated use of message – no matter forced- provided a cheaper source of marketing. Secondly, through viral marketing the organizations can spread their message at lightening speed thus the penetration power has increased with the emergence of this technique. Further the use of media in this type of marketing technique is conventional and can reach to millions at the same time thus providing an excellent opportunity for the companies to create brand ambassadors for its products too. Since it is now an established fact that the propensity of the consumers to buy does not matter until and unless consumers also prefer to talk about your brand on your behalf. Viral Marketing has that ability to create brand ambassadors at no cost for the companies. (Ferguson 2008). Since the message of in viral marketing is spread freely through existing networks therefore those consumers who were involved in the whole marketing campaign for the movie developed brand loyalty for the movie without actually watching the movie. This brand loyalty resulted in creating brand ambassadorship for the movie – if we consider Cloverfield as a brand- and that brand ambassadorship created opportunity for the movie to attract the large audience when the movie was actually screened on Cinemas. Since viral marketing taps the existing social networks to spread the message and create brand awareness, therefore viral marketing also provide a gain of increasing the connectedness of the various groups of related and unrelated groups of customers. Thus the overall gain viral marketing brought to this movie was its record breaking revenue earning on the box office as . Conclusion The movie Cloverfield hit the screens and did extremely well on the box office. The major reason for the success of this movie is the use of an innovative marketing technique called viral marketing. Viral marketing as a marketing technique rely on the existing social networks so that message about the brand awareness and identity is spread at lightening speed and this all has been due to the innovations coupled with strong marketing techniques. The potentially unconventional marketing technique coupled with the different movie theme worked well for the movie as there were many gains achieved through this marketing technique. This marketing technique also seems to create strong brand ambassadors for the companies at very low cost. The future of this viral marketing can be extremely good provided the producers of the future movies continue to offer unique contents which are properly and completely supported by the excellent viral marketing contents. Since the current activity in viral marketing with regards to movies is largely directed at offering movie clips, games etc therefore the quality of those offerings would determine the quality of the response – in terms of audience actually watching the movie. Letter of Transmittal Mr. XYZ Dear Sir I congratulate you on producing such an excellent movie having so much of the viewers’ appeal and box office attraction. It is one such movie which provided the viewers many takeaways including the marketing technique used to create strong brand image and awareness in order to increase the number of viewers to attract them to the movie. Viral marketing as a technique use to build on the existing social networks and spread the brand message through various means including video clips, flash games etc. However, in doing so they increase their penetration in the market and succeed in luring the existing as well as other potential customers to buy their products. Viral marketing for movie Cloverfield did wonderfully well as it has not only been able to gross up around 41 million US dollars but also achieved in bringing in that segment of the moviegoers which hardly went to go for movies. Further, it has been able to made movie watching in theaters a fun and adventurous activity involving many moviegoers into the process of movie watching. However, while compiling the contents of this report, we have also noticed that the movie got the attraction of moviegoers also because of the fact that they not only found the marketing campaign more intriguing but also the movie itself was shot and produced in completely different way thus providing a completely unique experience to the moviegoer. Further, we also must like to inform you that this report is made as a part of our assignment and was authorized by our instructor. The overall aim was to discuss the movie and the viral marketing both at the same time so that it could be assessed as to how the marketing can help achieve the desired goals for product or service offered. I congratulate you again on presenting and exploiting such excellent marketing technique and wish success for you in future also. This report was basically aimed at studying viral marketing within the context of the movie “Cloverfield” produced by you and we believe we have been able to fulfill our purpose. I also thank you for your time in reading this report and would appreciate any clarifications required from us. Thanks & regards Bibliography Ferguson, Rick. "Word of mouth and viral marketing: taking the temperature of the hottest trends in marketing." Journal of Consumer Marketing 25, no. 3 (2008): 5. Simmons, Geoffrey J. "i-Branding”: developing the internet as a branding tool." Marketing Intelligence & Planning 25, no. 6 (25): 544-562. Watercutter, Angela. "Code-Name Cloverfield - Let the Viral Marketing Begin." http://blog.wired.com. July 11, 2007. http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2007/07/code-name-clove.html (accessed June 20, 2008). Read More