I hear it all the time “in order to reach consumers we created a viral marketing campaign””to introduce their new product they created a viral marketing campaign” “lets make a viral marketing campaign”.
Are these people creating a viral marketing campaign? No
It may be their idea, they might have created the campaign, they hope that it’ll go viral. But in the end, its the public that decides what is viral and what is not. If they created the same campaign and it flopped, would you still call it a viral marketing campaign? No, you wouldn’t.
If the “dumb ways to die” campaign had received no views, no downloads, and no media attention, you wouldn’t classify it as viral. A company might create a hilarious video or competition that they are sure is going to spread through the web like wildfire, but if no one cares and no one shares, you can’t call that a viral campaign.
Can you create a viral marketing campaign?
nup
Your campaign is not viral, its the response that is viral – Todd
mymarketingtoddyssey 
Haha love that you have given us the answer straight up! And you’re right – so many marketers out there are making campaigns with the specific ingredients that usually amount to viral eg. cute animals, human rights messages etc.. but at the end of the day we have the power! And the more we see of those kinds of things, the less likely they are to go viral anyway. Great stuff
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Great distinction between a viral campaign and a viral response, I completely agree! Does this mean that marketers should almost be more concerned with the channels they use rather than the content?
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I think the channels are the thing thats getting a bit tired! Everyone wants to make a viral video that everyone watches on youtube or shares on Facebook, it would be interesting to see a viral campaign delivered through a whole new channel.
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You make a good point Todd. Another thing to be considered is if a company were to claim they were “creating” a viral marketing campaign and then it didn’t actually succeed in going viral, it would risk looking like a failed campaign, even if it reached its other objectives. A viral marketing campaign that didn’t actually go viral, how awkward.
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