Pretend for a moment you have never watched TV past 10:00 PM. Now go on Twitter or Facebook and type in “The Tonight Show.” (more) Just from seeing that, would you believe that guy was forced out of his show because of low ratings? The Internet was covered in Conan paraphernalia and he was one of the top trending topics on Twitter for almost the entire month of January. What could have gone down as a career low point for a cult comic on the level of The Chevy Chase Show, The Magic Johnson Show and a dozen other forgotten forays into the cut throat world of late night television, turned into one of the most impactful viral marketing campaigns ever.
In a nutshell, viral marketing, or peer-to-peer marketing, is taking your product / message and inhabiting the same popular social channels as your customers, fashioning content that is engaging and surprising, all in an effort to create a groundswell of popular references to your site. When Abercrombie and Fitch asks to be your friend on MySpace, that’s viral marketing. When amazon.com sets up an entire movie message board just to boost DVD sales, that’s viral marketing, and when thousands of “Chuck” fans pledge to eat nothing but Subway to support the sponsor of their favorite TV show, that’s…well you get the idea.
What we saw with Conan O’Brien was arguably one of the biggest viral campaigns of 2009. Within weeks of NBC’s initial announcements, dozens of Conan groups where formed with t-shirts for sale and icon’s to use as your Twitter picture to show your support. The slogan “I’m with Coco” became an instant catchphrase. Whatever job Conan gets next, it’s thanks in part to the first guy who came up with that slogan (Tom Hanks apparently is that guy).
Just when we thought this spontaneous movement couldn’t go any further, that it was just going to remain an Internet phenomenon, it boiled over into almost every major city in the country. People where gathered in rallies in New York, L.A, Chicago, and other places with dyed red hair and their “Team Coco” signs. The last time someone got this kid of personal following from a larger brand was a guy named Bill Gates.
Ultimately the question remains, what can we take away from this that helps your brand? You can see that viral marketing, though an evolving model, can be an incredibly economical and hugely rewarding way to go. In the end the only thing the proprietors of Team Coco spent was their time. Viral marketing efforts can be cheap – but such forays can be very unpredictable and most organizations have to try a at least a few times before their viral marketing campaigns catch on. Microsoft thought it would have an easy time launching the Zoon through MySpace and it never really took hold.
Last 5 posts by joshuasinason
- Tivo takes a giant step toward bringing your TV and computer together - March 4th, 2010
- Biggest Social Media Mistakes - and the Multi-Billion Dollar Companies that Make Them - February 26th, 2010
- Comcast/XFinity: Changing Your Brand Name as Damage Control - February 19th, 2010
- Google takes the plunge into the Social Media pool - February 11th, 2010
- Using Educational Content for Viral Marketing - February 3rd, 2010
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