Wednesday, March 18, 2020

Viral Marketing Essay Example

Viral Marketing Essay Example Viral Marketing Essay Viral Marketing Essay History Unbalanced scales. svg The neutrality of this section is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (September 2008) There is debate on the origination and the popularization of the term Viral Marketing, though some of the earliest uses of the current term are attributed to Harvard Business School graduate Tim Draper and Harvard Business School faculty member Jeffrey Rayport. The term was later popularized by Jeffrey Rayport in his 1996 Fast Company article The Virus of Marketing , and Tim Draper and Steve Jurvetson of the venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson in 1997 to describe Hotmails e-mail practice of appending advertising for itself in outgoing mail from their users. [3] Among the first to write about viral marketing on the Internet was media critic Douglas Rushkoff in his 1994 book Media Virus: Hidden Agendas in Popular Culture. The assumption is that if such an advertisement reaches a susceptible user, that user will become infected (i. e. , accept the idea) and will then go on to share the idea with others infecting them, in the viral analogys terms. As long as each infected user shares the idea with more than one susceptible user on average (i. e. , the basic reproductive rate is greater than one the standard in epidemiology for qualifying something as an epidemic), the number of infected users will grow according to a logarithmic curve, whose initial segment appears exponential. Of course, the marketing campaign may be wildly successful even if the rate at which things are spread isnt of epidemic proportions, if this user-to-user sharing is sustained by other forms of marketing communications, such as public relations or advertising. Among the first to write about algorithms designed to identify people with high Social Networking Potential is Bob Gerstley in Advertising Research is Changing. Gerstley uses SNP algorithms in quantitative marketing research to help marketers maximize the effectiveness of viral marketing campaigns. In 2004 the concept of Alpha User was released to indicate that it had become ow possible to technically isolate the focal point members of any viral campaign, the hubs who are most influential. Alpha Users can today be isolated and identified, and even targeted for viral advertising purposes most accurately in mobile phone networks, as mobile phones are so personal. In response to its use, many sites have started up trying to describ e what viral marketing is and to offer viral marketing services as an outsourced extension of a business. [citation needed] [edit] Notable examples * The Ponzi scheme and related investment Pyramid schemes, are early examples of viral marketing. In each round, investors are paid interest from the principal deposits of later investors. Early investors are so enthusiastic that they recruit their friends resulting in exponential growth until the pool of available investors is tapped out and the scheme collapses. * Multi-level marketing popularized in the 1960s and 70s (not to be confused with Ponzi schemes) is essentially a form of viral marketing in which representatives gain income through marketing products through their circle of influence and give their friends a chance to market products similarly. Multis include Amway and Mary Kay Cosmetics among many others. * Early in its existence (perhaps between 1988 and 1992), the television show Mystery Science Theater 3000 had limited distribution. The producers encouraged viewers to make copies of the show on video tapes and give them to friends in order to expand viewership and increase demand for the fledgling Comedy Central network. During this period the closing credits included the words Keep circulating the tapes! [5] * In 2000, Slate described TiVos unpublicized gambit of giving free TiVos to web-savvy enthusiasts to create viral word of mouth, pointing out that a viral campaign differs from a publicity stunt. [6] * In 2001, BusinessWeek described web-based campaigns for Hotmail (1996) and The Blair Witch Project (1999) as striking examples of viral marketing, but warned of some dangers for imitation marketers. [7] * Launched in 2002, BMW Films was among the earliest viral marketing ampaigns. It attracted nearly 55 million viewers and helped to elevate the career of Clive Owen. * Some accuse Publius Enigma, a series of unusual postings in 1994 that relate to The Division Bell, to be viral marketing to gain attention for the album. * Burger Kings The Subservient Chicken campaign, running from 2004 until 2007, was cited in Wired magazine as a striking example of viral or word-of-mouth marketing. [8] * Cadburys Dairy Milk 2007 Gorilla advertising campaign was heavily popularised on YouTube and Facebook. The release of the 2007 concept album Year Zero by Nine Inch Nails involved a viral marketing campaign, including the band leaving USB drives at concerts during NINs 2007 European Tour. This was followed up with a series of interlinked websites revealing clues and information about the dystopian future in which the album is set. * In 2007, World Wrestling Entertainment promoted the return of Chris Jericho with a viral marketing campaign using 15-second cryptic binary code videos. The videos contained hidden messages and biblical links related to Jericho, although speculation existed throughout WWE fans over whom the campaign targeted. 9][10] The text Save Us and 2nd Coming were most prominent in the videos. The campaign spread throughout the internet with numerous websites, though no longer operational, featuring hidden messages and biblical links to further hint at Jerichos r eturn. [11][12] * In 2007 the New York Times advertising columnist Stuart Elliott wrote about a business-to-business viral campaign for a software company, showing that viral advertising has application in areas outside of consumer marketing. [13] * In 2007, Portuguese football club Sporting Portugal integrated a viral feature in their campaign for season seats. In their website, a video required the user to input his name and phone number before playback started, which then featured the coach Paulo Bento and the players waiting at the locker room while he makes a phone call to the user telling him that they just cant start the season until the user buys his season ticket. [14] Flawless video and phone call synchronization and the fact that it was a totally new experience for the user led to nearly 200,000 pageviews phone calls in less than 24 hours. [citation needed] * Avirginsplea. om claimed that a 25-year old virgin living in Toronto named Geoff needed five million hits on his website in 30 days in order for Jenn, one of his very hot platonic female friends, to help him lose his virginity. * The 2008 film Cloverfield was first publicized with a teaser trailer that did not advertise the films title, only its release date: 01Â ·18Â ·08. Elements of the viral marketing campaign included MySpace pages created for fictional characters and websites created for fictional companies alluded to in the film. The Big Word Project, launched in 2008, aims to redefine the Oxford English Dictionary by allowing people to submit their website as the definition of their chosen word. The viral marketing project, created to fund two Masters students educations, attracted the attention of bloggers worldwide, being featured on Daring Fireball and Wired Magazine. [15] * The marketing campaign for the 2008 film The Dark Knight combined both online and real-life elements to make it resemble an alternate reality game. Techniques included mass gatherings of Joker fans, scavenger hunts around the world, detailed and intricate websites that let fans actually participate in voting for political offices in Gotham City, hidden phone numbers and websites in the queue lines of The Dark Knight roller coasters at Six Flags Great America and Six Flags Great Adventure, and even a Gotham News Network that has links to other Gotham pages such as Gotham Rail, a Gotham travel agency, and political candidates pages. The movie also markets heavily off of word of mouth from the thousands of Batman fans. Both the second and third games in the Halo series were preceded with viral marketing in the form of an alternate reality game called I Love Bees for the second game, and Iris for the third game. * In December 2009, podcasters of The Mike OMeara Show launched a viral marketing campaign on Facebook to encourage others to download the show. * Between December 2009 and March 2010 a series of seven videos were posted to YouTube under the name iamamiwhoami leading to speculation that they were a marketing campaign for a musician. In March 2010, an anonymous package was sent to an MTV journalist claiming to contain a code which if cracked would give the identity of the artist. [16] The seventh video, entitled b, appears to feature the Swedish singer Jonna Lee. [17][18][19][20] * On July 14 2010, Old Spice launched the fastest growing online viral video campaign ever, garnering 6. 7 million views after 24 hours, ballooning over 23 million views after 36 hours[21]. Old Spices agency created a bathroom set in Portland, OR and had their TV commercial star, Isaiah Mustafa, reply to 186 online comments and questions rom websites like Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Digg, Youtube and others. The campaign ran for 3 days[22]. [edit] Viral Marketing Services Viral marketing services (VMS) include full service marketing, advertising, and media brokerage. There are outsourced companies hired for these services. Like other professional niches, (i. e. lawyer, accountant, IT), companies are now being sought for their professional insight and expertise in Guerilla marketing strategies and advanced Internet and mobility technology in the hopes of providing more leads, sales, and profits than traditional marketing service providers. A VMS company will typically create impressions for a very specific market or audience as defined by a client. The more impressions created for a client, the greater the chance of increasing prospective customer awareness of the client’s products or services. A VMS company’s basis of success is based on the ability to successfully leverage many forms of media to create a large market presence for the client. A VMS company is not responsible for searching out leads. Rather, they are responsible for creating leads through brand recognition by means of market branding and innovative advertising services. edit] Methods * Internet Search Engines Blogs * Target Marketing Web Services * Social Media Interconnectivity * Industry specific organization contributions * Television Radio * Multiple forms of Print and Direct Marketing * SEO Web Development * Customer Participation Polling services * Outbound/Inbound Call Center Services * Mobile SmartPhone Integration VMS target m arketing is based on three important principals: 1. Social Profile Gathering 2. Proximity Market Analysis 3. Real-Time Key word Density Analysis By applying these three important disciplines to an advertising model, a VMS company is able to match a client with their targeted customers at a cost effective advantage. [edit] Motivations Products and services change as consumers demand change. Because of this, businesses have recognized that the method of marketing must change. Marketing is about putting your business in front of the largest interested audience for the lowest cost per viewer. In the early 20’s, radio was the means of reaching a mass audience followed by television in the late 40’s. Television would maintain the number one spot in terms of mass audience advertising until the Internet took hold in the mid-90’s. Now people are sharing information, collaborating on topics of interest, and networking on the internet in ways not previously imaginable. [edit] Statistics * Two thirds of the world’s Internet population now visit a social network or blog site weekly[23] * 220+ million people visit the top 25 social networks each month[24] * Facebook alone has 500+ million active users[25] Social media Internet traffic has exceeded adult entertainment sites * Time spent visiting Social media sites now exceeds time spent emailing[26] * Consistent polls reflect that 89% of people forward news, events, and vendor specific information to people in their network. [27] * 59% of adults polled state that they use their cell phone to remain connected with their social network[28] Because of statistics such as these, companies – big or small – have seen to it that viral marketing services are integrated into their company. Because the cost per impression is typically much lower in comparison to other forms of media, businesses have been able to reach a very large buying audience at a lower cost when compared to other forms of available media. [edit] Techniques Many companies simply embed key words on their web site to support Search Engine Optimization best practices in order to receive a high ranking on Google in the hopes of building a strong internet business. However, this is only one component to capitalizing on the power of viral marketing. Viral marketing is about connections. The more quality connections a company can make, the more business impressions they will create. The more business impressions they create the higher likelihood that a consumer (or other business requiring a service) will make contact to purchase a good or service. By use of a social profile gathering system, a VMS company is able to create interconnections with web sites and social media groups specific to the client’s market audience. In addition to the more common social media web sites (LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. , the internet is home to over 300,000 social community web service providers. Each of these social community web service providers have from 5 million to 50 million active users thus creating a large community of active consumers. By actively maintaining an extensive analytical database of these connections, a VMS goal is to be able to successfully match a business with the targeted buyers. Technology is the tool that allows b usinesses to moderate, manage, and automate communication with the global scale of Internet users. VMS technology incorporates artificial intelligence which allows a system to communicate with a prospective buyer via their phone (voice), SMS (Text Message), blog site, or email. Without having this level of sophisticated technology in place, a VMS company would be unable to manage the large amount of users and leads available on the Internet; but because of the advancements of technology, targeted campaigns can meet the goals and requirements of businesses from all over the world.

Monday, March 2, 2020

Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, the Savior of Dunkirk

Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, the Savior of Dunkirk Born January 20, 1883, Bertram Home Ramsay was the son of Captain William Ramsay in the British Army. Attending the Royal Colchester Grammar School as a youth, Ramsay elected not to follow his two older brothers into the Army. Instead, he sought a career at sea and joined the Royal Navy as a cadet in 1898. Posted to the training ship HMS Britannia, he attended what became the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth. Graduating in 1899, Ramsay was elevated to midshipman and later received a posting to the cruiser HMS Crescent. In 1903, he took part in British operations in Somaliland and earned recognition for his work with British Army forces shore. Returning home, Ramsay received orders to join the revolutionary new battleship HMS Dreadnought. World War I A modernizer at heart, Ramsay thrived in the increasingly technical Royal Navy. After attending the Naval Signal School in 1909-1910, he received admission to the new Royal Naval War College in 1913. A member of the colleges second class, Ramsay graduated a year later with the rank of lieutenant commander. Returning to the Dreadnought, he was aboard when World War I began in August 1914. Early the following year, he was offered the post of flag lieutenant for the Grand Fleets cruiser commander. Though a prestigious posting, Ramsay declined as he was seeking a command  position of his own. This proved fortuitous as it would have seen him assigned to HMS Defense, which was later lost at the Battle of Jutland. Instead, Ramsay served a brief stint in the signals section at the Admiralty before being given command of the monitor HMS M25 on the Dover Patrol. As the war progressed, he was given command of the destroyer leader HMS Broke. On May 9, 1918, Ramsay took part in Vice-Admiral Roger Keyes Second Ostend Raid. This saw the Royal Navy attempt to block the channels into the port of Ostend. Though the mission was only partly successful, Ramsay was mentioned in despatches for his performance during the operation. Remaining in command of Broke, he carried King George V to France to visit the troops of the British Expeditionary Force. With the conclusion of hostilities, Ramsay was transferred to the staff of Admiral of the Fleet John Jellicoe in 1919. Serving as his flag commander, Ramsay accompanied Jellicoe on a year-long tour of the British Dominions to assess naval strength and advise on policy. Interwar Years Arriving back in Britain, Ramsay was promoted to captain in 1923 and attended senior officers’ war and tactical courses. Returning to sea, he commanded the light cruiser HMS Danae between 1925 and 1927. Coming ashore, Ramsay began a two-year assignment as an instructor at the war college. Towards the end of his tenure, he married Helen Menzies with whom he would ultimately have two sons. Given command of the heavy cruiser HMS Kent, Ramsay was also made chief of staff to Admiral Sir Arthur Waistell, commander in chief of the China Squadron. Remaining abroad until 1931, he was given a teaching post at the Imperial Defense College that July. With the end of his term, Ramsay gained command of the battleship HMS Royal Sovereign in 1933. Two years later, Ramsay became chief of staff to the commander of the Home Fleet, Admiral Sir Roger Backhouse. Though the two men were friends, they differed widely on how the fleet should be administered. While Backhouse firmly believed in centralized control, Ramsay advocated for delegation and decentralization to better allow commanders to act at sea. Clashing on several occasions, Ramsay asked to be relieved after just four months. Inactive for the better part of three years, he declined an assignment to China and later began working on plans to reactivate the Dover Patrol. After reaching the top of the rear-admirals’ list in October 1938, the Royal Navy elected to move him to the Retired List. With relations with Germany deteriorating in 1939, he was coaxed from retirement by Winston Churchill in August and promoted to vice admiral commanding Royal Navy forces at Dover. World War II With the beginning of World War II in September 1939, Ramsay worked to expand his command. In May 1940, as German forces began inflicting a series of defeats on the Allies in the Low Countries and France, he was approached by Churchill to begin planning an evacuation. Meeting at Dover Castle, the two men planned Operation Dynamo which called for a large-scale evacuation of British forces from Dunkirk. Initially hoping to evacuate 45,000 men over two days, the evacuation saw Ramsay employ a massive fleet of disparate vessels which ultimately saved 332,226 men over nine days. Employing the flexible system of command and control that he had advocated in 1935, he rescued a large force which could immediately be put to use defending Britain. For his efforts, Ramsay was knighted. North Africa Through the summer and fall, Ramsay worked to develop plans for opposing Operation Sea Lion (the German invasion of Britain) while the Royal Air Force fought the Battle of Britain in the skies above. With the RAFs victory, the invasion threat quieted. Remaining at Dover until 1942, Ramsay was appointed Naval Force Commander for the invasion of Europe on April 29. As it became clear that the Allies would not be in a position to conduct landings on the continent that year, he was shifted to the Mediterranean as Deputy Naval Commander for the invasion of North Africa. Though he served under Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham, Ramsay was responsible for much of the planning and worked with Lieutenant General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Sicily and Normandy As the campaign in North Africa was coming to a successful conclusion, Ramsay was tasked with planning the invasion of Sicily. Leading the eastern task force during the invasion in July 1943, Ramsay coordinated closely with General Sir Bernard Montgomery and provided support once the campaign ashore began. With operation in Sicily winding down, Ramsay was ordered back to Britain to serve as Allied Naval Commander for the invasion of Normandy. Promoted to admiral in October, he began developing plans for a fleet that would ultimately include over 5,000 ships. Developing detailed plans, he delegated key elements to his subordinates and allowed them to act accordingly. As the date for the invasion neared, Ramsay was forced to defuse a situation between Churchill and King George VI as both desired to watch the landings from the light cruiser HMS Belfast. As the cruiser was needed for bombardment duty, he forbade either leader from embarking, stating that their presence put the ship at risk and that they would be needed ashore should key decisions need to be made. Pushing forward, the D-Day landings commenced on June 6, 1944. As Allied troops stormed ashore, Ramsays ships provided fire support and also began aiding in the rapid build-up of men and supplies. Final Weeks Continuing to support operations in Normandy through the summer, Ramsay began advocating for the rapid capture of Antwerp and its sea approaches as he anticipated that ground forces might outrun their supply lines from Normandy. Unconvinced, Eisenhower failed to quickly secure the Scheldt River, which led to the city, and instead pushed forward with Operation Market-Garden in the Netherlands. As a result, a supply crisis did develop which necessitated a protracted fight for the Scheldt. On January 2, 1945, Ramsay, who was in Paris, departed for a meeting with Montgomery in Brussels. Leaving from Toussus-le-Noble, his Lockheed Hudson crashed during takeoff and Ramsay and four others were killed. Following a funeral attended by Eisenhower and Cunningham, Ramsay was buried near Paris at St.-Germain-en-Laye. In recognition of his accomplishments, a statue of Ramsay was erected at Dover Castle, near where he planned the Dunkirk Evacuation, in 2000.