Viral Marketing

Last week on Thursday we discussed the case about the small vineyard that was using Web 2.0 to market their product. If you weren't in class or didn't read the case, what they did was give people a case of their wine and instructed them to throw a party and blog about their experience. They used social networking sites to share the pictures and stories with others on the internet to get their product out there and recognized. This is a prime example of how viral marketing can be an extremely useful tool for companies to sell products without spending a lot of money.

Take for example the movie Snakes On A Plane. Imagine getting a phone call from a strange number, answering it, and having Samuel L. Jackson talking trash to you telling you to go see the movie. This is exactly what happened to me, and I thought it was absolutely hilarious. To read about it, click here. It made headline news as one of the most effective, questionable viral campaigns.

This is just one simple example of how Web 2.0 can be used at minimal costs to a company to advertise their products to people.

Post #2 Digital Marketing

Well, last class we talked a little about digital marketing. I'd like to give my viewpoint on the subject. Four those of us that need a general idea of what digital marketing is, it would be classified as a company promoting its name or product using the internet and even on our mobile devices. Even though most people would think that this technique of marketing would require use of the internet, it in fact does not. What companies do is they advertise on digital banner ads and, again, our mobile devices. Now there are two ways to go about this - pull and push. Pull marketing is where the user (or customer) has to actually go out and find (or pull) the content that they are seeking. I wish all marketing was like this, where you're not being hassled into buying goods or products. The other way to market digitally is the push method. It's exactly as it sounds: a company is trying to sell YOU individually a good or service. It involves both the company and the customer. It is usually in the form of an e-mail, text message, etc. I guess I'm a little biased; I hate advertising and marketing all together. It's the reason I don't watch television. I can't stand having a commercial break every 10 minutes; call me crazy. I also don't like it when somebody is trying to sell me something. I'm smart enough to make my own decisions, so don't try to get me to buy it. We live in a world of intense advertising still, and I'll just have to live with it. I do like webtrends business model for digital marketing, though. Even though I don't like advertising, their model represents new thinking about it. It's a great way to assess how your company is maturing. We'll see what the future holds for this industry.