Vote for Change and Viral Risk
My earlier posting about what looked to be a Conservative Party commissioned viral raised a few comments about the legitimacy of the piece. Marketing Week is now also raising questions, with quotes from my commenter Tim Ireland.
However, online marketing consultant Tim Ireland says Bailey’s viral is “blundering into dangerous ground” and is doubtful about its legitimacy. “Bailey gives viral a bad name,” says Ireland. He doubts any MPs are behind the SexyBritain voteforchange push but says if they are “they’ve not thought about it”. Ireland adds: “It can be very difficult to tell whether a viral has been sanctioned by a brand or whether it was speculative and is leaked.”
The article goes on to look at previous viral campaigns that went bad and the risks that are associated with letting free the brand message. My advice internally is that the distributed content that makes it as a viral is normally something to do with sex, drugs or rock and role, or just pushing the edge so far that it is not viable for a brand. As long as companies do a risk assessment and understand the world they are getting into, the the method is a valid one. Think it can be controlled, then there’s nothing but pain ahead.
