Viral marketing

Viral marketing is a promotional strategy that encourages individuals to share a company’s message, product, or content with others, often through social media or word-of-mouth, resulting in rapid and widespread exposure.

The concept of viral marketing mirrors the way viruses spread—fast, organically, and exponentially. Instead of relying solely on traditional advertising, businesses aim to create engaging, entertaining, or emotionally resonant content that people feel compelled to share with their social networks. When successful, this strategy dramatically increases a brand’s reach with minimal direct cost.

Viral marketing often relies on humour, surprise, controversy, or emotional storytelling to make content shareable. It can take the form of videos, memes, challenges, interactive campaigns, or even user-generated content. While it can be highly cost-effective and build strong brand awareness quickly, it's also unpredictable and difficult to control once it spreads.

Examples:

• Spotify Wrapped: Every year, Spotify users receive a personalised summary of their listening habits, which they often share on Instagram or TikTok. This annual campaign creates widespread user-generated content and brand engagement.

• Greggs x Vegan Sausage Roll: Greggs’ humorous and bold social media marketing around the launch of its vegan sausage roll (including a fake iPhone-style product launch video) went viral and generated massive online buzz.

• Duolingo on TikTok: The language app has gone viral multiple times thanks to its quirky and humorous TikTok content featuring its green owl mascot, earning millions of views without traditional advertising.

Benefits of Viral Marketing:

• Low-cost exposure with high reach

• Boosts brand awareness and visibility

• Encourages consumer engagement and loyalty

• Often perceived as more authentic than ads

Drawbacks of Viral Marketing:

• Unpredictable and hard to replicate

• Risk of negative backlash or misinterpretation

• Short-lived attention span

• Difficult to directly measure ROI