The motive for Facebook is getting more users and strengthening the connections between it existing users because it’s easier o find out who else of one’s friends is on Facebook. Marketers do not yet profit of this new search option, as they can still only reach individuals through it and not, for example, interest groups. And it does not look like Facebook will at any time incorporate a mass message function, so for advertising purposes we will need to approach Facebook with social and viral marketing in mind. That means we will still need to create campaigns that social networkers will be glad to share because of its entertaining value, like this one:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zf4EZtY5Zm8]

According to a study by PEW / Internet, more than half of US online video viewers share the videos they appreciate with others. 77 asks: when was the last time you shared a TV show with someone else? Creating good online video content works for artists as well as marketers, and this study shows that popular videos can gain publicity at an incredible rate.

Young people are more likely to share than older people, but all age groups receive shared videos on a nearly equal rate. Most viewers said they had watched videos together with other people, another clear sign that online video is overtaking television at high speed.

The task for marketers now is to create content people will want to share. Humorous content is often appreciated above other (see stats above) but if you can’t think of anything funny, go with weirdlike this commercial for WTF (apparently a juice).

Dutch Cowboys pointed us to this video with footage of one of the first YouTube advertisements. At 77 we think the shown advertisement is a bit more intrusive than what we expected of Google. For example, part of the advertisement shows up unasked in the middle of a music video. Removing the ad from the screen is very easy – a single click – but it seems a bit rude, nonetheless. The other part of the ad shows at the end of the video.

The content of the advertisement does not seem linked to the content of the video. In our view, linking content is crucial for success in viral video advertising, but this is certainly something Google is working on so that problem will probably be resolved soon.

WebProNews reports that kids these days are very enthusiastic about the ‘widgets’ on Facebook, regardless of whether these programs are sponsored by marketing or not. According to 77 a sign of changing times since young people have had the image of being hard to persuade for a long time. It appears that when you give them the choice of accepting the product of a brand, or not, many of them are more than willing to carry a brand name on their personal property. And that is basically what viral marketing is all about.

Since Facebook introduced the opportunity for every developer to introduce their programs into Facebook, 20 percent of the teenagers on Facebook have now applied a marketing based widget on their pages. As long as marketers develop worthwhile products and leave the choice to carry these product with the targeted group, the ‘viral structure’ of social sites will often make sure your brand gets many ambassadors.

Publisher Simon & Schuster embraces video clips to promote their latest books, reports WebProNews. Videos on their authors and their lives are available at a YouTube platform and at bookvideos.tv. Displaying authors’ lives behind the scenes is an interesting way to promote books, but at 77 we think that it will deliver even more results when combined with excerpts from the books.

Right now, one can read bits of a book on retail sites such as Amazon or Bol.com. When both features will be combined (video and text), potential customers can really get a feel for a book and its author.

Right now, Simon & Schuster rely on a viral distribution of their videos; a relatively cheap method. But a deal with major online book sellers might be key for them to have enough exposure: we think it is not very likely book enthusiasts will yet share a video over the Internet. But then again, initiatives like these could change that quickly.

Not surprisingly, IDC forecasts that search engine advertising will continue to grow, but steadily lose market share to other means of online advertising. As opposed to IDC, 77 does not believe that it will be a major strategic threat to Google, as they have been anticipating this for a long time. Google recently took over DoubleClick, YouTube and smaller viral sites, such as a site we recently discovered called Dodgeball.com.

Overall, the report predicts that online advertising will grow fast and take over market share of the traditional media. A large part of the growth should come from video ads. Again, no surprises there, and in our opinion, you could probably do without the report which sells at a whopping $4500.00 from the IDC site.

Microsoft turns to paid social advertising. For its socially based i’m campaign it’s recruiting ‘evangelists’ on student campuses to promote using it. 77 feels that viral advertising is better when it’s not paid for, but their angle of supporting good causes just might make up for this disadvantage.

The i’m campaign combines promoting Microsoft with supporting a good cause of the choice of its user. Microsoft donates a part of the advertising revenue of Windows Live Messenger to a good cause for every time a user starts a conversation. The conversation has an automatically added message that states the user is involved in the i’m campaign, profiling Microsoft as a socially committed organization.

Microsoft has recently hired RepNation to boost the use of this function. RepNation is an advertising company specialized in viral marketing, deploying socially influential people to promote certain products. We at 77 think this can be a shortcut to a lot of social buzz, but the result could be an ungrounded popularity. A brand’s evangelists being paid by a company can result in popularity without a solid base. Not having truly dedicated early adopters just might cause a viral campaign to crumble down before it really begins. The development of this story can teach us marketers something about the use of predefined social channels in general. The added feature here is the use of good causes in the campaign and it will be interesting to see if the i’m campaign will really take off.

Viral advertising campaigns are becoming more intrusive all the time – even though the idea behind viral marketing is the voluntary participation of the target group. It seems marketers are on the verge of abusing social processes for their own good, and that’s not good practice. When the personal space of people gets invaded by marketing they might be reluctant to share any other form of advertising with their friends in the future.

Marketers appear to believe video is the best way to start a viral marketing campaign, reports eMarketer today. According to 77, the results of the researches indicate big opportunities for mobile viral campaigns, although this method was not yet covered in the report.

Key points:
more than 60% of viral ads initiated by advertisers are video, according to a study by Competitrack

. Consumers often learn about videos from their friends. According to a 2007 survey by the Online Publishers Association, 43% of US online video viewers get videos by clicking links in e-mail messages from people they know. With the growing possibilities in mobile video, and the increasing ease of sharing among mobile Internet users, we think viral advertising is about to break through in mobile advertising soon.

Also for mobile advertising the following holds true and should always be considered: effective targeting is especially important with viral video. A UK study released in July by Agency.com, Brand Geneticsand Hall & Partners found 83% of uploaders recommended things they liked. The study defined uploaders as Internet users who actively posted content and reviews to social networking sites. Only 8% of UK Internet users fell into this category. If marketers can identify this group and build a relationship of trust with them, these individuals can become very valuable for a brand.

Online teenagers are more than willing to work together with advertisers. As 77, coincidentally, reported yesterday, online youth is very willing to put branded content on social sites as long as they are approached in the right way.

71 percent of teens and tweens visit social networking sites weekly.


55 percent of teens have participated in the last month in an advertiser-branded activity


20 percent said they were willing to add branded content to their own sites

As we reported before, viral marketing is part of every day life for the youth of today. Marketers need to know how handle them: offer quality entertainment for free and you gain brand evangelists. Force feed marketing and you will have a bunch of ‘brand terrorists’ on your hands.