HOW TO WIN THE VIRAL MARKETING GAME

STRATEGY GUIDE • Objectives- why should you care about viral marketing •  The Rules- defining virality • Key Players- authors and experts on virality • High Scores- examples of viral success • Scoring- how to break down metrics/causes of viral

products • Why the Game Works-psychology behind marketing • Cheat Codes- how to implement strategies right now

OBJECTIVES • Reach a wide audience, as quickly and easily as possible • Have a lot of fun, make money, and provide value to

millions of customers or users

THE RULES • Virus: A virus invades living cells and uses their chemical

machinery to keep itself alive and to replicate itself. It may reproduce with fidelity or with mutations.

•  Ideavirus as defined by Seth Goden: A big idea that runs amok across the target audience. This propagates through a section of the population, teaching and changing and influencing everyone it touches.

KEY PLAYERS •  Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell

•  Connectors: people who are involved in many different groups, cross-fertilize ideas

•  Mavens-people who desire to help other consumers make informed decisions

•  Salesmen- unbelievably eloquent people who can persuade anyone

•  IdeaVirus by Seth Goden: Sneezers •  Promiscuous Sneezers: have large influence and will take on many

ideas for money to spread to a wide audience •  Powerful Sneezers: cannot be bought off but control a wide audience

of selective users

HIGH SCORES •  1996 Hotmail, used invitations at the bottom of each

email, trusted friends spread this “Ideavirus” and infected their peers

•  1994 Hush Puppies- hipsters in New york • Paul Revere v. William Dawes • Please Don’t Tell

SCORING • Social Currency-we share things make us look good.

•  Will it Blend

•  Triggers- tip of the tongue. •  “Friday” by Rebecca Black

• Emotion-when we care, we share. Create high arousal emotional responses. •  Dove Real Beauty, Thank you Mom

• Public- build to show, built to grow •  Glowing Apple screen

SCORING (CONT.) • Practical Value- news people can use

•  OK Cupid Blog, Shopify Blog

• Stories-people are inherent storytellers •  Red Bull Felix Baumgartner’s free fall from space

• Stickiness – keep coming back for more •  Sesame Street

• Smoothness-ease of the end user to spread the information •  Uber referral codes, share buttons

•  Insider Club- feeling elite or special •  Ello

SAMPLE GAME: NEOPETS & REDDIT

NEOPETS •  Insider club

•  Virtual world •  Anonymity •  Customization

• Currency •  Neopoints

• Stickiness •  1997 600K views per day •  117 minutes per week •  2005: 25 million unique

users

REDDIT •  Insiders club

•  AMA •  Create any group

• Currency •  Karma Points

• Stickiness •  174M monthly users •  Average user spend 16

minutes per page

SAME SAME •  Insider Club

•  Interact with new people when you normally can’t, provide practical value •  Talk to celebrities on Reddit or Neopet billionaires •  One Plus One •  Inbox, by Gmail •  Dribbble •  The Facebook

•  Currency •  Work towards goal and create artificial control when you can’t in real

life •  Starbucks reward cards- drink your way to a Gold Card •  Leader boards •  FourSquare Badges- Mayors

•  Stickiness •  Smoothness, customization

WHY THE GAME WORKS • Pavlov’s experiments

•  Ring a bell (Conditioned Stimulus) •  Feed dog a treat (Unconditioned Stimulus) •  Dog salivates (Uncontrolled Response) •  Salivating when bell rings w/o treat-> conditioned response

• Coke •  Coke (Conditioned Stimulus) •  Polar Bear (Unconditioned Stimulus) •  Smile because cute (Uncontrolled Response) •  Smiling when see Coke w/o bear-> conditioned response

CHEAT CODES 1.  Start Small:

•  Find a community hungry for your product and gain influence

2.  Make your product easy to share •  Use Bread and Butter theory •  Group buy-in, testimonials, “share” buttons

3.  Condition users to love & share your product •  Use Pavlov’s theory to condition users to feel happy when they hear/see

your product

4.  Provide value or incentivize the user •  Social currency, practical value, monetary incentive •  Referral codes, discounts, solving pain points

5.  Work with & learn from influencers •  Contact via Twitter, LinkedIn, cold email

6.  Be weird •  Have a strong brand personality, make it memorable with a key trigger •  Test in focus groups what makes people have strong arousal emotions

GO PLAY!