JULY 2001
VOLUME 1, NUMBER 1

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VIRAL NEWS: Who Gets It & Why Playing Games, By The Numbers Who Gets It & Why BMW gets it. Why? They are boldly thinking beyond the site. Beyond what can't be taken with you, beyond what can't exist outside the confines of the site, to what can. Thinking beyond the site, they have suddenly leapt ahead of competitors in staking their claim to that most valuable piece of as yet largely unclaimed real estate, the user desktop itself. Their BMW Film Player, a Viral Object extraordinaire, has been rumored to now be installed on more than 1 million user desktops, although BMW is not releasing official download totals. Nielson Net Ratings reported the site itself had 1.1 million visitors in June alone. Don't discount the significance of Viral Objects like the BMW Film Player living on the desktop. Imagine that moment when their target user is at the point of purchase for a luxury car. Through repeated exposure to the BMW brand at the user desktop, armed with the goodwill association accrued with each viewing of the series of highly entertaining, first-class BMW film shorts, BMW is at the top of the user's mind. Their star is brighter within this user's mind than, say, Porsche or Lexus, because an intimate interactive relationship has been formed. The user has an ownership experience with BMW on the desktop, and it has been thrilling. And that BMW logo on the desktop really looks beautiful - imagine having one in the garage... When the user clicks from the BMW Film Player on the desktop straight to the BMW site it will be what we would call a purposeful visit, rather than merely the curiosity click-away so many other sites have mistakenly battled over during the Internet's infancy. BMW knows that in thinking beyond the site they have better prepared the user to make a buying decision when they do come to the site. Just listen to Jim McDowell, BMW North America's Marketing VP. "We thought: Maybe we need to entertain our customers instead of advertising to them," he says. BMW gets it. FURTHER READING: Business Week The Standard Wired Playing Games, By The Numbers Not sure the target you're going after is into playing games? According to Jupiter Media Metrix projections, nearly 45 million people will play online games this year, and more than 68 million are expected to do so by 2003. These are drastically important numbers for Viral Marketers considering creating an Advergame as a Viral Object in the next year. Let's extrapolate a bit from the 45-68 million figure range to see why. Although the figure reflects 45-68 million people from all walks of life and all corners of the globe playing online games, it's safe to assume much more than half will come from the United States alone, given the share of global audience and broadband dominance relative to other countries. A safe and easy number to work with given these assumptions is 30 million people in the US playing online games by 2003. Now, about these 30 million people. We read reports regularly, all agreeing with ever increasing statistics, that US Internet usage has begun to reflect the US population as a whole in demographic breakdowns with nearly 182 Million online, almost evenly split between male and female. This leaves us with 1 out of every 6 people in the category of people likely to download and play games online (and no, there isn't a skew towards men playing games over women we have ignored in this figure, that has shown to be 50-50 as well). The 1 out of 6 figure, then, reflects people who will play general games. We think Advergames created uniquely and specifically for a given target, particularly a vertical within which no game has yet been specifically and uniquely created, will be operating at an even higher acceptability rate. First mover status, curiosity, and growing competition among colleagues in these untapped verticals will also yield the velocity of interest for pass-along among colleagues, further tightening the number. And as the corresponding buzz builds within a given vertical about such a game as it is passed-along and read about in affinity portals and forums and trade 'zines and sites, more and more of the not-likely-to-downloaders will jump ship and click too, thanks to that old marketer's friend the multiple exposure. Now let's extrapolate even further and say that half of your downloads come from the 1 out of 6'ers and the other half from the 5 out of 6'ers. Not only have you achieved a 33% penetration of your target online, but half of your target has your game as the first and perhaps only game on their desktops. Think that may leave an impression? The math is fuzzy but the opportunity is high, particularly if you're not sure the target you're going after is into playing games. It probably means you're an Advergame away from first mover, a very good place to be. by VMM Editor

VIRAL FEATURE
Yes, Virginia, Viral Marketing Really is a Key Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Component

2001 has been quite an online odyssey marketing-wise. We need not read too far into most industry articles before banners get the obligatory bashing, and tales of weal in interactive ad spending have been far less in number than those of woe. It's enough to make an interactive man cry.

Yet in this hazy cloud of uncertainty, two items in the online budget are clearly NOT being tightened: SEO and Viral Marketing. Rather, more and more companies are allocating greater and greater percentages of the online buy to these two increasingly accepted members of the media mix. At Intrapromote, we see it every week reflected in the RFPs that come our way.

While articles about each discipline alone are growing everyday, though, just try and find a single one addressing the two in tandem. After all, who would ever have imagined that Viral Marketing is actually a massive secret weapon in SEO success? We consider ourselves masters of both realms and yet didn't fully realize it until it hit us right on the nose.

How did it hit us on the nose?

First, it's very important to understand the prominence of link popularity in SEO efforts. Most crawler-based search engines use link popularity as a factor when calculating site relevance for keyword phrases, which proportionately yields higher placements - two of the best and most important examples being Google and Inktomi. Since Inktomi's search index is used by HotBot, MSN, AOL, Canada.com, and many other portals, it is extremely important to have a high level of link popularity in order to rank well, especially when you're dealing with a vertical populated by highly competitive keyword phrases. Google is also used as a secondary results provider by several other search sites like Yahoo!, so it is even more critical to perform well at Google.

To make matters difficult, though, link popularity isn't very egalitarian. All web sites are not created equal, in the engines' eyes. Let's say everyone in the office has 10 friends who have personal websites and they all agree to link to you in deference to friendship and job security. And you keep it a secret because you have pride, but you also submit to a few FFAs (free-for-all sites) which place your link on thousands (thousands!) of "linkorama" sites. All those links floating out there in netherspace don't even equal a small percentile of the impact a single link to you within an article on a massively trafficked site like Wired has in terms of link popularity. What we're really talking about is the cumulative popularity of the sites that link to you. And there better be a whole lot of very popular ones.

Now let's cut to Viral Marketing. Ever wonder how a free download gets on 100,000+ user desktops? The free download is written about in articles on massively popular news sites like Wired. It's offered on sites like C/NET and ZDNet where millions go each day specifically to download. Blurbs about it are found on trade and affinity portals also very popular within their own verticals. It's talked about and shared by downloaders themselves on innumerable forums within popular portals as well.

And the very nature of a download requires a link for it to be downloaded in the first place. The download is popular because the sites that are linking to it are popular, because of the cumulative popularity of the sites that link to it.

Doesn't that sound familiar?

This "link" between Viral Marketing and SEO first hit us in the nose when we noticed a site we had only recently optimized began piling up top ten rankings across the major engines. Now, we really do think we're the best at what we do, but this was very early in the process to be having such a dramatic effect.

By Jove, it was link popularity! We were also executing a Viral Marketing Campaign for the client, VERADO, and links to the free download at the VERADO site from extremely popular sites were concurrently piling up as each day went by, increasing the cumulative popularity of the sites that link to it, or in SEO parlance "link popularity", exponentially.

So yes, Virginia, Viral Marketing really is a key Search Engine Optimization (SEO) component.

It's enough to make an interactive man cry.

by John Lustina

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VIRALLY SPEAKING
Viral Marketing: A Historic Look at the World's Second Oldest Profession

Viral Marketing. The next big thing. The wave of the future, right?

Not really. The truth is, it's been out there longer than you have. Longer than any of us has, in fact, dotting history with high conversion rates and significant ROI since just after the beginning of time. In other words, meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Depending on your source, one of the first viral campaigns involved Noah, and its highlights included terrific niche targeting and cross-species appeal. Once God gave Noah the campaign specs, the then-untested shipbuilder went to work targeting the finest stock from each species.

Noah had a fairly substantial network of contacts within his target audience -- the animal kingdom -- and to lure the finest of each species to his ark, he put out the word that he was looking for first-movers from each animal species to lead, as he termed it, his "survival referral program." Spacious ark accommodations and a good reputation led to 100 percent conversion rate of the animals that showed up, although the hectic days leading up to the launch date led to strange rumors within the nearby community of humans. Much to Noah's relief, the 40 days and nights that followed put an end to any additional rumor-mongering by a nosey public.

Many centuries later, Pythagoras picked up on the concept and greatly increased his fan and follower base with a simple campaign. While many people give credit to "The Blair Witch Project" or "The Matrix" for the pre-release "mystique" brand of viral marketing, it was really this ancient mathematician who created an electric buzz around the announcement of his new theorem. From barns to bath houses, Pythagoras posted parchments and scrawled notes with one simple question, designed solely to increase interest in his next big thing:

What is A²+B²?

And the tiny wooden right-triangles, dangling from tree branches all over the Greek Isles, didn't hurt anything either.

Some 200 years later, it might have been the remnants of Pythagoras' campaign that led Alexander the Great to employ similar tactics on his way to conquering the known world. Plagued by fatigue and troops growing weary of incessant pillaging, Alexander decided to set brute force aside and think like the common man. The result was a hastily yet thoughtfully mass-produced flier that he delivered to major cities days or weeks before his armies arrived:

"Do you live in an area in need of a good conquering? Mention this ad to Alexander's army, and get a 25 percent reduction in torture when he comes marching through your land!"

Such a PR move was important to Alexander -- not because giving his future slaves an "opt-in" entry point was a priority, but because he knew that in conquering, as in business, it's the guy on the street, not the CEO, who knows where the bargains are.

Despite the fact that photocopiers wouldn't be around for another 2200 years or so, Alexander's coupons showed incredible pass-along, as people quickly scratched out copies to reduce their own torture. This is especially surprising, considering the literacy rate was practically nil. Torture, it turns out, is a great viral tool. But don't get any ideas.

So the next time people talk about viral marketing as if it were born alongside the Internet, grab a cup of coffee, sit them down, and tell them a story. As the old saying goes, "those who are ignorant of history deserve a good lecture."

by Erik Dafforn

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1. Innovation. A rapid cycle of innovation like none before it will, ironically, be forced by the very quality of the work. Much like TV shows, children's toys and David Bowie, Viral Marketing executions will have to constantly evolve to stay ahead of the inevitable copycats. Every great idea will become diluted and ineffective in shorter and shorter flights. (Imagine sending someone the "dancing baby" tomorrow.)



2. Integration. A seamless Viral Marketing program using Online, Offline and Wireless means of distribution will be essential to include all potential consumers as they customize their own communications habits.



3. Partnership. There has to be a Ground Zero for any Viral campaign, and that Ground Zero is represented by the editorial, loyalty/rewards, affinity and other vendor partners that provide consumers with access to the viral message. The deepest Rolodex wins this game.



4. CRM Relationships. Viral Marketers will have to (forgive me) "close the loop" by aligning with companies that know what to do with the virally acquired customers and registrants. The disconnect between acquisition and retention/upsell must be addressed to survive in the emerging marketing arena.

by VMM Editor

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