THE NEW VIRAL:
EFFECTIVE, NOT JUST INFECTIVE
Subservient Chicken. Old Spice Guy. Real Beauty Sketches. They’re the stuff of viral video and marketing legend.
In this white paper, I discuss where, in an age of paid social, increased accountability and analysis paralysis, viral marketing stands. Surprisingly, focus on it has waned. According to Google search data, interest in viral marketing has decreased by 80% since 2004. Yet many marketers still are plagued by the age-old question:
"How are we going to make it go viral?"
Meanwhile, efficacy has evolved into a central focus for marketers who were once simply concerned with view counts and eyeballs. 86% of marketing leaders admit that their content marketing is only somewhat effective at creating business value.
With all these new dynamics in play, and based on what I see across my portfolio of clients and brands globally, I've dubbed it the era of The New Viral. It's a digital and content marketing approach focused more on being effective than simply infective, while still making the most of organic spread.
