Viral Marketing Campaigns

In today's internet-driven world, advertising through social media is one of the most cost-effective and efficient methods of meeting a target market. Sites such as Youtube, Instagram, and Facebook making sharing content easier than ever, leading many companies to include a large amount of their promotional campaigns focused on social media. One of the tried-and-true ways of spreading brand awareness using social media is to create a viral marketing campaign. Viral marketing aims to create an advertisement that viewers want to share. In its essence, it is free advertising; an ad can be made with little to no cost, and spread for free by its viewers. Viral marketing campaigns are taking the internet by storm, and there are many examples of firms that have used viral marketing to make their brand what it is today.
If you ask any modern internet user which company they relate with viral marketing, there's a good chance that they will answer Red Bull. Red Bull has been using viral marketing for years, and they are one of the first companies that spread their name around using viral marketing videos, especially on Youtube.

This is one example of Red Bull's promotional strategy. Red Bull has made itself synonymous with extreme sports by sponsoring extreme sporting events and athletes. There was a market niche for extreme sports that were gaining popularity, and Red Bull filled the niche by using lots and lots of promotional campaigns. One of their earliest and most popular "niche sporting" promotions was the sponsorship of the Flugtag (air show), in which competitors make their own homemade flying devices and try to fly as long as they can.

These Red Bull-sponsored events began in 1991 and helped create a cool, adventurous image for the company. Ever since then, Red Bull has been spreading its promotion to all kinds of action sports. They are now the company most associated with extreme sports, and the position the customer associates the product to is one of adventure and daring.

Other companies are going in a different direction than Red Bull. While Red Bull, an energy drink, positioned itself with action sports, Home Depot, a hardware store, positions itself with do-it-yourselfers. 

What better way to make people relate Home Depot with home repairs than to create do-it-yourself videos showing people how to do things? Just as the highly caffeinated adrenaline junkie finds solace in Red Bull, so will the middle aged home owner in the lumber aisle of the Home Depot. The quintessential American Dad loves home improvement almost as much as he loves his kids and family, if not more. One of the best ways to inspire a do-it-yourself dad to attempt to tile his bathroom floor over the weekend is to show him a video that lets him know that he can do it on his own. Home Depot really hit the mark with these viral videos, mainly because they hit their target market right on the head. A lot of people already associate Home Depot with general home repair, and now there are videos that give them credibility and spread their image. 

These were just two examples of companies that used viral marketing to their advantage. Since the early beginnings of the internet, viral videos have been used for promotional purposes. With the way things are going now, they are more valuable than ever to build a customer base or position a brand to appeal to the perfect target market.