Recently in Viral Marketing Category

In late December DARPA or the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency held a challenge to help mark the 40th anniversary of the Internet (it was they who, incidentally, did actually invent the Internet).

The agency launched, simultaneously, 10 tethered large weather balloons around the US and set out this challenge: the first person or team to ID all the locations would win a $40K prize. Specifically DARPA wanted to see how social networking could be used to accomplish a "large-scale, time-critical task."

Not so surprisingly a team from MIT won it.

Get this: in fewer than 9 hours after DARPA deployed the balloons.

How did they do it?

Well, their team created a site (of course) and then promised "$2000 per balloon to the first person to send us the correct coordinates, but that's not all -- we're also giving $1000 to the person who invited them. Then we're giving $500 whoever invited the inviter, and $250 to whoever invited them, and so on..."

People communicated the locations to the MIT team and the team verified the locations.

A huge challenge in this process? False balloons and erroneous reports by sneaky opponents.

Here's a line from the team's FAQ on their site:

How do you rule out the dishonest reports of spotting the balloons?

This is one of the most interesting parts to the challenge! We will use sophisticated algorithms from the field of network science and complex systems theories along with machine learning algorithms to identify valid submissions.

When I was listening to Riley Crane from MIT talk about this study on the radio, the host asked him if this contest was held so DARPA could better locate terrorists, bad guys, etc. But Riley, and DARPA, pointed out the contest was held to better investigate the role of "wide-area team building, and urgent mobilization required to solve broad-scope, time-critical problems." Think along the lines of natural disasters, missing hikers, floating balloons with supposed children in them, etc.

Marketing Manager Harish Kotadia's blog had some interesting points about the contest and what it means to folks working in Social Media Marketing.

One of these being, instead of DARPA hiring a group Social Media Pros and getting together and endlessly discussing how to accomplish how Social Networking can accomplish a large-scale task, they "designed a simple, low cost experiment... (which is) more cost-effective compared to time and travel cost of personnel figuring this out."

True. The prize was $40K for this, plus putting together a site and a team. Most likely far less expensive than flying in the Pros (then taking them to dinner, putting them up in hotels, giving them coffee, etc.)

The second, "it is important to reward not only (the) individual member for their winning contribution, but also those who brought them to the network, thereby extending (the) reach of (the) network and making Crowdsourcing a reality."

That second point reminded me of (not to plug too much here, but it's on my mind since I'm creating training around it for the company) the Rewards Program that we have.

Essentially, any Talent already working with Aquent can tell us about another person (or job opportunity) and is given points for the referral, which can then be cashed in. In the case of a Talent they've referred, the Referrer automatically gets points for the referral. Then, if that person interviews with us, more points. If that person actually gets a job through us, points accumulate every hour that person works (up to a certain number). So essentially a reward is given for just suggesting someone, but the reward is much, much greater if that referral is stellar. (The reward for the referred is obviously getting a gig.) The whole idea is based around the thought that we consistently get our best Talent as referrals from Talent we're already working with, so rewarding for that makes good sense.

I have no idea who came up with the program, but my hat is off to them, because it's seems close to what DARPA is thinking.

Not that I always agree with the military.

Any other thoughts from your social media folks out there and the applications of this in your field?

I'd Tweet this, but I'm pretty sure this is over 140 characters.

(image from DARPA Website)

Air New Zealand didn't have to make their in-flight safety video hilarious, but by doing so, it's turned into a viral marketing campaign. As of a couple weeks ago, this "Bare Essentials" YouTube video has gotten 3 million hits.

If those aren't revealing numbers, I don't know what is.

You know, I bet this Pringles banner ad that does better in a contest among peers than it actually does online.

Or maybe I'm wrong.

Maybe everyone like me passing it along is driving up clicks.

Could be.

Regardless, click away - it's fairly funny.

In a previous post I talked about the characteristics of Viral Marketing. You may recall there were 6 R's for any marketing campaign to be successful - Replication, Reach, Regular audience, Resilience, Reliance and Response.

This meant that as a company indulging in Viral marketing one has to have an idea which spreads far and wide, to people who really want to know and get excited about it. It has to be genuine and open to comments and feedback. The Viral marketing idea being called the "seed".

How does one seed the viral marketing idea? And where does one go to seed it? If we look at the evolution of the net it took the following paths ...

1) Long ago there was the concept of e-mail which enabled users of a particular organisation to write into each other.

2) Then we got into world wide web where hotmail or yahoo enabled conversations between people who did not belong to the same organisation but could register with these platforms and exchange information. Therein evolved "User Groups".

3)Then came along Google which revolutionised the web by providing large storage space and exchange of pictoral content as an option. Orkut became an instant rage with chats and profiles dominating mailing ... oh so passé!

4) Orkut has been replaced by our addiction to our Facebook, Linkedin and YouTube in that for everything one wants to do one instinctively reaches to these platforms. Statistics show that Facebook is almost as big as Google in page views. YouTube is double in page views. Facebook adds 100,000 to 250,000 new viewers each day. There we have the audience who will hear, listen and respond. There followed the usual players in Twitter, or Digg for creating your own video.

The above are the known ones. Squidoo is another great option. Some marketers swear by it for driving in the traffic. HubPages is a good option too.

My next posting will be about Web 2.0 and using social marketing as a medium for winning business. Stay tuned ...

Image courtesy of: Brajeshwar

What would Asia be without them? A quick bowl of "ramen," as they are called here in Japan, can bring you back to life on chilly winter nights or make you sweat like a hog in the summer. The busy Japanese businessman or university student can pick up the instant type for a few yen at the corner convenience store, make them and wolf them down in a matter of minutes.

Such is the love for ramen in Japan, that, ramen lovers, young and old, sometimes line up outside restaurants and even whip out their own fantasy noodle recipes! Well, lo and behold, the digital world has caught up to the world of cooking. The smart folks at Yahoo! Japan noticed "fantasy ramen" soup and garnish recipes floating around in blogs, as well as actual blogs and entire websites dedicated to noodle appreciation, tasting, making and just about anything about them. There is even a ramen museum here in Tokyo.

Those smart marketing guys then asked bloggers to come up with a winning noodle soup concoction and believe me, they received thousands. What to do next? Well, why not talk to Acecook, an instant noodle soup manufacturer, and get their product managers to develop a Yahoo! branded consumer originated line of products? They not only came up with one recipe, but many consumer originated variations including non-traditional ingredients like bacon and eggs.

The idea has been so successful that social networks like Mixi, the Japanese version of Facebook with more than 15 million members, have partnered with yoghurt manufacturer Calpis to get their members to contribute recipes. The project started late last year and 4 Mixi Juice mix products have been released to date. The online community was involved in everything from the recipe, catch phrases, right through to the bottle design. What a great way to get consumers involved in product development and marketing. The instant food and drinks market in Japan is a jungle, yet these innovative efforts do put brands ahead of the competition.

If you'll excuse me, I'm getting the munchies, so let me go for my Yahoo! Noodles and a bottle of Mixi Juice Mix for lunch.

Image courtesy of: moriza

Good news for all you wannabe Mad Men (and Women)! There's now an alternative to getting into advertising: becoming an advertisement. That's right. Anyone with untouched skin space and no self-image issues can now create an online profile and pimp...I mean, rent your most personal space to hungry advertisers willing to shell out considerable coin for the services of a living, breathing billboard.

Sound ridiculous? Don't be too hasty to judge. Not only will this gig not interfere at all with your daily routine, but think of the implications - or rather lack thereof - for your diet. The rail-thin model look will be replaced by "rotund but resourceful," and your extra pounds will be worth their weight, or at least surface area, in new ad revenue.

Personally, I couldn't be more behind this movement. And though my forehead belongs to Aquent for the next 3 years ("Register with Aquent and this won't be you"), I do still have some available space left on my abs.

Back when it was the latest thing, I wrote about Modernista!'s new "website", which is really more like a widget that connects you to Modernista!'s pages on Facebook, Flckr, Wikipedia, etc. I thought then and still think now that this approach is WEB design in the truest sense. They didn't design a something that people view on the web; they designed a way to do something with the web. The essence of the web is connectivity, and the folks at Modernista used this connectivity itself as their site.

The infinite, even fractal, connectivity of the web is uncontrollable, as they themselves highlight at Modernista.com, "The menu on the left is our homepage. Everything behind it is beyond our control." Their site is transparency itself, which means that they don't try and spin the news, for example, even when it's not really that great.

The fact that layoffs are the most prominent news that you'll find on the Modernista! site today (February 18, 2009) led the AdFreak to remark, "Downturn not kind to Modernista!'s anti-site," and AdRants to snarkily quip, "Modernista Promotes Own Layoffs."

I think they miss they point. The web forces transparency on organizations and individuals. The real question is whether you are going to ignore that you are already exposed, or seize the day and expose yourself (you know what I mean).

AdAge published a story yesterday on what is supposedly Arnell's design strategy brief for the new Pepsi logo. As that article states, it is unclear whether is this a viral hoax or what but, if you haven't read through it, it's actually pretty trippy (check it here pepsi-arnell021109.pdf).

The strategy described is called "Breathtaking," and the document explains that "BREATHTAKING is a strategy based on the evolution of 5000+ years of shared ideas in design philosophy creating an authentic Constitution of Design." This statement is accompanied by an amazing chart that documents the evolution of human thought from the mystical numerology of the Hindus circa 3000 BC to Pepsi circa 2009 CE.

I have a Phd in German Studies so my tolerance for pretentiousness and intellectual bravura is pretty high, which is why I'm totally captivated by this, particularly the lengthy section describing how Pepsi's iconic geometry depends on ever-evolving perimeter oscillations. I can only imagine that future generations will find in this document a post-modern Rosetta Stone and view it as the hieratic key to the mysteries of contemporary culture.

For you brand strategist and ad types out there, is this sort of document the typical fruit of your labors or just a particularly grandiose and amazingly awesome example thereof?

Image Courtesy of brownpau.