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Do you like Star Wars? Do you want to save the earth one vegetable at a time?

Well then you must check out Grocery Store Wars.

A friend of mine from England forwarded this to me. I was reluctant to check it out because I’m always hesitant to read email forwards, they tend to be time wasters. This one certainly could be considered a time waster but it’s very well done so deserves your time. It also has a good message.

In fact I was so impressed I decided to tell some friends about it. Then I posted it on this blog too. How’s that for viral marketing?

Wikipedia: Viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that seek to exploit pre-existing social networks to produce exponential increases in brand awareness, through viral processes similar to the spread of an epidemic. It is word-of-mouth delivered and enhanced online; it harnesses the network effect of the Internet and can be very useful in reaching a large number of people rapidly.

I once went to a meeting with another entrepreneur that was setting up an advertising service on Brisbane CityCats. A CityCat is a high-speed boat/ferry service that travels along the Brisbane river. The river is like a snake that wraps itself around Brisbane and passes through some of the main Brisbane suburbs and CBD, hence it’s perfect for a public transport service. It’s a lot more fun than catching a bus or train too so it’s quite popular with tourists.

This entrepreneur had secured the rights to place large screen televisions on the CityCats which would rotate advertisements. At the time I write this he had one CityCat equipped with the TV so far and was beta testing the service.

I went to talk to him about advertising BetterEdit on the CityCats. The CityCat has stops at two of the largest Brisbane universities so it could be a potentially successful marketing opportunity for me since the demographics would be appropriate. I ended up leaving the country for Canada before I decided on anything but during the meeting I had with the entrepreneur he clearly expressed his love for viral marketing.

I ended up sitting through a half hour presentation on the power of viral marketing, including some demonstrations of commercial online viral marketing campaigns (I’m still trying to remember how this fitted in with CityCat advertising, but no matter, it was interesting anyway). I’ve always understood the power of this marketing method, especially when applied to the younger demographics which I happen to target with my businesses. My generation and the generation following it (young adults and teens) are notorious for passing on emails/websites/flash movies that are entertaining and good time wasters. Thanks to the global efficiency of the web, an online viral marketing campaign can reach hundreds of thousands of people in a matter of days. You couldn’t do that before the Internet.

I was shown one particular example of a car manufacturer utilising a humorous movie to leverage viral email marketing to circulate an advertisement for it’s youth focussed car. The ad featured a variety of animals being consumed by a car…and that is the best description I can give, you need to see the ad to experience the humour, but it was quite good (unfortunately I can’t seem to locate the ad online at this time). Students would receive the link from their mates via email, have a good laugh, and forward it on to their friends. The car manufacturer could very accurately track results, including some detailed statistics on what country they were coming from, how long they visited the site, whether they clicked through to visit the company website, etc.

As good as all that sounds, hitting the mark with an online viral campaign is not easy, especially if you want to reach the youth market. You have to hit the right balance of “cool” and “funny” all wrapped around the commercial/branding image that you want to sell. The youth market is very fickle (I sure am!), and if you don’t do it right no one is going to be forwarding on your advertisement and in fact you might even hurt your image. Imagine if a company like Pepsi created an add that was perceived as “uncool”, it would really hurt their brand perception since they pride themself on keeping the “cool” in cola.

I was just in Canada staying with my family. I have two cousins, twin girls, 17 years old. To me they epitomise the cool age. I don’t know why but sometimes I felt as if I had to act cool when around them and I’m only 25! Of course if you have to try to act cool you are not cool. Organisations face the same issue, how to be cool without appearing to be trying to act cool.

Yaro Starak
Online Marketeer