Doesn’t Viral Marketing sound exciting… and cheap? How can you not want to try a Viral Marketing campaign? If it works for a cool Indie band, maybe it will work for your company?

While reading the book about viral marketing, “And Then There’s This: How Stories Live and Die in Viral Culture” by Bill Wasik, I realized that viral marketing, in and of itself, will not predictably achieve success. It’s always exciting to hear about the one time it worked, but that’s not how you build a marketing plan.

In fact, in Wasik’s chapter on the viral marketing of indie-rock bands, I saw the predictability of non-success. (more…)

Do viral marketing and creating a buzz seem like concepts that are hard to grasp? I mean, we all know that if someone tells you a product, song or movie is good, chances are you’ll believe it more than if you see an ad for it. But, how do you get buzz going?

Well, two books came out during the last couple of weeks. Each was written by one of the pioneers of viral event marketing. Bill Wasik is the guy who invented the flash mob concept. One day he was bored and just wanted to do something interesting.  He sent out an anonymous email to a few friends suggesting that they show up at a nearby furniture chain store at a specific time, and to tell all their friends about it. To his surprise hundreds of people showed up.     (more…)