From M/Cyclopedia of New Media
- Vital viral marketing is a type of viral marketing, and likewise with the latter, it is a form of marketing method which orientates around the idea of a product or service being spread to other users by word of mouth or by other means of communicative methods from user to user. Although vital viral marketing describes any strategy which encourages users to pass on a marketing message to others, vital viral marketing is more specific to a process whereby the user can only come to experience the product or service only after obtaining a certain product. In this case, the user on the receiving end of this form of marketing must feel that the product or experience is valuable enough to make the effort of obtaining that certain required product first. A few product examples of vital viral marketing would be ICQ, Skype, RealPlayer and Macromedia Flash just to name a few. A few website examples of vital viral marketing would be eBay and AOL.
Vital Viral Marketing - Elements
- Active vital viral marketing requires users to recruit other new users, so that the product or service in view can be experienced by both the former and the latter. As with products such as ICQ or Skype, a user first have to recruit another member to obtain the same application so that he or she will be able to experience the service offered of the product. Specifically, a Skype user would first have to encourage another individual to download the program as well so that the two will be able to utilize the program to be able to chat with one another. Unlike guile viral marketing (See under "Variations"), where an incentive is given to the user if he or she passes the product or service on to another individual, the “reward�? in vital viral marketing’s case would be being able to share the experience with another user.
Vital Viral Marketing - Case Study - Skype: Viral and Vital
- Malthe Sigurdsson, from Skype, held a talk at Reboot 7 about the program and how it applies the simple basic principals of vital viral marketing to achieve its present success today. He describes the fundamentals of carrying out simple plans effectively, releasing new versions constantly, evolving the product, opening up the possibilities of further opportunities and keeping the viral features of the product – summing up the key elements of vital viral marketing. His presentation outline of Skype in PDF format can be viewed here – Skype Presentation Outline
- In the case of the spread of Skype being a vital viral marketing effort, users got to learn of the product through word of mouth or other forms of communicative methods such as email or instant messaging. Currently, Skype has about 45 million registered users (Brand Infection, 2005) and the success of the spread of this product is an example of how vital viral marketing has allowed users to share the experience of a product with other individuals without deliberate efforts from the company itself.
References
--Jamie Tang 00:54, 28 Oct 2005 (EST)
