Have you been infected?

Probably the most interesting analogy I’ve heard for a marketing activity comes from week 3’s academic reading. Does the Black Death pandemic from the mid 1300’s provide the perfect analogy for the ultimate viral marketing campaign? Certainly if I created a marketing campaign which spread with such rapidness and impact/potency, I’d be expecting to become a household name and featured on the front cover of Forbes magazine.

With the growth of social media over the past 10 – 15 years, it has provided marketers with greater opportunity to spread messages that have the potential to go viral. This of course doesn’t mean it will necessarily happen, try as the marketer might.

If I have the flu and come to class, it doesn’t mean everyone will catch it. If I were to give it to someone, it also doesn’t mean they will necessarily spread it further. They may decide to lock themselves away in their room watching Netflix for 5 days straight, and kill off the virus I gave them in the process, preventing it from affecting anyone else.

Perhaps if I rocked up to class infected with Black Death, there might only end up being 2 of us left to take the exam at the end of semester. They would probably die shortly after too. All that study for nothing!

I often have smaller businesses in mind when I’m thinking of creative social media campaigns, or ideas for viral content. This is purely due to budget challenges that a smaller business may face, and the relative difference 1 successful campaign could make to their business. My findings this week will relate to a small business.

When creating content that is intended for social sharing, and hopefully a degree of viral spreading, the perfect mix of relevancy, interest, consideration of the target audience, creative approach, and even luck needs to be achieved.

The founder of a local clothing label may look to social media as a means for steadily increasing awareness. Giving away items to trend setters on Instagram with tens of thousands of followers may offer rapid growth in awareness and maybe sales, but is it a sustainable long-term approach to social media marketing?

If they were to come up with their very own Black Death viral marketing campaign, even Versace might be at risk of infection.

Maybe the Black Death equivalent in modern viral marketing is the famous Old Spice campaign- The campaign which rejuvenated a fairly dated brand. For a small business though, a simple and entertaining meme could be the first step towards mass awareness and social media success.