26 October 2009

Posted at 16:00h in definition, viral by

Another quick ramble, this time about viral marketing. Specifically, the usual definition I read which is about "encouraging consumers to spread content among their social networks".Please tell me how one would "encourage consumers" to do so? Having a button that says "Send to a friend" is not encouragement (does anyone even click those things anyway?). I suppose disabling embedding might be an example of discouragement but I'm failing to see how marketers can actually encourage consumers to spread content. Incentives might be one way but can't think of a decent example that actually worked without the person looking like a complete sell out.The only thing that encourages consumers to spread content is social currency, and that comes from remarkable content. I think I'll categorise this post with the rest of my rants about wanky marketing terms....

11 September 2009

Posted at 01:06h in definition, gruen transfer, marketing, russel howcroft by

[caption id="attachment_1043" align="aligncenter" width="374"] Zac and Russel. I'll probably photoshop Todd in later.[/caption]   I was at an event on Wednesday night where Russel Howcroft from GPYR, although perhaps more commonly known from The Gruen Transfer, spoke. Talking to a bunch of students about to graduate and looking for jobs, he made one particular point that I thought was quite interesting. Now I'm paraphrasing here but a small part of his speech went something like this...