The abuse of viral marketing

Media Guardian recently ran a Go Figure review on 'Viral marketing' (Owen Gibson, December 19, 2005). However, none of the spoofs and ads listed appear to follow the principle of this phenomenon. Viral marketing is not the same as people forwarding an email attachment to their friends and colleagues. That might be best termed word-of-mouth (or word-of-email) marketing. The term viral marketing is metaphorical, drawing on the nature of viruses, which pass from one host to another without the transmitter being aware that they are passing it on -- or having a particular desire to do so.

Veteran IT commentator Esther Dyson nailed the term in the Guardian some years ago, and also expanded on the theme, noting that: "The best viral marketing is not just word-of-mouth, as some people carelessly assume... Each time the user uses the product/service, he's promoting it to others." ('Second sight' Esther Dyson, Guardian Unlimited, April 8, 1999). The classic virally-marketed product was Hotmail, which advertised itself at the end of each message sent -- without the user being aware, or necessarily desiring to this. BlackBerry email is a modern equivalent.

Viral marketing is currently one of the most misused terms in the new media industry. Considering the hype and abuse of concepts during the Internet bubble -- virtual, portal, push media, sticky content -- one would hope commentators had learned to be a bit sceptical about terms that are liberally (and carelessly) applied. Today the significance of developments such as Weblogging and podcasting are being undermined as all and sundry attempt to appropriate their associated kudos for their own activities. We need to be more careful with our language if we want to make the most of real innovations in new media.

Published (slightly edited) as a letter in Media Guardian, January 2, 2006. Letter available on Media Guardian [free sub may be required required]