JSJD2: Indivisual research into Viral Ad's

What is a viral ad?

On the Internet, viral marketing is any marketing technique that induces Web sites or users to pass on a marketing message to other sites or users, creating a potentially exponential growth in the message's visibility and effect. Viral ad's are good ways of promoting and advertising messages in a unique way which will appeal to the target audience, also, if a large number of participants exchange clips of the viral message it will generate a wide range response which is why viral ads are so popular amongst different companies.

What makes a good viral ad?

Some viral marketing strategies work better than others. Few work as well as the simple Hotmail.com strategy. But below are the six basic elements you hope to include in your strategy. A viral marketing strategy need not contain ALL these elements, but the more elements it embraces, the more powerful the results are likely to be. An effective viral marketing strategy:

Gives away products or services;
Provides for effortless transfer to others;
Scales easily from small to very large;
Exploits common motivations and behaviour's;
Utilizes existing communication networks;
Takes advantage of others’ resources.

Advantages of viral marketing

A viral campaign can be used to build or enhance brand awareness, reputation and image. They can also communicate a specific message in a way that is easy to understand as well as being enjoyable. This encourages users to send the campaign to their friends. Due to the huge amount of visitors a viral campaign can receive, advertisers can generate massive publicity for new product releases and it also helps to gather data and contact details of potential customers.
Undoubtedly, the combinations of different marketing strategies whose objectives are focused on achieving engagement with our audience have their most convincing proof of efficiency in increasing traffic. Viral marketing is one of the most efficient strategies to raise awareness our brand and attract customers.
Other advantages are; better visibility and eventually it cuts down your promotional costs as the publicity of the viral ad will gain more credibility than using a variety of advertising methods.

Disadvantages of viral ads

However, there can be downsides to viral marketing. Some of these are; Negative buzz-Sometimes, instead of creating a positive buzz about your business, viral marketing works in the opposite way. Human nature being what it is, people are more likely to talk about something they don't like with their friends, family members, and co-workers than to share something positive, Greater awareness of your business can lead to more spam, You don't control what people say about your business in social sites.

Examples of viral advertising