Blog 11 - Viral Marketing

For my last blog of the semester, I decided to skim over the Wikipedia article that Mat had suggested we read, and to be honest I would rather read this than another chapter in the Bedford Book of Genres. That would be because the book practically puts me to sleep and is something that is used as a helpful tool, not a good read at night or when I am bored. Anyways, this article focused on viral marketing. What is viral marketing you ask? To simply put it, it is when a social networking site advertises different brands in order to raise brand awareness. Basically, they advertise the same shit over and over again so it gets stuck into your head until you have the need to actually buy the damn thing. You know those shitty iPhone games they advertise on your Instagram feed, even though they look terrible, you know what game it is and what it’s about? Bingo, basic viral marketing. Although it seems simple, the actual process of marketing this game takes a lot more time and effort than someone would think. It takes actual data analysis of what social media outlets they should advertise on, what people to link it to so that it would gain popularity quicker, and how simple and effective the information is so that the people who see it are able to grasp the basic concept and understand it. This not only goes for games, but all types of consumer goods and products that we all will eventually get suckered into spending our money on because why the hell not? It seems like no matter what we do, we will always drop our hard-earned cash on a crap game or product we won’t need if we hear about it or see it enough.