I saw in our social media discussion on Facebook we are supposed to do week 7 readings for week 3. This is a very good thing, considering I brought home the wrong books for week 3 readings and the right books for week 7. I’m so intelligent. I found that Chapter 10: Going Viral in The New Influencers was the most interesting to me this time.
One thing that I am glad this chapter discusses is the movie The Blair Witch Project. I thought this film was terrible. I was not scared by it and there wasn’t really a plot that kept me interested. I kept waiting for something big to happen and it never did; the movie abruptly ends. I was so disappointed that there was so much hype about this movie because that’s what made me watch The Blair Witch Project in the first place. Gillin says this low-budget film grossed $140 million. How is that even possible? Because it was marketed heavily through viral promotion. I wasted $10 on a movie because of viral marketing.
Another thing that I find absurd is that The California Milk Processor Board created a website that portrayed documents of aliens kidnapping cattle. Visitors are invited to submit evidence in the form of photos and videos that document the problem. Where do people hear about this stuff? That’s one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard. Nonetheless, it attracted more than 13,000 references on Google.
Some essential truths of viral marketing include: the product better be good, the campaign must be fun, don’t push it, reward people for coming, let go and use the medium. Gillin states, “In fact, most products would probably not do well if marketed virally.” That comes as a shock to me, as there were so many weird successes described in this chapter alone. And if Burger King can increase their sales of chicken sandwiches by 9% in one week because of an actor dancing around in a chicken suit on their website, I feel that almost all products can be sold successfully using viral marketing.
No comments:
Post a Comment