Rather than paying a $2,000 licensing fee for an already viral photo, 3M decided to recreate a fake watered downed version and call it their own. Now, they are going viral but for all the wrong reasons. This is just one of many posts that have and will be written about their faux-pas rather than their savvy marketing. What they should have done is taken notes from Motorola’s marketing folks. When Motorola saw the fame and viral effect of the “Backdorm Boys” they didn’t try to steal their idea with their own recreation. Instead, they approached More»

Labels: viral marketing

Go viral or go home
Since 1996 Tim Draper of Draper, Fisher, Jurvetson has claimed he invented “viral” marketing when his portfolio company, Hotmail, included a line on the bottom of each email that said “Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com/.”
Although viral marketing as we now know it was used by companies much earlier, the Hotmail example perfectly illustrates why marketers chase “viral” as if it were the cure to stopping spam. After getting the right message, the biggest challenges facing marketers More»

Labels: social media, social networks, viral marketing