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To go under the Temptations Chapter
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{Intro}
Going viral is not a strategy. And it’s not the silver bullet your marketing needs. Trust me.
It’s easy to fall for this temptation as we watch others go viral and reap rewards.
We think if only we could go viral, our marketing problems would vanish. They wouldn’t.
Many who go viral fall off from relevance. Survivor bias leads to our false belief that going viral is the key to marketing success. But…
I’d be silly if I didn’t highlight the good of going viral, but first, what does going viral mean?
Viral marketing was born in the mid-1990s, when technology companies noticed how quickly digital messages spread online.
One of the first examples was the "Hotmail" campaign in 1996:
They added a line at the end of every email sent through its platform, inviting recipients to sign up for a free Hotmail account. This simple feature led to rapid growth, propelling Hotmail to millions of users in just a few years. (ChatGPT).
Now with social, it looks different.
A video, article, podcast, or TV segment can go viral across social. With so many micro communities, it’s possible to even go micro-viral in a few. Now platforms like TikTok have an interest-led algorithm, which prioritizes viral content vs content from those you follow.
It’s a shift, and one I believe we will autocorrect. Even if I’m wrong, I hope to show why it’s a bad strategy. First, the good:
Going viral provides an epic surge in visibility for a brand.
One example is the Ocean Spray TikTok video featuring a man skateboarding while drinking cranberry juice, resulting in widespread media attention and a significant increase in brand awareness (for Ocean Spray).