Viral Social Media Campaigns Changing the Dynamics of Marketing

Abstract

The success of an advertising and promotional campaign, off late is not only dependent on the creativity of a marketer and his team but is largely dependent on the medium chosen to run the campaign. The digital marketing per se has been evolving itself in to a new phase with the advent of internet related online environment which has become a major medium of digital marketing spend. Social media the new paradigm in online has recreated and made the marketing mega minds rethink their business strategies in exploiting the potential of the new age technology which has given them a medium of reach where making the customers communicate without any inhibitions is possible. “Viral” is the buzz word in online marketing, especially in social media which is gaining unprecedented momentum. Smarter companies are exploding in to people’s minds and consciousness by developing campaigns which in turn compel their target consumers to share their content with among their social circle which creates a circle effect and created unprecedented interest. This paper analyses how social media is changing the dynamics of online marketing especially with special reference to viral campaigns which has created a new breed of customers who become addicted to such campaigns and in turn become brand advocates. The findings are drawn from analysis of secondary sources collected from different sources such as internet, industry data and quoted references shows that Viral Campaigns are not a fad but are becoming a way of changing dynamics of online marketing process. Also examples for successive viral campaigns and failures are discussed with.