The 4 Genes Required for Your Marketing App Product or Site to Go Viral and Meme 2/5

Name one thing that every single viral meme has in common. 

Your first guess will be humor: Wrong.

Phelps smoking weed went viral, and the event itself was not intrinsically humorous.

You might say, "great video:" Wrong. 

The Evolution of Dance guy's video was just normal. 

The DNA of a Successful Viral Marketing Strategy is NOT What It Has, It's What It Lacks

So what does every single viral marketing ad or video have in common. This is not a trick question. But the answer is elusive because it's NOT something they all do, it's something they all DON'T.

None of them have any commercial messaging. Google: "Reddit $50 Cypher."

What this tells us about how a marketing strategy must be structured to go viral is ironic but empowering: The Viral Marketing Formula: The Most Common Mistakes You Make In Going Viral.

#1 Reason Your Viral Marketing Strategies Fail: The Elusive Formula For Going Viral

You ever see poptart cat? Maybe you saw Andre the Giant Obey. If you didn't see either of these, you saw the history of dance. It was the very first viral music video on Youtube.

Every way you look, there's a meme happening here and there's another meme happening there. 

If a youtube video get 20,000,000 views, that means it circulated to atleast 100 times as many facebook twitter and pinterest. This equates to 2,000,000,000 impressions. What is that? is that 2 BILLION Impressions?!?!

What do you think it would cost you to launch a marketing campain that nets you 2 BILLION impressions? That's a branding dream come true. I'm sure you still remember the a half dozen memes from over 5 years ago. That's because the viral marketing effect branded that meme into your permanent consciousness.

So, how DO you replicate the going viral effect?

I mean, if geneticists can replicate different strains of viruses in vitro or petri, shouldn't you be able to make a virus in social media? Here's the Number 1 most glaringly obvious reason you haven't succeeded yet and how to actually go viral: The Elusive Viral Marketing Formula: Found.

Homeless Man $50 Cypher: Guerrilla Marketing Strategies Go Viral On One Condition...

Ever notice that when a corporation features their logo on even the most clever viral or guerrilla marketing campaign, it just doesn't go viral? Memes have a way of favoring content that doesn't have a beneficiary. The public wants you to entertain them but they don't want you to profit from their enjoyment. 

So the more attention and traffic you want, the more you're going to have to obscure any commercial sources. 

Two of the smartest executions of this are:

1. http://whatdowewanttimetravelwhendowewantititsirrelevant.com ... 

It's impossible to tell how anyone is benefitting from the publicity this photo got.

2. Homeless Man $50 Cypher

Even in the decryption, there's not commercial attribution (so far)

So then, for marketing purposes, how do you convert all that attention and traffic into sales at your site? That problem, we will deal with in the next blog post