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The phrase “Viral Marketing” has become quite the buzz word of late. But I personally don’t buy it. It might be fashionable and working for now but it most definitely isn’t anything new. Even Wikipedia’s definition refers to the use of existing social networks. Pah, as if the web can claim this form marketing.

Viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses. It can be word-of-mouth delivered or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet.[1] Viral marketing is a marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message voluntarily.[2] Viral promotions may take the form of video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames, ebooks, brandable software, images, or even text messages. The basic form of viral marketing is not infinitely sustainable.

The Hypothesis

I’m going to dive right in to my hypothesis. I think that if you go as far back as the birth of christianity you will find viral marketing. Maybe it appeared in different forms (godly or other) but it was present even then.

Jesus was a man of old, but his story spread throughout the land back in the day. How? Very simply. He did something amazing, incredible, unbelievable even and word spread. He basically created his own viral video without the video. He did something that no one had done before or seen before and the word spread like wildfire. He created his own version of the Rayban, Evolution of Dance, Avril or Dead Terrorist Youtube video and then the public did the rest.

The Scale

Yes the scale of the word spreading might have been significantly less than the 2 Billion people worldwide who are online today but the principal was the same. Humans like to be astounded. On top of that human beings like to socialise, be the first, follow the group and participate in communities and all of this applied then as much as it did now.

The Message

What was being spoken of, spread around and “preached” back then is significantly different to the content that has become viral nowadays. Christianity and other religions spoke of a life-changing concept that was the word, a god, a set of laws, rules, beliefs and ideas that intended to change people and their way of life.

Today content is funny, clever, different, advertising, movies, music videos and clever tricks that fascinate people and keep them occupied for just long enough to want to send on the video, blog post, article, website or concept to their friends and their friends and their friends. Yet again, the basic concept remains the same. I like it, I like to participate with people in what I like and thus I will send it on so I can discuss it with them, debate it with them and enjoy it with them. God, The Bible, a video, blogger or mp3, anything can go viral and has been going viral for centuries.

The crusades

The great era of the crusades which were so quickly forgotten by many people today is not necessarily an example of anything viral. It is an example of aggressively marketing a concept to a market that is possibly unwilling or isn’t aware that they like the idea just yet. That is, until you shove it down their throats with a blade.

Much like today’s corporations. If you don’t use Google you probably aren’t getting the best results. However there are people who use ask.com, yahoo.com, cuil.com (are there people using Cuil?) or any slew of other options. Just as there were people believing in Allah or any number of other gods or demi-gods. If you aren’t using Google however it is hard to get away from them, their spokespeople, their marketing - however subversive it may be - or their word of mouth presence. You will succumb to the Google Crusade if you haven’t already.

An estimated 2.1 billion christians exist in the world today. That is around and about 1/3 of the worlds population. Wouldn’t you say that is the greatest viral campaign of all time? I would.

Preaching, Indoctrination, Propaganda and Sheep

Let’s be frank about this, we are all sheep of one kind or another. The christian, muslim, hindu, agnostic, atheist, google, mozilla, microsoft, opensource, closed source or any other source out there. We all subscribe to opinions, likes, dislikes and beliefs. It is thanks to this wonder of humanity that viral marketing is and always will be the most phenomenal way to market a product or concept. People like to below, to prescribe and subscribe to something.

Coca-Cola, Nike, Google, Apple, Honda, Toyota, Pepsi and Microsoft are all some of the most recognisable brands in the world because there are people sharing the brands and associated products amongst their friends, family and social groups. Viral marketing is not a web 2.0 revolution in marketing, it isn’t even a web concept. It’s a practice that has been used for millennia to make people money, spread a word or punt a product. Welcome to the wonders of history repeating itself.

An Example: FAIL

The recent “FAIL” trend that has swept the web is the perfect example of a viral concept shared amongst social groups. Everything is a FAIL. It has become a cult that is practiced offline as much as it is online. It started with one simple fail and expanded in to blogs, websites, videos, songs and more. It has transcended race, gender, age, culture, technology and platform. People can fail online, brands can fail with offices, products, articles or just about anything that exists.

Viral marketing is most definitely not a FAIL but many have failed at viral marketing.

This is the presentation I just gave at Highway Africa 2008.

I’ve managed to secure a short interview with Nadine Damen, the marketing manager of Kulula.com. I’ve asked her some questions about the rebranding, sub-brands and more interesting tidbits about Kulula.com.

I also found out that Kulula.com does ±R3.5million in sales every day. Yes, that’s right, every day. Wow.

Here’s the interview:

1. Wow, great new and clean design for your site. Can you tell me why Kulula is relaunching the brand now?

The timing of the new site coincides with kulula’s seventh birthday and we consider it an opportune time to extend kulula’s focus beyond aviation. We have a new strategic direction and the new look (as well as the three supporting sub-brands) are part of this expanding business focus. Domestic air travel in South Africa is worth around R13 billion per annum. The broader travel sector in southern Africa is estimated to be worth more than R50 billion. With kulula’s new look and three distinctive sub-brands, we expect to have more flexibility to associate kulula with a wider array of products within, and outside, the travel sector.

2. Do you think a “Web 2.0″ feel is right for the brand considering many saying that web 2.0 in design is out?

Web 2.0 means different things to different people and without getting into the details, kulula plans to be more interactive with its customer base in a future incarnation of kulula.com, especially on the air and travel side of things.

3. Would you be able to tell me how much the redesign cost and who helped? Did you outsource the design or manage it in-house?

The cost of the new CI is less than a tank of petrol for 5 flights from CT to JHB. The design was created in collaboration with the Johannesburg office of Brand Union. A new advertising campaign, conceived by King James advertising in Cape Town, will launch in mid September to support the new kulula travel brand. Over all the re-design didn’t cost much because the biggest element we had to change was our website, which we build, design and manage in-house; so it was just a matter of getting the resources to do it on time.

4. Are there more plans to delve in to the social media world with the Kulula brand?

Yes…stayed tuned…

5. How long has the design been in progress?

The new look for kulula has been part of this year’s strategic plan and has been envisioned for a while.

6. I see that there seem to be plans for a Kulula Travel and Connect to complement Kulula Air. Can you tell me a bit more about these?

Taking a plane is more than about just getting from A to B. A trip could be for pleasure, for business, to explore, to escape etc. In addition, while travelling, many South Africans want to keep in touch, either on a cell phone or a laptop. With this in mind, kulula’s partnership with Altech is a complementary business to our core competence – flying passengers. Similarly, kulula travel is a logical brand extension into related areas such as hotels, car rentals and travel packages. As a trust online brand, we have a great platform to build on and encourage more consumers to extend their favourable kulula brand experience into other products that are similarly easy to browse and purchase online (all in the same place – something no other online travel retailer is doing). With more than R2 billion in revenue each year and over 650 000 unique browsers monthly, kulula is the largest online retailer in South Africa. With this strong base and entrenched consumer respect, kulula has the opportunity to extend into complementary business lines within and beyond the travel sector.

Last night I attended an absolutely hilarious opening. No it wasn’t a joke, but there were lots of jokes present.

It was the launch of a new mobile “service” called Comedy Twist Mobile.

You can visit the website at comedytwist.co.za. And with that we have a problem number 1.

The website isn’t live and the launch was held last night to the media. That’s bad. Even though the official launch is 1 September 2008, surely if you hold a press conference, comedy event and big fancy “Howzit” type party, you make your website live, even for a second to preview. We got nothing.
There was a glimmer of potential when the host of the evening plugged in his cellphone and visit the WAP site, which we were never given the URL for. Oh well, no preview.

I’m jumping ahead a bit. Let’s go back a step.

What is Comed Twist

The basic idea behind Comedy Twist (CT) is comedic content supplied to you on your cellphone wherever you are. To quote from the flyer I received:

“It’s a new digital content platform, offering high quality video and audio material for an extensive variety of South Africa’s talented comics - all for mobile phones.”

Phew, that’s fairly intense. They are doing a lot. Or are they?

From what I can see CT is trying to duplicate the success of sms subscription services that already exist with one exception, they offer video and audio and ringtones all about comedy. It’s a relatively good twist I think (maybe that’s where the name came from “twist”). The country needs comedy, I love comedy and I want to try this service.

Enter issue number 2.

Premium Content

This is a very strange choice. I suppose that many social media, content producing, user generated content websites have struggled in the past with monetizing good ideas. But Comedy Twist think they have a solution. Make people pay for content.

In my opinion this could be the downfall of the entire concept. The prices for what seems to be “On-Demand” content:

Video - R10

30-50 second live joke

Audio - R5

30-70 second live joke

Ringtones - R15

15-30 second looped funny ringtone

Video Discount Basket - R5

15-30 second live jokes

This brings up my next question: What does “Live Joke” mean? Anyways, that’s besides the point.

You do have another option, you can subscribe to the service which has a “revolutionary” one-click-opt-out. Nice selling point, but not new. You can SMS “comedy” to 38370 and a video will be sent to your phone every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Three videos.

Target Market

This seems to be a good idea, decide who you are targeting. Comedy Twist is targeting LSM 7-10. My immediate reaction is that’s where the money is, they will pay for the content. But then my research tells me that LSM 7-10 have cellphones, they have cellphones that are able to receive video but they a) are not interested in SMSing a number to subscribe to a service that is going to bug them every other day of the week, comedy or not and b) LSM 7-10 have trouble visiting WAP sites on the their phones and by that I mean that many don’t actually know how. This is not an insurmountable problem, but it will take a fair amount of marketing, above and below the line and a lot of education.

That is not to say that LSM 7-10 wont be successful if targeted correctly and with money behind the project (I can’t say how much money is behind the project) so who can tell how it will go.

It just leads me to wonder about the approach. I know alot of kids (in their teens) who spend hours and hours playing games with others on their mobiles, blowing cash to interact, chatting on Mxit and using other free and subscription services. Why? Because they know how and they know that LSM 7-10 Mommy and Daddy will pay for their usage. Simple. To get to the money, go through the children. It’s worked well so far.

Almost a potentially great mobile social network

I don’t want to go on about this but Comedy Twist had the potential to be a cracking social network on the mobile platform. People love to laugh, people love jokes and love comedy. Even more so, people love to laugh at themselves, their friends and other people making fun of other people. This could have been used VERY effectively to create a social network around laughter, jokes, pranks and anything else in the genre.

It will survive

Why? Because some of the funniest people in South Africa are on board for the ride. Trevor Noah to just name one that I saw at the event. The man must be the funniest guy I’ve had the pleasure of seeing live. The comedians will save this ship from a certain premium-content go-slow.

I awoke a few days ago to a countdown timer on Godaddy.com. I’ve made a conscious choice recently to purchase whatever domains I feel are or might be worth something, anything, to anyone.

So with intrigue I registered two domains that I have now been told I did not manage to register.

I first went straight to southafrica.me and bought it, money off my credit card.
Then I went and tried to buy talk2.me and again, money off my credit card. Gone.

About twenty minutes later and I received confirmation of the registration of both the .me domains successfully went through. Unfortunately that was not to be as I received this:

Dear Nic Haralambous,

The following domain name has failed to be registered:

SOUTHAFRICA.ME

Error: SOUTHAFRICA.ME: cannot register - already registered

We will evaluate this error and retry the registration
if appropriate.

If we are unable to successfully register the domain
name, your account will be credited accordingly. Please
allow one business day for the refund to be processed.

Please contact GoDaddy.com, Inc. if you need any further
assistance:
http://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/support.asp?prog_id=GoDaddy&isc=gdbb14

Sincerely,
GoDaddy.com, Inc.

And that was that. Done and dusted. No domain, no millions of dollars from the fantastic SEO tips that obviously have cause they are hot property right now. Now talk2.me, no southafrica.me no nothing, at all, nada, zip.

But I think I’ll make it out alive, I still have a trump card or two that could come in to play. But who doesn’t these days?

I did manage to purchase haralambous.me which I have redirected to this domain. My question, in the end, is whether or not it’s actually worth owning a .me domain?