Ed Goes Viral

By Author: Steven Johnson
Total Articles: 490
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In the good old days of steam radio, the standard catchphrase guaranteed to start a stampede into the kitchen to grab a coffee or something stronger was, "And now a word from our sponsors." This would be where the company paying for the radio soap would pitch its message. Looking back, it's remarkable how commercial radio was back them with companies so obviously paying for the entertainment. Indeed, the biggest winners in all this were the companies paying for the soaps with Proctor & Gamble leading the charge and then diversifying into television when that got its act together. In this way, these corporations could talk directly to millions of people across America. No more guesswork as to whether anyone actually read the newspapers or magazines where the ads were placed. This was selling to people sitting in their homes. If they were talking about the latest plot twist in the ongoing saga, they were also talking about the sponsor - association is a powerful tool in the marketers' box. Now, a great deal of the sponsorship has gone. Indeed, Proctor & Gamble no longer pays for a soap opera. It's the end of an era.

The ...
... question, therefore, is where the ad dollar is being spent these days and the answer, not surprisingly, is on internet marketing. Those in the industry expect the spend in 2010 to top out at $25 billion. Perhaps you've never clicked on an ad or taken those banner slots very seriously, just scrolling down the page as quickly as possible to find the content you want. But this is now a real business. And the place it's showing most clearly is on the social networking sites. You may have started off seeing Facebook as just another way of finding old friends and making new ones, but it's fast becoming the must-be place for any company to establish and build its brand. If you can sign up people as friends, you can bombard them with marketing messages. Except of course, some subtlety is required. If you hit your "friends" too often with a hard sell, they are going to be turned off.

One of the more interesting development has been the expansion into YouTube. Now marketers can try out their new ads without any of the restrictions imposed by television companies - despite the First Amendment, most companies still restrict what you can say or show on the small screen. Well that doesn't apply when the small screen in on your PC. Now we have some videos on erectile dysfunction that are, to say the least, frank and really rather amusing. So if you've nothing better to do, you can watch the Viagra ad that was banned from TV where a bored and hair-netted housewife suddenly remembers what it was she first liked about her husband. It warns you not to take the pill unless prepared for marathon sex sessions. These ads are going viral, getting several hundred thousand hits from the very people that would never watch Viagra ads on the television. That's marketing dollars well spent.