Viral Advertising

advertising has had to evolve over the years as people become immune to its effects. on average, a person will see anything between 30 and 3,000 adverts in a day, and most of those have very little effect on them. 'shockvertising' is one new form of advertising that has emerged to combat its ineffectiveness. another newer form of promotion is something known as 'Viral Advertising'.
in Wikipedia, it is defined as; Viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses. It can be word-of-mouth delivered or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet. Viral marketing is a marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message voluntarily. Viral promotions may take the form of video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames, ebooks, brandable software, images, or even text messages. The basic form of viral marketing is not infinitely sustainable.

basically, viral advertising works via word-of-mouth, promoted by the fans themselves, because they get something out of it, often inciting the curiosity of the fans and allowing them to interact with the campaign.

one particularly successful example of viral advertising is the current promotional campaign for the new Batman film. this link leads to an explanation of part of the viral advertising campaign where fans had to promote the website and get as many of their friends and acquaintances as possible in on it in order to uncover a hidden picture.

so much cooler thn normal advertising methinks =]

x sylvia