Jennifer Aniston Goes Viral

Although Webster describes “viral” as something caused by a virus, such as a viral infection; the 20^th Century has given viral a whole new meaning.  People post videos on the internet (particularly YouTube) in the hopes of seeing the video “Go Viral.”  From this occurrence has come Viral Marketing.  Viral Marketing is defined as:  a strategy by which a marketer creates a campaign focused around the goal of causing viewers of that promotion to spontaneously spread it by sending it to friends.

The first Viral Marketing strategy was done by sending out a large number of e-mails, in the hopes that those e-mails would be forwarded to the friends of the receiver.  Recently, Viral Marketing seems to have taken a different route.  Marketers are posting videos in the hopes of getting “hits” or views.

The video at the end of the post is a video that was posted in the hopes of having it go “viral” as stated clearly by Jennifer Anniston in the video itself.  The video actually discusses its hopes to go viral, and how it is going to go about doing so.  On YouTube the video has been tagged with the most highly-searched words, including misspellings, and different spacing:

[Jen Aniston, Jennifer, Jennifer Aniston, Jenifer Aniston, Jennnifer Aniston, smartwater, smart water, glaceau, electrolytes, viral video, funny, double rainbow, puppies, parrot, dancing babies, babies, sex tape, internet nerds, keenan cahill, G6, brad wollack, and chelsea lately]

The video is enjoying 8.7 million views and counting.

Brian Quinton posted on The Big Fat Marketing Blog: “Is it worth the extensive CG effects budgets, a salary fit for an Aniston, and even a ‘trailer’ to the video posted last December to rack up 8 million-plus views plus uncounted shares in social media? If you’re a social branding skeptic, probably not. As for me, the next time I’m in the market for an energy drink, I might just remember those babies…”

I disagree with Brian.  I think that Viral Marketing is an up-and-coming way to market to consumers and 8.7 million (counted) views – sounds like it is well worth it to me.  Isn’t the point of marketing to reach an audience to make them aware of your product and want to purchase it?  I think that we will be seeing a lot more Viral Marketing in the future.

What do you think about Viral Marketing?  Do you think that this video was a good marketing decision for Smart Water?