You have probably heard this statement by a commentator in a cricket match describing the great god Sachin Tendulkar.

Or from a photographer who waits 3 days to catch the exact angle and lighting of a shadow.

What about from a band on stage - I guess it is a wee bit important for them to stick to the same beat?

Need I say something about sky diving as a sport. I haven't personally done this yet. But it looks like I might need a small sense of timing for this.

Xtreme Sports, Jackie Chan with his stunts and probably every field in the world relies on timing as a crucial element for success.

Timing and Viral Marketing

So why should running a company or marketing one be any different? A viral marketing campaign especially, is heavily dependent on timing. The more contextual and relevant the campaign is to our times, the greater the chances of going viral.

Shoes and the Bush Saga

I am sure a number of you would have heard of the Bush shoe throwing game. Made not too long after the actual incident, there have been over 8 million shoes thrown at Bush using that game. I managed 14 and at that average it yields about 0.8 million people who have played the game. Not bad for a crappy game huh! If you want to see the actual video, have attached it below

Ok Tata Bye Bye - Ghajini Viral

But this post is inspired from a viral based on the most hyped movie in Bollywood this year - Ghajini.

For those not from India, Ghajini is inspired from the classic Memento. The movie deals with a man who is incapable of making new memories.

What is Ok Tata Bye Bye.com

A travel portal which captures honest reviews on travel experiences with a strong focus on hotel reviews.

What is the Viral About

Web Chutney developed the animation and the key protagonist was purportedly Aamir Khan. The viral created revolves around a visit to a hotel and since the protagonist is unable to create new memories, he tattoos his experience so that he can leave an honest review on Oktatabyebye.com

What has this got to do with timing?

I saw this viral on the date of the movie release, which means that this viral has been planned for at least a month ahead of its movie release date. Fantastic timing for the most hyped movie of the year, almost guaranteeing success.

This movie is now officially the highest grosser in the history of Indian cinema. With such a fan following for the movie, I am only wondering how many hits this viral has achieved and the positive rub off on Ok Tata Bye Bye. If someone from Web Chutney could help us with stats, it would be great...

I loved the viral, just click the image below to check it out, and don't "forget" to leave your views on this post.

Thinking about it, you are on Marketing Amnesia, discussing a man who is incapable of making new memories. Hmmm can my poor blog page go viral, thanks to this? I wish...

It is a little crazy for me to suggest that the power of Social Media could be nothing in India. Why crazy? It directly affects my value as a researcher in this space. Nonetheless let us adopt a long term approach on this one and move straight on to why I think so.

These views are a result of the iPhone launch. It was the most hyped product this year, and the product targeted the geeks, the social media users. They were certainly to be amongst the early adopters.

Yet Airtel felt the need to advertise to achieve sales in India. It is understandable if they felt the need to advertise the iPhone – Airtel tie up, but they went on to educate consumers about the product itself, and I wonder if that is not questionable. Either they are wasting good money or some research has shown that awareness is still low.

Though social media alone may not have reached the masses, it combined with Press coverage ensured that the iPhone news reached not just the tech geeks, but the rest of India too. So why advertise the product heavily? Or did they think that was the best route to advertise the tie up too.

Probably price is a deterrent, as the iPhone is priced at around double the price in international markets. Either that or the launch has been timed wrong. The hype is now dead. Those who were desperate for the iphone have picked it up in the grey market. The others have heard about the usability issues of basic mobile features on the iphone and are probably waiting for the next version.

But where did they hear about these issues, yet again review sites, blog posts and word of mouth. So has social media played 2 roles here? Building the brand and yet making people wait for the next version?

Samsung Instinct has been recently launched and following the iPhone, chose viral marketing campaign route to spread the word. Unlike run of the mill viral campaigns, Samsung created an interactive series of videos all linked to one another, so if you want to know what happens in the end you have to follow your instinct and click on the links within the above video and move to the next in the series.

Yes! the links are within the video, powered by Youtube Annotations. Right at the end of every video, you are fed two options and depending on what you would like to do the new video loads to guide you through the story. Judging by the number of views on successive videos, I am not sure if many people actually understand that they have to click on to move through the story.

Check it out quickly and let me know what you think of this. This is so brilliant that I wish I could stake claim to being the first one to do it.

Source - Speak Media Blog

Well, I have been meaning to write about the Firefox Download Day and their grand record. One brand which used Social Media Marketing and an existing community to generate buzz like never before. Of course the Guinness Record helped too.

Guinness and Buzz Marketing
A Guinness World Record is an established buzz marketing strategy for a brand and it isn't like Firefox is doing a first. Typical record strategies include building the world's "largest" something and examples of these records can be seen here. The problem with these strategies is they involve a few of the company employees and the buzz generated is through a mention in a few news columns. These record attempts do not really involve the consumers of these brands.

Firefox & Its Guinness Record
Firefox could have also attempted a record like the World's fastest browser to generate buzz, but that would have meant the same problem. A few company emplyees are involved and happy with the coverage in a few news columns.

Firefox instead chose a strategy which was inclusive. It hyped the Download Day with its current community and gave them the badges which they can plonk on blogs to in turn spread the word. The guiness record was a function of how well the existing community sells the idea to the rest of the world. It was upto the community to spread word about D Day and this strategy paid off by integrating a viral marketing component to the classical buzz marketing approach.

To read more on the definitions of Buzz Marketing and Viral Marketing, please read this earlier post Want consumers to talk? Viral is in!!

What can Startups learn?
Now Firefox has a huge community of users, but there is also some take away for startups who have just a few 1000 users. What can you do to engage your community and make them spread the message about your product/website. I don't think your startup should be happy just acquiring users, when what you really need is an army of salesmen. How can you actually convert your existing community into salesmen?

Jennifer Leggio has a great post on the steps Firefox undertook to spread the message. The key take away is that Firefox relied on their community, involved them and empowered them to be salesmen.There is no single formula to replicate this but startups have no choice but to keep trying.

Appending relevant portions of Jennifer's post below to make it a convenient read

How did Firefox actually reach Out?
Spread Firefox
The Firefox community portal started out as the original gathering point for community members. Mozilla created a specific Download Day theme for the site where users could get badges to put on blogs as well as “pledge” to download the software on Download Day. Mozilla received 1.7 million pledges and the affiliate button distribution brought 43 million views to the site.

Facebook
The Firefox Facebook fan page has near 115K members. “We seeded the community with links of articles and other information that pointed to the Download Day site,” Kim said. Mozilla took a very similar approach with social networking sites Bebo and Mixi (Japan).

Twitter
Kim says that while Mozilla Firefox’s Twitter page was set up in 2007 it grew tremendously (now with close to 5K followers) and was a great complement to its other efforts. “We’re incredibly happy with the level of activity and response we received from our Twitter followers,” he said.

YouTube
Mozilla produced a series of feature overview videos that were narrated by some of the designers who worked on Firefox 3. From viewing the YouTube comments and ratings it does not appear that the videos gained much traction, however it was a low-cost alternative to doing traditional video advertising.

Mozilla Parties
Mozilla Party Central, a bit of a mashup of Google Maps and Upcoming, is where the company shares news about its launch parties and also gives users the tools to promote and host their own parties. As of last count there have been near 850 parties worldwide, attended by more than 6K people. Mozilla will receive its official Guinness World Record certificate at a party in London this Wednesday.

Mozilla also put energy into traditional public relations efforts, heading on press tour throughout the U.S., Europe, China and Japan. While this was successful as well, Kim says that its Mozilla’s community that truly helped drive Download Day success.

P.S - Firefox could take this bold approach of asking its users to set a record, because there was no record registered in this category before. So irrespective of how many downloads, Firefox and more importantly its community would have always emerged a winner.

Did you catch Firefox on D Day?

How does someone come up with an idea like this. Starting in 2003, way before viral became the huge term it is now. Simple, and daring as a concept, combined with the silliest dance ever, is Matt Harding's perfect recipe for 10 million views.

                                                        Source: Speak Media Blog

It is hopefully clear that Viral marketing success is really not easy and certainly not cheap. There is no way a company can think that Matt Harding's dance would go viral, and hence there is no way for a marketer to replicate this.

Stride chose the next best thing and sponsored this trip. They got a very insignificant mention in the end. Little does the traditional marketer who just cares for a bigger logo, realize the significance of the insignificant.

Stride just supported a guy to achieve a dream, something on his bucket list perhaps. It struck a chord like nothing else ever will.

The video series got enormous media attention. Also take a look at the number of diverse videos on youtube alone, ranging from queries like "Where is Matt?" to "Matt impersonators and fans". There is also a website called Where the hell is Matt

The series got a whopping 10 million views and is going strong. The positive rub off on Stride is obvious once you have seen the entire video. Take a look and judge for yourself.

Related Articles
Want consumers to talk? Viral is in!!

Buzz, Viral and Word of Mouth are terms which are sometimes used interchangeably.

Lets try and demystify these terms with a brief definition and a detailed presentation on Viral Marketing.

Buzz Marketing - A publicity gimmick which generates PR and gets the media biggies talking about you. Typically a weird and wacky stunt that serves as a great story for the media.

Viral Marketing - Online advertising campaigns that depend on peer to peer forwarding to spread like a virus

Word of Mouth - This is the Holy Grail. It is the sharing of opinion on a product or service typically after one has experienced it.

A detailed presentation has been attached. The viral examples are from an Indian Context. The rest of the content is universally applicable.

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