The French web developer Mathieu ‘P01′ HENRI has developed for the marketing agency Jung von Matt the smallest adver game ever in order to promote the very small Smart ForTwo.

It is a game in a favicon (short for favorites icon), which is the 16 x 16 pixel in your browser left of the “http://”, mainly used for displaying a tiny company logo.
The game is based upon the well known classical Defender game from 1980.

For those interested in information on the java game read: Defender of the Favicon.

In order to let the public know about the game, every site featuring the favicon game has a supporting banner that explains and indicates the game presence.

Additionally there is the video:

This is not a low cost marketing campaign: development, banners, favicon deployment and a video.

The main idea is to create a buzz by using blogs (like this one) and people telling about it.
The target market consists of consumers interested in a very small car.
However are these consumers visiting the typical automobile websites? Probably not as car websites are mainly visited by people who like more expensive cars.
If the bloggers and journalists should be able to generate a buzz, the campaign could reach the potential customers.
Still measuring the lead generation will be difficult to prove as there seems not to be a direct link to the company or product website: thus no online measurement of the effectiveness of the campaign is possible.

Do you think this campaign will bring interest from potential buyers for the car?

Although we might think that viral marketing is related to the Internet, it exists since long before: Michelin

Michelin: travel guides, roadmaps and road signs: for tires

In 1900 when the brothers Michelin were producing tires for cars in France, they came to the conclusion in order to stimulate driving that travel guides and roadmaps were required in order to stimulate road trips as else people would get lost and would never travel far.
The more their customers would drive around the more the tires got used.
Thus the first free travel guides and roadmaps appeared in 1900.

In 1910 after Michelin brothers had been campaigning with the government for national road numbering, they undertook an even bigger challenge and investment by mapping out all the roads in France and placing village signs.

Michelin has been active generating many viral campaigns:
- Setting up a petition and campaign to influence the government
- Mapping out all roads in France
- 1910: Putting naming signs on the outskirts of every city and village in France.
- 1927: Starting to mark all the French roads with road signs.
(see: history of road signs of Michelin)

Michelin is in the business of B2C as they sell their tires to consumers. The roadmaps and tourist guides both address their consumers and the branding was present on every road in France.

Google web analytics: for advertising service

Although Google is know for their free Internet search, their sole business is online advertising.

In order to stimulate the sales of this online advertising system Adwords / Adsense, they provide free web analytics: Google Analytics. Allowing measuring the effectiveness of the online advertising in order to measure or estimate a Return On Investment (ROI).

Now the viral effect of Google Analytics is limited as it addresses only those who are interested website visit data, making it less viral.

The viral differences: Google vs Michelin

Michelin is in B2C, whereas Google is B2B, but uses consumers to leverage the B2B business.
Michelin provided the free services with their customers in mind: the consumer of tires.
The entire concept of road markers, road signs, road maps and tourist guides was supporting their main business as the consumers encountered them everywhere on theis journeys.

The main Google free service is their search, which provides for the branding to both their users and their customers (companies). Additionally they offer the web analytics as it is related to business buyers of their advertising web service.

Google seems to encounter problems with some of their services (like Feedburner RSS), as not all their free services support their business. (More on Feedburner here)
It is obvious: when there is no direct relation to the advertising service, the cost to maintain the service becomes a burden. Thus Google will desperately search for a revenue stream for some of their free services.
The same can apply to several other free services from Google that have no direct relationship with their main business. it has been said that Google has other objectives with all these free services for identifying and characterizing every Internet surfer, which one day could be used for marketing and advertising purposes too.

Michelin is leading the tire business since 120 years, will Google still be in business in 110 years?

What service could your company offer as a free service supporting your main business?

Press releases: out – Bloggers: in

Gone are the days of a elaborated press release that could get the attention of the world.
People and journalist seem to read less press releases.
Now you need to attract the attention of renowned bloggers in order to spread the word.

Nokia has launched on their Nokia World event in Barcelona a new phone N97 with more features than the iPhone.
- Keyboard
- 3.5 inch screen
- GPS including location based services
- More features (CrunchGear)

In order to promote the launch, Nokia had cleverly invited Robert Scoble (blog: Scobleizer) to their event Nokia World to spread the news.
This is probably more effective than a press release and could reach further than advertising.

If you as a company are not part of the community in the (Silicon) Valley, then you need to get their (bloggers) attention to get on their blogs.
So Nokia used Scoble, who distributed the announcement of the new product supported by video. This then got copied over and over again like this blog post.
Just read the number of comments and references on Scobleizer blog. Spreading virally.

Nokia N97

It’s a phone that has the functions and features of a laptop (Gizmodo).
What do you want more for your sales force?
A lower price maybe?

The next time you launch a product, will you invite bloggers?

Reward for generating buzz

Getting attention in this world is hard to do as so many information and messages are asking for attention.
Thus also your marketing efforts like advertising and PR.

Generating a buzz is very unique happening that can create a big interest.
Some companies can orchestrate buzz themselves like:
- Steve Jobs of Apple.
- Bill Gates of Microsoft
- Hollywood with a lot of advertising efforts.

However in many cases it is the customer that creates the buzz:
He mentions your products or solutions:
- In an interview (printed or video)
- In a comment on a blog
- On a forum post
An extraordinary event brings your product or solution positively in the news.
Somehow this gets picked up by others (like journalists or bloggers) and the information is propagated further over different media.

A customer:
- Is a trusted source.
- Only speaks out when he is convinced.
- Intention was not to create a buzz as he has no benefit.

As the effect and impact of a buzz exceeds advertising and Press releases, the customer or the lead that has created this noise could be rewarded.

The problems

- Who to reward? The company or the individual who creates the buzz or he who spreads the buzz.
- How to reward the customer? Without killing off the authenticity and honesty of the buzz originator.
- What is the reach of the buzz? The reach is difficult to measure as it is a buzz.
- What is the value of the buzz? The real value are the leads generated or the additional sales made.
- How to measure the reward valuation? This should be related to the amount of interest generated.
- Do you disclose that the customer is being rewarded? That is difficult:

To reward or not?

If you disclose about who gets rewarded:
- The public could interpret it as a fraud.
- If one customer doesn’t get rewarded, then this customer can become upset

Rewarding is very subjective and hard to define the exact value.

If you decide to reward, then paying money or a present is more costly than to give your products or solutions for free.

What do you do when a customer generates a buzz that spreads virally?

Advertising costs money

Advertising is easy:
The company has a marketing budget.
The marketing manager calls the advertising agency for an advertisement concept.
After meetings and trials the advertising is ready.
The invoice for the concept gets paid to the advertising agency.
The marketing manager then orders a media campaign.
After meetings the invoices get paid to both the media agency and the media.

Then the marketing manager orders a survey of the effect of the advertising campaign.
In case of an online advertising campaign many numbers can be generated.
Again the invoice gets paid.

Main effort for the company:
Ordering and spending money as creativity is outsourced.

Money cannot create social media

There are many forms of social media: from participation in forums to commenting on blogs to writing a blog.
In all of these cases efforts are required that cannot be outsourced.
Each of these efforts can be minimal, but will add up significantly over one day, one week, as each of them require a statement or a positioning.
For larger publicly traded companies this even becomes nearly impossible as each statement needs to be approved by the corporate communications director.

Requirements of a blog
In case of writing a blog there are at least 2 or 3 posts a week required else:
- The effectiveness will be minimal
- The return on investment near by zero as there will be no followers or recurring readers.
Thus the effort and the time invested become important.

The writing itself is probably not the biggest issue. The original content is.
Someone or a team in the company needs to:
- Find new ideas and concepts related to the company or business
- Needs to react to events in the market and the world
- Needs to position the products or solutions with the subjects
- Bring entertainment by the writing
This is not a task lightly to undertake.
Moreover the quality of the posts needs to be high and consistent in order to draw attention and enough readers.
Companies can spend large amounts on blogging but with no result as there is no interest.

Create content
Thus the problem is not in just paying money to writers.
It is to generate enough interesting content regularly by the writer or writer staff.
- Writing on demand is never the same as writing from the hart.
- Writing a blog post several times a week becomes like writing a TV soap.
- Writing needs to bring entertainment.
- Writing needs to generate interest

Then there are more issues:
- The feelings, conviction and the passion for the business, products and the company needs to be embedded into the writings like a CEO would do.
- The CEO or other directors need to agree upon the content and ideas exposed in the blog posts.
These requirements demand that the writer will need a high status and position within the company as he or his team is responsible for more than just a page a day, as they become the face of the company.

Blogging can not be solved with paying an invoice.
Blogging requires more than just writing.

Small companies can challenge the big corporations

This could change the face of business for good, as:
- Big cash rich companies can spend millions on advertising
- A small company can spread ideas and information thus penetrate and conquer market segments at a very low cost.

Thus for the first time in the industrial world, money isn’t the sole method to bring guaranteed success as any competitor large or small can challenge big advertising spenders with a quality content using social media.

Ads are easy, social media is not.
Social media requires hard work, intelligence, conviction, passion, skills and involvement.

B2C Marketing under threat?

Will your B2C marketing be threatened if your aren’t adapting it fast enough for and with social media?
Information about brands, products and services travel fast over the Internet. Bad news or news about problems travel even faster on the Internet.
Messages on social websites like Facebook (400mio active users), Bebo (50mio members), Netlog (60mio), Twitter and others can make or break a brand or a product in a very short amount of time in B2C.

B2B Marketing under threat?

A similar effect could soon start to happen in B2B on websites like LinkedIn, Xing, Ecademy, Viadeo and others as questions can be posed and comments or views can be replied creating an online conversation that can spread fast and reach further than your marketing can..

Blogging challenge

Then there are also the large number of bloggers on business matters that do influence their readers. They can pick-up any news as insignificant as can be and send it out to reach many.
Additionally comments on these blogs can bring the experiences of users that are also exposed to many.

Social media problems

These messages on all those social media websites are:
- Uncontrollable
- Providing communication from many to many
- Spreading messages in a viral way
- Reaching fast and far
- Giving an incognito protection

All these hard to master or to compete with for your marketing.
If you can’t beat them, embrace or leave.
No marketing campaign will be able to beat social media once it has started to spread virally.

Monitoring the chaos

Any marketing campaign requires to monitor the related events on social media. You need to monitor the chaos of social media messages.

Everyday more free and paying tools or search engines emerge for you to keep track of what is happening concerning your brand or products in social media chaos:
SocialMention, Whostalking, Collecta, Twitter search, Google Alerts, Friendfeed, Backtype, Buzzgain, ViralHeat, Sysomos, OneRiot, pb.ly and many others.

A quick generic brand visibility metric like HowSociable is useful too in order to have an overview of your brand.

Participating and engaging in social media

In order to manage the conversations on the different social media many paying and free tools exist:
ScoutLabs, SocialOomph, Radian6, Peoplebrowsr, Visible Technologies, HootSuite, Ping.fm, TwitHawk and many others.

How are your monitoring and managing the social media chaos ?

PR cannot compete with Social media

Even if you put a lot of effort in Public Relations or Press Releases, it will never be as effective as one social media success.
One lucky or unexpected shot from social media can change the future of a company significantly.

Whatever Press Release or information you spread through well determined or known channels, social media can spread faster, better having a wider reach.
Reaching the influencers at the right spot at the right time within hours instead of days or weeks.

PR from controlled to uncontrolled

Controlled:
- Public Relations started with print media at the speed of print media.
- Next they managed to stay in control with broadcast media like radio and television as this was orchestrated and managed centrally from only a few broadcast emitters.

Uncontrolled:
- The Internet has changed that into high speed and having multiple broadcasters as any one can become a broadcaster.
However uncontrolled means PR cannot master the process of distribution. All companies are afraid of uncertainties. Putting money in an uncertain uncontrolled channel is a big risk.

Distribution of information history repeats itself

Centuries ago in cities, small towns and villages people spread the news or information from person to person by word of mouth mostly restricted within the same social class or ranks. This was the interaction of multiple people with multiple people, but staying within classes of society.
The distribution was slow and slightly controlled as social classes didn’t exchange information very well.

When print media came along control could be obtained on the spreading of information by controlling the few newspapers in a country.
The newspapers increased the speed of information distribution as information became more accessible to anyone who could read crossing multiple social classes.

The broadcast media: radio and television were as well controllable as it was communication from one to many.
That was the power of radio and television: centrally controlled, immediate and universally spread in a country over all classes of society.
However early 2007 Bill Gates declared TV media to be doomed at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Press Releases and Public Relations can still use the conventional channels and the Internet for spreading information however, the social media on the Internet is taking over.

Again the distribution of information is from many to many just like centuries ago, but at the speed of lightning and uncontrollable as it works virally.

Uncontrollable social websites

Social websites exit in several forms for different markets:
In B2C: Facebook (100mio), Bebo (40mio), Netlog (35mio), specific forums by interest groups, blogs and micro blogs (like Twitter)
In B2B: LinkedIn (23mio), Plaxo, Xing, Ecademy, industry forums, blogs and micro blogs (like Twitter)
In both people can post remarks, impressions or pose questions, whereas others can respond and comment with their visions and experiences.

The passing of information from many to many almost instantly has changed the Public Relations and made them almost obsolete.

Pubic Relations:
- Cannot control the distribution
- Cannot steer it
- Cannot influence it as the backlash can be much bigger.

No Public Relations or Press Releases will be able to beat social media once it has started to spread virally.
Moreover the search engines prefer social collaboration as this is democracy and controlled channels like PR has been using since ever.

- Will PR exist under a different form using social media?
- Will companies use social media as PR like Google did for announcing Chrome?
- Will there still be Public Relations in a few years?

[Image by Norman Rockwell]

eBook as promotion for your business

eBooks are a great way to bundle your ideas, concepts and business benefits and use it as promotion for your business.
It will help convincing your potential customers and should build trust.

The big problem with eBooks is finding and addressing your audience: just making the audience aware of your eBook is already a difficult, if not impossible hurdle to take.
Additionally you need to create the desire to really read your eBook.

Of course you could advertise for your eBook, but then you are advertising for your promotion material. Whereas the eBook was meant to promote your business in the first place.

Giving away your eBook for free from your website or anywhere online will not generate interest as you are a ‘Nobody’ or your company is unknown.
Hardly anybody will ever read it even the quality of your content is high.
Thus your goal to promote your business through an eBook is getting nowhere.

Bootlegging: distribute your pirated version

Since ever people have liked to cheat or to get something free that others have to pay for.
It’s probably human nature.

If your main goal is to distribute as many copies of your eBook as possible and not the revenue of selling the eBook, then don’t give your eBook away for free:
- Put decent a price tag on your eBook and sell online
- Distribute several pirated pdf files for free

Selling eBook
Sell your eBook online at a market competitive price by:
- From your website using Paypal (no setup costs, no running costs) or similar
- Using specialized websites
- Using eBay or Amazon

Bootleg eBook
At the same you are offering the pirated version of your eBook:
- From another website, not related to you or your company.
- Upload to public websites like Scribd, SlideShare or similar.
- Upload to specialized bootleg websites
- Send out copies to your online friends, asking not to distribute it further.

People are always more interested in getting something for free that they normally would need to pay for. It enhances their interest.
The more the eBook costs in the online shop, the more interest it will get as your potential readers enjoy more the bargain they make. Just make sure your eBook is interesting and has some value.
It is just because many people like to cheat as it is almost their basic nature.

Remember your main goal is to have your eBook distributed to as many readers as possible, not to make money on the eBook.

If the pirated version catches on, it sure will spread faster than you could hope for or imagine.
Of course the title, the content and the presentation needs to be appealing.

When do you start writing your eBook for promoting your business?

Retail without advertising

If an European retail giant like Inditex (having brands like Zara, Pull and Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho, Zara Home, Uterqüe and Kiddy’s Class – boasting 3.914 stores in 70 countries) never ever uses advertising besides their shop buildings, shop windows and somewhat the websites, maybe you should neither.

Another world wide retail brand without advertising is The Body Shop brand as Anita Roddick (founder) didn’t believe in advertising.
However she got dismissed as she should have started using advertising.

Success in retail is the most difficult to achieve as you need to address the masses: millions of people.
Companies in retail are spending signifcant parts of their revenue on their advertising. Thus not advertising can make a huge difference in profits.

B2B without advertising

In B2B there are probably several examples of companies without advertising, but the most striking big brand name is certainly: Google.
Google is a service for consumers and business people, but sells an advertising service to businesses: AdWords that generates revenue for websites having AdSense.

Word of mouth

The secret of the success of Inditex: word of mouth advertising.
Read the story behind Inditex.
Their customers (mostly women) do show off their clothing they buy at fair prices, thus other people (women) will talk about them if they look great in them.
As competition is strong in the fashion market (retail), the success of Inditex is even more remarkable as their competitor H&M is all about advertising: the louder the better in order to stimulate word of mouth.
The competitive edge of Zara (Inditex) over H&M is their complete vertical integration: from design to sewing/stitching to distribution and selling allowing good quality for a fair price.

Although Google is in advertising, they really never have spent any significant amount of money on advertising: not online and not in print.
Google offers incredible free services, where people talk and blog about.
They spend significant amounts of money on free services that have created word of mouth. 

How you could not spend on advertising?

So how could you achieve the same without spending money on advertising?
For a start you need customers in order to start word of mouth.
Then these customers need to be very satisfied with your products, solutions or services in order to recommend them to others.

The problem is in your products:
Are your products remarkable enough to be talked about?
Probably not.
The cost to give away products for free will be too high, thus you need other means to get the word out.

Referrals, quotes, case studies, white papers, conferences and press releases

The problem with B2B products, solutions or services is that they are mainly used within the company walls. Thus no exposure to the world for your solutions.
This is the rule for most products used in business, except for a few products or services for marketing as they are being shown to others: like website design, trade show boots, marketing videos, …
In most cases people won’t show your business products to the world, but their own products made with your solutions.

This is why referrals, quotes and case studies are so important.
Use them on your website, in Press Releases, your newsletter and during conferences or trade shows.
They are worth every effort as obtaining the grant to use their logo and story will not be without effort.

Ask yourself: who of your customers could agree upon:
- to be used as reference in meetings?
- to have their logo on your website?
- to have a case study or white paper written about their application of your solution?
- to be mentioned in a press release?
- to present on a conference about their case study?
- to present on a conference organized by your company?
- to participate in a panel talk on a conference related to your solution?

Social media

If you get lucky, social media could get on your side of your brand.
Just do not count on this.
This blog occasionally gets bookmarked, but that has only a temporary effect.

The normal method to sell is by communicating with people who buy from you (or your company).
This requires time, quite an effort and a lot of work.
Not solely for the communication itself, but for finding the leads or the potential customers.

(Please note: the call to action at the end of the video is hard to read)

Advocates talking to their peers

Getting advocates to tell about your product or service is more effective and apparently requires less effort, as they do a part of the work by talking to their peers. Amongst their peers will be potential customers.

Advocates are people that are:
- Excited about your product
- Evangelists
- Your brand supporters
- Work for you without getting paid.

Advocates can be all kind of people:
However the greater the reach they have the better:
- A blogger could be an advocate having a big reach.
- An employee can also be your advocate, arguing for you during internal meetings and writing memos or emails.
- A customer can also become your “fan”, as they are convinced or having had big successes with your solutions.

The problems with advocates are:
- Where to find future fans? Outside a company or inside companies?
- How to spot a potential advocate?
- How to get into contact with people that can become advocates?
- How to promote to people that can become advocates?
- What convinces someone to become an advocate?
- How to stimulate the advocates?

Treat advocates differently

During face-to-face meetings or even over the telephone, advocates can probably be recognized by their expressions and body language.
On the Internet they will express themselves on forums or social media, but there they use a nickname, thus not traceable.
On your website they will probably have a different behavior as they probably search for information differently. In order to recognize the potential advocates, you need to reference them with your other advocates. Thus the more you know about the habits and behavior of people on your B2B website, the more likely to spot one. Remains the problem how to get into a communication with them?
Technology can help you to get company name, pages visited and number of returnign visits by unique customer, but pin pointing to the exact person needs more or a two way communication.

You need to treat the advocates differently than normal customers as they are more interested in content and value. They might even need a story which they can enhance with their own experiences.
However there is probably no golden rule how to obtain advocates.
Some companies seem to get easier advocates than others.
The underdog, having good products, has more chance to win advocates. (Apple versus Microsoft)

Viral selling in B2B

In some cases because your product is so great or the business proposition is so compelling, people will become advocates without any problem as they can put themselves into the spotlight.
This is viral marketing in B2B.

However for 99% of all B2B products this doesn’t work, as most of the products or solutions hardly differentiate (like industrial soap).
Businesses buy in most cases standard, controlled or even certified products or services.

Just try and aim

If you don’t try, then you have to wait until it happens naturally or never.
Thus you better aim to get advocates by making available: information, content and facts.
Stay informed what is happening on your website, as this has become the first source of information for advocates.