Viral Marketing For Your Own Agency

With the world awaiting the release of the iPhone this month, ViralMedium has seized upon the opportunity for some self (less) promotion by attempting to hijack the hype surrounding the new gadget, and it's a pretty good plot!

Creating an online competition for budding film makers, or anyone with a video camera to create a viral ad for the new iPhone. www.myiphoneevolution.com gives you the chance to win $15,000 (wait for the catch) worth of Viral Advertisement from ViralMedium!

Some people say viral is dead, dying or is getting unfashionable in interactive circles. (trust me, it's not) But the campaign from ViralMedium is pretty smart, it works like any other viral campaign.

• Harnesses a popular event, idea or topic
• Creates a topical or engaging environment
• Gives the users the ability to interact with the campaign
• Offers some form of reward (in this case a cool $15k)
• Adds a campaign branded send to a friend
• Subtly highlights the creators brand in a positive sense

iPhone Revolution invites you to make your own 2 ½ minute video specifically to promote in any way, shape or form the new iPhone from Apple. On the back of this campaign, ViralMedium is giving themselves some great brand awearness (and possibly a legal battle), to a market that's screaming for publicity.

For the budget, viral marketing your own viral marketing company isn't just a great case study, it's an award winning investment that any main stream agency would kill to harness and with 10's of thousands of video entries and even more new client leads...

Who said viral was dead?

Coke Goes Mobile, With Content Ads

Does anyone actually want to view ads on a mobile phone, let alone interact with them? Is this the last straw with invasive advertising now targeting our personal devices? No, says Coke.

At the MSN Strategic Summit in May, Coca Cola delivered an interactive campaign to the market, perhaps the first big brand to "try the water" on your side of the fence. On your side of the fence indeed, you'll now see ads on your mobile phone when accessing WAP sites across the world.

For Coke, they see the opportunity to interact with users on their most personal device of all, as an opportunity not to be missed. “Coke is eager to reach its customers on the mobile phone as it is a highly personal device,” said Tom Daly, Group Manager of Strategy & Planning for Coca-Cola.

But of course there is a very fine line once you get into this medium, and it's with that mentality that coke will succeed. The younger generation are all about "content, freebies, and fun stuff" when accessing the Internet on their mobiles and this is where Coke's new mobile campaign really hits the mark.

In a campaign designed to be seen as free content rather than as an advertisement, cokes content ads certainly hit the mark. They pull you in by advertising free Coke video clips and engaging you with a fresh, funny bottle film short.

More importantly, you can down load the videos to your phone and share them with friends. It's this direction that hinges the success of the campaign and it's viral opportunities, which if you watch the video below, puts them in a great position.

Here's how it works:

1. Surf the web of your mobile phone
2. Be browsing one of the websites on the AdMob Network
3. View small banner ads "Free Coca Cola Animated Videos"
4. Be taken to a landing page describing the free content
5. Watch, Download, Share.

Sensis is currently just a few weeks away from launching a "test" run of Mobile advertising across it's content network; Whitepages, Yellowpages, Sensis, Whereis... From this, advertisers will gain a report outlining initial test results and future projections which can be used to investigate the opportunities into Mobile Marketing across mainstream Australian sites.

It's an interesting time, even exciting. But there is still the 2c per kb pricing on mobile bandwidth that might hold up a lot of this. I'd hate to start using websites on my mobile and being stuck with a bill to match.