The Power of Viral Marketing

Want to be talked about? An element of surprise is a sure fire way to do it. Oh, and made sure you have the cameras ready! Please take a look at the following video below: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=316AzLYfAzw You may not have realized it at first, but this was in fact a recent advertisement for the launch of TNT in Belgium. Although their audience wasn’t huge at the scene, it became much bigger after the video was uploaded on Youtube. It is definitely something people all over the world are talking about. Along those lines, here is another one put on by Body By Vi: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXSb9BDenjk It is amazing how an audience of possibly twenty people can turn to millions in a matter of hours by the power of the Internet. Although the audience of the event is obviously important, the larger virtual audience is much more of a difference. According to an article from VA4Business, “These contents evoke a chain reaction between the users of the social networking services and because of their interesting content gets the users to share it on and on which actually makes them go viral and bring a lot of visitors.” The thing that is great about this form of advertising is that it is one of the most inexpensive ways of getting positive attention. In order to be successful all you really need is a rehearsed plan of action, a location, and someone recording it. I believe the only con of this type of marketing is the risk of something going wrong and the potential for any sort of intellectual property infringement. If your company decides to take this route, it will be important to do your research and fully prepare in order to avoid these risks. Otherwise, the benefits can be better than ever expected, as it is a hugely growing trend. Even if you aren’t necessarily trying to sell something, it is important to create awareness. If your business is talked about, it is almost guaranteed that in turn, your sales and web traffic will go up. The goal is simple: shock and awe.

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New Funding Options For Your Business

One ever-evolving area of the entertainment industry that I believe deserves a
further look – is the often overlooked area of finance. As artists and entertainers are
more concerned with ‘creating’ the end result, they can often run into a number of
hurdles when the time comes to finance the final production or product.

Finance and accounting has historically had a number of negative stigmas attached
to it - it is often considered to be boring, lacking creativity and more hassle then it is
worth. This has changed dramatically since the utilization of the Internet for sharing
ideas, videos, products and collaborations.

Not only is the birth of Social Funding creating a new avenue for artists to gain
support and much needed funding, but it is also helping to keep alive many lost
arts. One of my personal favorite examples of this is a phenomenal website
www.kickstarter.com. One of the pioneers of collective social funding, it’s a site
where you create a pitch for a product/design/art/production etc and you decide
how much you need to complete the project. Then you wait and see if people
gravitate to your idea and want to help support your idea. If you get 100% funding
then you get it all, if you don’t get 100% of it – then you don’t get any of it, but you
get a chance to try again. Even if you fail to get financing – you still get access to
much needed feedback and of course publicity.

Kickstarter Project

Check this page out! It is a perfect example of how over 2,000 ordinary people got
together to support a mixed media project that may not have seen the light of day
if it wasn’t for social funding. Not only are they creating a piece of art, they are also
keeping vinyl alive. The project needed $6,500 to be successful, and ended up with a
staggering $61,218!

This new avenue that is available for artists and entertainers alike has the potential
to bring so much more undervalued and under appreciated work to the masses. This
can only be a good thing! Personally speaking, I love the idea that I can have an idea
for a show and I can get it off the ground a lot faster with the likes of Kickstarter
and other social funding resources. The funding provided can help provide a higher
caliber of work to the end user.

It’s an exciting time to be graduating from college with an eagerness to create!
When I graduated from my Drama Degree from the University of Washington, I
remember discussing an article discussing the impact an economic recession has on
the art’s organizations. It went on to discuss the decrease in funding to help keep the
doors open, the potential decrease in quality and the decrease in attendance. While
this scared and saddened me to hear, the new finance avenues available to budding
artists and entertainers really excite me.

Bob Dylan said it best – “ The Times They Are a-Changin’ ” (Jan 1964).

Related Links:

http://www.arts.wa.gov/projects/documents/Arts-And-Recession.pdf&pli=1

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCWdCKPtnYE

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