visible in daily page views–spiking and maintaining constantly high values as of January 25, 2008. While the stickiness and appropriate context of the site are self-evident thequestion of who the single contact was begs to be asked–they are surely a marketingsensation. Unfortunately, they aren’t! A range of other, more pertinent questionsshould rather be posed; what were they told, how were they told and to whom, how and what did they pass on would be more appropriate.The first selection criterion for a contact was that they corresponded directly to the target market of the site
. This essential condition ensured a commitment topromotion of the site shared by both the creator and the contact. A consequential benefit is a thorough, implicit understanding of marketing strategies that appeal tothe target audience with no required research on the contact’s behalf. Howevereffective utilisation of this invaluable resource was in fact rather counterintuitive. Viral marketing spawned on the premise of Gladwell’s stickiness; if marketers provide their audience with a sufficiently entertaining piece of advertising then they, in turn, will share it with their own contacts whileinadvertently propagating the message
.This premise lends itself to initialtargeting of those who are most likely to share an idea or message with thosearound them. While this audience is important the Chuck Norris site demonstratesthat there is potentially a more effective initial touch point.Targeting those who will share a message can,
if effective
, result in anexponential spread of an idea. However this approach is only successful oncereaching its own tipping point; prior to this it requires a driving impetus. It was inthis respect that the site’s contact was most valuable. Not only were they informedof the existence of the site but so too were they told exactly what to do with thisinformation–spread the word
in order to achieve the creator’s goal of attaining first place in a relevant Google search
. Given this objective and their inherentcommitment to promote the site–as a personal challenge–they single-handedly provided all the necessary drive to promote the idea.From that point onwards the specifics of what the contact did are irrelevant.By the very nature of their implicit understanding of their target audience they areutilised specifically to take advantage of their already existing participation in themarket. They are essentially a
black box marketing
tool; what they do to promote
1
Chuck Norris ‘facts’ gained exposure in popular internet culture and the market may be described as‘internet nerds’
2
Given the internet based nature of viral marketing a piece only needs to be sticky enough to give the viewer time to perform a simple act such as forwarding an email yet propagation remains challenging
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