A mid-September adotas.com article paraphrased a JupiterResearch report titled, “Viral Marketing: Bringing the Message to the Masses.” Here are some tidbits…. 

• Only 15% of viral campaigns launched within the last year have proven successful
• Within the next year the use of viral marketing will decrease as much as 55%
• Ineffectiveness of viral campaigns comes mostly from misdirected tactics, preventing brand delivery and lasting power (DUH)
• “Relatively younger” users are less likely than “relatively older” users to forward advertising messages and communicate with friends about viral ads (DUH)
• Recommendation is to target ‘influentials’ when launching a viral campaign (DUH again)

Also from the adotas.com article: “Emily Riley, analyst for Jupiter said in a statement that, ‘Viral marketers often send one campaign to all influentials. Different influential groups not only respond very differently to advertising campaigns, but also influence others in very different ways.’”

Oh, so, effective communication with Viral Marketing takes research and thought…  Hmm, didn’t think of that.  Why do (some) marketers keep messing this up?  The tactics are the same, the medium is different.

 BTW this is not a complaint about Adotas.  I subscribe and they always have good news.  If this was interesting to you, look them up at your local browser.