viral marketing 2.0

 

Just as secrets, transmitted from one person to the next, somehow manage to spread themselves rapidly, the advertising technique viral marketing has become an effective form of advertising because of its ability to disperse information to a vast amount of people in record time. More specifically, viral marketing is an advertising technique that utilizes both social networks to spread awareness of something (a product, brand, candidate, idea, campaign, etc) as well as repitition of certain ideas or symbols to reinforce the message. Further, by creating viral messages that seem to be popular amongst a majority of people, it enhances the probability that a message will be passed along among many people.

In today’s society, where traditional marketing is less effective and more expensive, it is important that corporations look for other ways to advertise and promote their brands. One perfect example of a viral marketing campaign is Burger King’s “Subservient Chicken” campaign, which was launched in 2004 in attempts to promote BK’s tendercrisp chicken sandwhich and their famous slogan, “Have it your way”.  In the ad, a man sits in his living room commanding a chicken character, who responds to over 300 different commands.  This ad plays into the idea of “Chicken the way you like it”.  The advertisement is effective because it’s both interactive and innovative.  Thus, it appeals to viewers who have never seen anything like it before and who enjoy participating in telling the chicken what to do.  Evidently, the advertisement had great success because Burger King has subsequently used the chicken character in several of its other ad campaigns.  Additionally, the ad was first seen as a commercial but has now evolved into a print ad, an interactive website  and a one time pay-per-view advertisement due to its success.

In my opinion, the Subservient Chicken advertisement is a perfect example of viral marketing because it uses a creative advertising platform that will appeal to a wide range of people and it distributes this message through commonly accessed social networks such as television and the internet.  Burger King conveniently places a link at the bottom of the website that says “tell a friend”, making it that much easier for viewers to spread the word about the advertisement.  When I visited the website, I was quickly intrigued by all the crazy commands that the chicken would actually respond to.  I personally hate fast food, but this advertisement definitely made me think more highly of Burger King as a company.  Overall, I believe that viral advertising is often so effective because it is so subtle that viewers are naive to the fact that they are actually be advertised to and this is exactly the case with the subservient chicken.  Even though there is no part of the advertisement that explicitly advertises for Burger King food products, the ad serves to creates a positive image of the Burger King brand in consumers’ minds, and in the future they will be more apt to consume the products…

Burger King's Subservient Chicken