Friday, October 16, 2009 by mrs jones
"Acute viral rhinopharyngitis, or acute coryza, known as an upper respiratory virus, is a contagious, viral infectious disease of the upper respiratory system, primarily caused by rhinoviruses, (picornaviruses) or coronaviruses. It is the most common infectious disease in humans;[1] there is no known cure, but it is very rarely fatal."
When hearing these words, one might think twice about putting their selves at risk of catching this possible fatal virus. Yet as a marketing technique, viral marketing works exactly like the common cold does: people are 'infected' by the virus purely by being in close proximity of the disease, they don't have a choice in the matter, ignoring it would be like ignoring an over-sized male fairy flying through a church service; and the infected are most likely to 'gossip' to their work colleagues, I commonly hear “Oh I feel so bad today”. The success of viral marketing lies within how good the campaign is, you may have never of heard of “The Subservient Chicken”, but then you may have seen the graffiti work on the footpaths around Auckland advertising District 9. Whether you wanted to or not, people were talking about District 9 without really knowing what it was all about. In this day and age, when people everyday are bombarded with hundreds of advertisements everyday, being different is key to being noticed by consumers who are becoming smarter and smarter and less sensitive to advertisements. We can safely assume that this type of marketing is going to become more interesting as time goes on. I know I’m sick of the one look movie posters!