Big Spaceship | Think Blog - Getting Past Viral

"...when we say we want a viral campaign, we mean that we want marketing that will spread at an exponential rate similar to a virus. But when we insist on describing our work as viral marketing, we make two fatal mistakes: first, we forget that exponential pass-along between consumers is a result, rather than a strategy — the end, rather than the means — and second, we focus on creating better content, rather than better understanding the motives of the people who will choose to share, or not share, that content.

Then, as we begin to plan for 2010, it’s in our best interests to stop thinking about viral marketing, which moves from person to person like a virus, and instead focus on why people choose to share things with each other. We need to understand the spread of media in terms of actively giving gifts, not passively transmitting viruses. And to do that, we need to understand consumer behavior on the consumer’s terms, rather than our own. For now, let’s call this new model “consumer-driven marketing.”

via bigspaceship.com

http://www.bigspaceship.com/blog/think/getting-past-viral/#

I've been a fan of Big Spaceship's work for a very long time and have posted links to many of their outstanding digital works. The latest post on their Think blog is welcome read with Ivan Askwith's challenge to shift away from viral marketing to thinking about a media ecology propelled by our desire to share or 'gift' better content.

Posted via web from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales