The Marketing Virus

Etc.

You know why it really works? Because it's not solicited. How do agencies expect brands to survive in an environment of savvy, marketing literate consumers, if they stuff brands down their throats every day? How long did our advertising forebears really think brands would last if they just chucked them in the consumer hat, and happily hope and wait for the day their brand is chosen? The year is 2003, and consumers no longer seek solace in false brand gods who preach false brand hype. Thou shall not worship idols. (Especially not Heinz Winkler). Although I know there are not many clever people in advertising, (If we were clever, we'd be doing something else), I will show you using simple mathematics, how viral creates epidemic sales. It's like playing six degrees of separation.

Take the number 10 and multiply it by 2 and you get 20. Multiply that product by 2 and you get 40, and so on six times until you arrive at 640.

Now try again, with a much smaller initial investment of the number 2, instead of 10. Square the number 2 and you get 4. Square that product and you get 16 and so on six times. The final result is over 18 billion. A much smaller initial investment, a different method of multiplying and the result on one hand, with traditional multiplication, is under a 1 000. On the other hand, with a less conventional method of squaring, after six degrees of separation, the result is over 18 billion.

While this is a bit unfair and an exaggeration of human behaviour, the principal behind the mathematical model holds. As advertising people, surrounded by tools to measure the width, length and depth of every decision, we have an obligation to try to find targets who are credible and influential messengers, and media that will infect. I'm sure it has always been like that, but it just seems so much more apparent that this is our role. If every cent really counts today, then the way forward lies in viral advertising. With so many brands competing for top of mind presence, the fossilised methods taught to us, will die soon enough.