Business - Written Sunday, February 7, 2010 by Jeff DeChambeau - 1 Comment

Marketing on the cheap thanks to spontaneous (mainstream) internet culture

Viral marketing seems like something of the holy grail for advertisers: it’s very cheap, turns peers into pushers, and is impossible to stop once it attains gains enough inertia. But designing a message to go viral is difficult, and if marketers have found the secret sauce they’re keeping it very tightly guarded. Yet, despite all the time and energy that goes into even reasonably successful viral campaigns, their popularity often seems meek compared to things that just happen. There’s a whole world of “internet memes” out there, little bits of digital culture that catch like wildfire in people’s attention and spread around the internet; these are what the best viral marketing campaigns can only hope to be.

Some time ago internet memes were confined mostly to the periphery of the Internet, but some made it into the mainstream–think LOLCats and RickRolling. These two and their fore-bearers originally spread on message boards, forums, and irc channels; parts of the internet that weren’t especially welcoming to casual users. But the face of the internet has changed: it’s now easier to use and more people are on it. And it’s more social. Lots has been written about how it’s easier for messages to go viral on social networking sites like facebook because people have a built-in friends list, and their peers are likely to be more receptive to a message that comes from a friend. Continue…