CRM - November 2007 - (Page 12)

CRM TRENDS AND NEWS ANALYSIS Have You Caught It? Disappointing numbers have convinced many marketers to decrease their viral marketing by 55 percent next year, but viral isn’t to blame V 12 iral marketing is exciting, and understandably so—it’s a marketer’s dream that by simply planting a video, consumers will not only find it, but also spread it far and wide. But as hot as viral marketing is, the dream won’t manifest as reality unless marketers do a little less hoping and a lot more targeting. Only 15 percent of viral marketers succeeded in getting consumers to promote their message during the past year, according to a report by JupiterResearch. Like other campaigns, viral has to follow the golden rules of marketing: Know your audience, know how they communicate, and know your product. However, viral differs because it doesn’t stop at one-to-one relationships or focus on customer retention. “What viral really needs to do is stimulate an activity across consumer-to-consumer lines,” says Emily Riley, an analyst at JupiterResearch and author of “Viral Marketing: Bringing the Message to the Masses.” A trigger must entice consumers to put in the added effort of forwarding the message to their friends. “The content has to really spark that magic,” Riley says. “It’s like trying to come up with a blockbuster movie—not every movie that goes out there is a blockbuster.” She adds, “Several very popular viral campaigns have warped most advertisers’ expectations to be too high,” citing successful recent efforts by Adidas and its Adicolor campaign, Burger King and its Subservient Marketers’ Chicken, and Ray-Ban with objective with its new video promoting viral is to get Wayfarer sunglasses. Because of the high people talking hopes engendered by these about the brand— recent hits, viral marketers but focus on are now rushing to throw campaigns in the deep end quality rather without knowing first if than quantity. they can sw im. Riley advises marketers to launch a viral campaign to an existing group of loyal customers or to create a display to drive traffic. “You need that initial burst,” she says. Ideally, you’ll be appealing to people who not only trust your brand, but who also have friends who trust them. But not everyone is doing it right, Riley says. Nestle’s Nesquik, for example, fell hard for the lure of online videos: The company tried to reach its target audience—parents buying the chocolate drink for their children—by creating a video of a graffiti artist drawing the Nesquik logo. But, as Riley reports, 31 percent of audiences ages 18 to 24 watch videos on a regular basis, a percentage more than three times greater than among those 55 and older; Nesquik, www.destinationCRM.com CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | NOVEMBER 2007 http://www.destinationCRM.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CRM - November 2007

CRM - November 2007 Contents Front Office Reality Check Customer Centricity Have You Caught It? The Mother of Enterprise Information Market Focus: Technology: The Simple Truth about Complex Manufacturing Q&A: Gianforte Talks CRM Required Reading Predicting Profitability Checking the Pulse of the Contact Center Cast a Narrow Net Modern Times, Modern Methods Primos Hunting Calls Snares Efficiency Nailing It Down Moving in on Mortgage Delinquencies RDS Delivery Delivers on Service Secret of My Success Re:Tooling The Tipping Point Pint of View

CRM - November 2007

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