Vitamin Deep Vee. Kitchen Nightmares.

This is a shout-out to deep vees and hot chests everywhere. Pectorals have gone viral.

American-Apparel WhaaaaT?

Vitamin Water’s design your own flavour. Just one example of many viral campaigns pulling out all the stops: celebrity endorsement, consumer reward, viral video, and online tool.

Everyone wants a piece of the web. From soft-drinks to blenders we’ve got eCommerce, viral videos, facebook fan pages, tweet this tweet that. How can this even make sense? There is no way this will work for everyone.

Out of sheer curiosity (and my need to create a presentation that would make y’all look up at least once from your laptops) I have done some investiMigation and discovered.

Wait for it…….

A RECIPE for Viral Success on the Interwebs. Don’t be scurred. This appears to be surprisingly easy.

Ingredients to gather:

1. Free web content (a Video, a Game, a Tool, a Blog)
2. Valuable information users want (funny, celebrity, useful, groundbreaking)
3. Easy ways to share the content (links, emails)
4. A well connected network of influencers.

Mix items 1 to 3 together.
Stir carefully into a total marketing strategy
Bake for 2-6 weeks in an oven of networks set to high SNP*

*SNP. Social Network Potential. A coefficient attributed to only the coolest, most in-the-know, influencers on the world wide web. Google for more info. The algorithms hurt my head.

We just went viral. I think. Did we? We followed the recipe exactly!

HOLY KITCHEN NIGHTMARES BATMAN! apparently the recipe for viral isn’t like a box of Duncan Hines


Reasons why adding 1&1/4 cups of water, 3 eggs, and 1 tbsp of oil may not work for you:

1 Everyone can’t be popular at once (cept'fo'GAGA)
2 You need to BRAVE. Let go of the message and let it run on its own
3 You can’t OverHYPE. Trying to be cool is uncool.
4 You’ve gotta bake [seed] it in the right oven.

Shake it N’ Bake it.
Seeding your message.

Seeding is about placing the virus in front of KEY INFLUENCERS (those with High SNP) in your target audience.

If you seed this right, the coolest katz will discover your message, share it in their networks and it will explode like SARS in ASIA. Seed it wrong and it’s like everyone’s bathing in Lysol and doing the elbow sneeze.

Campaigns need to gain their own traction and messaging will evolve if the consumers deem you buzz-worthy. A virus can be planned but can’t be forced – consumers are too savvy. Shove the message too hard down their throats and they’ll show you a vaccine.