Driving a double message in web 2.0

Jonathan Bowers, May 18th 2007, 4:58PM

My viral video chart this morning alerted me to a great example of brand building. I hadn't come across GOODMagazine.com before but a recent viral video posted on YouTube has certainly brought them a wider audience. It has been online now for 10 days and received 657,871 views to date.

It's called Internet Porn, which might explain why it has enjoyed a huge amount more hits than any of the other videos in the series. But it's not what you might expect. But then maybe it is. No, it's not - it's better, because it delivers two messages. One about the online porn industry and one about the organisation behind the video.

As companies in the UK question whether social media avenues are appropriate for growing their business, innovators across the Atlantic are getting better and better at making it work.

Tags: social media, video, viral
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The Web's ad potential finally mainstream?

Jonathan Bowers, June 19th 2006, 10:20AM

The potency of word of mouth advertising on the Internet is not new, but often for the mainstream to take the shift online seriously, they require a traditional giant to coerce them.

That's why Proctor & Gamble's announcing of the Internet as an emerging platform for brand building (outside of the regular banner ads and seo) is most welcome.

For those who don't know, the web and email are now crucial for spreading your company message and so ad agencies like Proctor and Gamble are looking to offer freebies and coupons to encourage consumers to recommend their clients through these 'new channels'.

I think this will mark an interesting shift in marketing that brings together strategies to incorporate the Web, rather than tagging it on as an extra. But they still seem to shy from the viral potential of the medium.

At Christmas last year UKFast experimented with a festive viral game, a play on the classic Space Invaders. We sent it out to about 10 sources and let them do the work and within 3 days hits to the UKFast site were up 1000% and visitors were flocking in from all over the world. The game opened up markets that UKFast had never targeted before.

Our experiment was not product driven, but it shows the potential for building brand and product awareness. With a little more imagination you can turn a coupon in to a real awareness campaign.

I have recently spoken to a number of sources including a top high street chain that are already producing viral campaigns for the web and I think the mainstream is finally catching on.

Tags: advertising, viral, word_of_mouth
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