I saw this on Social Median and was compelled to do my part in helping Samsung create a world wide rave. Or, failing that, at least a Wales Wide Rave! Having spent three very happy years at Cardiff University this video certainly attracted my attention. I don’t think it is too Wales-centric to appeal to a wider audience and I commend it to you as a great bit of viral marketing.
Every now and then you come across an idea that is so brilliant in its simplicity and execution that you juts have to slap palm to head and say “I wish I’d thought of that!” Well, such an idea is zooppa.com – ‘people-powered brand energy’. It is a site that brings together companies in need of fresh advertising/ branding ideas and the creativity of individuals. The company puts up prize money of several thousand dollars and says ‘ here is my product, this is the concept – lets see what you come up with’. Anyone can produce either video, print, web, copywriting, concepting, or scriptwriting entries and the winners are determined by votes from the members. You can also build up ‘zooppa points’ for participating which can then be converted into cash.
The whole essence of viral marketing – audience participation – has been captured in this superbly designed and simple web-based concept. I think it is the simplicity of the concept that will also make it an easy sell to the companies themselves. For an investment of a few thousand dollars they not only gain a lot of potentially viral web-based content, but also they may just get that gem that they would have had to pay out millions to get through an advertising agency. Its a bargain for the companies – and I think I have just found myself a new hobby! Sweet!
Tom and I managed to high-tail it back from our regular Friday 3000 Club networking meeting in time to see a very good webinar by Mike Volpe of Hubspot and David Meerman Scott, Viral Marketing Strategist and author of the forthcoming book ‘World Wide Rave‘. Viral Marketing is the holy grail of online marketing – “creating triggers that will get millions of other people to share your story and ideas”- without coercion – and without “the tyranny of having to spend money”.
Viral marketing is very much what Dude Blog Your Business and Hinchey Studios are currently working on for a new client – watch this space. Video, Tom Hinchey’s province, is very much the medium for viral marketing, and blogs are the platform that allows those videos to be shared and talked about. The combination of the two things together is powerful enough, but add a touch of humor and creativity and we might just come up with something that people will be raving about.
Suitably inspired, I have put my pre-order in on Amazon for World Wide Rave, by David Meerman Scott. The book is due out on March 3rd and is published by John Wiley and Sons. I then twittered the fact and shortly after David Meerman Scott started following our Twitter! How cool is that!
