Viral Marketing Manifesto
| „From a memetic engineering perspective, the idea of viral marketing spreads like an adaptive virus. The idea itself evolves as it is retold in society“, Steve Jurvetson, Hotmail’s venture capitalist wrote back in 2000. In the meantime this idea has been retold many times and the whole field of viral marketing has become more complex.What startet out as a simple link on the bottom of an outgoing e-mail has evolved to a wide array of techniques and practices. The Internet-centric buzzword has mutated to a term that describes a whole new perspective and a totally different attitude towards the customer.
Today a diverse group of people is dealing with viral marketing including advertising and PR agencies, researchers, game developers, academics and consultants. There is a lot of debate and confusion in general marketing cricles about what is and what isn’t viral marketing, and how it is differentiated from buzz and/or word-of-mouth marketing. Eversince the Viral + Buzz Marketing Association (VBMA) has been formed in May this year this debate was on top of our agenda. Now we are ready to take the first step and publish our mission statement. No doubt that for the members of the VBMA the publication of this Manifesto marks an important mileston on our way, but we will move ahead, because we know that the idea of what we are committed to will always continue to evolve. If you are interested in the background of the manifesto, read the related article in the online marketing magazine ClickZ. |
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