Volume 50 Issue 2 - February 2012 : Others

The exposure of the world to new media and the zeal and determination of people to understand the changes that technology is making on the media industry has not only shifted the goalposts but ushered in a new mode of communication and advertising as well. 

Viral marketing or viral messaging!  Free or cheap as it is, has ensured that people exploit opportunities and challenges that new media presents as well as different approaches to creating content for online and mobile media.

Also, viral marketing/messaging has not only come as a new form of free advertising and communication but has further assisted many entrepreneurs to  up sales of their products.  Although, this new form of marketing and communication has been thoroughly explored and exploited in developed countries,Botswana seems to be only getting the grind of things now and very slowly. 

Different local businesses, institutions and music artistes are just beginning to get reward from viral marketing.

However, many of them are oblivious of what viral messages are, let alone the benefits thereof. Notwithstanding, viral marketing and viral messaging/communication is the passing of marketing messages from one person to the other.

It has proved to be a useful and credible form of affordable means of advertising with greater profit potential especially for the techno savvy through forwarding of emails, short message services (SMS) and facebook, amongst others. 

Although the potential is greater, sometimes it becomes difficult to control and track the results especially if the advert/message is the creative aspect of a grass-root and underground techno-savvy generation. Despite being nascent in the country, the creative aspect of the techno savvy has surpassed people’s imaginations. The passion, enthusiasm and fervour of the young generation have resulted in many businesses,artistes, and organizations benefiting from viral marketing.

Emails, Facebook, Twitter, Hi5, YouTube, Tagged, Badoo, word of mouth and now short messaging services (SMS) have upped the game a step further. In 2010 a food strike broke out in Mozambique via viral SMS. The same was replicated in Botswana when teachers refused to invigilate Home Economics examinations and almost crippled the entire education system.

Such demonstrates the power and dangers associated with viral messaging in that it becomes difficult to control, let alone track its origin. Like a typical virus, the message spreads quickly but the challenge that comes with it is to ascertain its authenticity and by the time such is established extensive damage would have been incurred.

But what exactly does viral messaging entail? For viral messages/ advert to bear fruit, there must be an incentive to pass it on. The incentives need not be financial or tangible hence it could be sharing something amusing with a friend(s).

Therefore, viral adverts or messages should be enjoyable or shocking or even challenging. Just after the 2010 World Cup a shocking yet amusing viral message circulated around through local mobile networks.

The message read, “I need to ask you something and want you to be totally honest with me. It may be awkward between us after this but I have to know. “I’ve kept it in for a while now, but I think that it’s finally time to be straight up and just confront you. I hope this doesn’t ruin the our relationship. I just need to know and I don’t see any other way I could get over this. It just doesn’t seem fair on me if I don’t get an answer.  I want you to tell me truthfully please, no matter how harsh it is. I just want your honest opinion. Why did Ghana lose…?”

First it sounded shocking which provides the hook to read on. If you did not know that Ghana lost then you knew without having to flip through your Dstv channels or Internet. Humour, thus, becomes a good incentive. For instance, there was this video clip that depicted a young boy crying uncontrollably and displaying some funny antics trying to blackmail his mother to buy him sweets. 

At the end a certain brand of condoms flies across the screen with an accompanying voice exclaiming, “use condoms!” The intention here is not the funny antics of the boy but promotion of the condoms. Also, floods of viral messages of the English version of the traditional track, Tinto, a song popularized by Matsieng traditional group, swept across the country as people passed them on unaware that they were marketing the song. Chika Dance of Culture Spears also went viral through a video clip that depicted an old woman dancing to the song and showcasing her salsa moves.

Curiously, sometimes the musicians are not even aware that their products are benefiting from viral messaging, with rating and sales of their albums picking up from such free advertising.  Also, the advent of social media such as Facebook and Youtube has added another dimension to the viral marketing dais and impacting directly on the political landscape of many countries.

For instance, the Egyptian political revolution was popularised through Facebook and Youtube. This also brings into play the mobile citizen journalist. These are members of the public who share unfettered information and pictures about events and their experiences by up load them on the Internet. Take the Syrian internecine political struggle for example. While the government banned international media from reporting on the political uprising in that country, pictures and video footage of the revolution continue to filter through to the rest of the world.

A few months back England was set ablaze as the youth took to the streets vandalizing everything they came across following a viral message through Facebook and Twitter. Thus, using the benefit of new media tools to communicate, messages spread like a virus to almost every corner of the world. Such is the power of new media forms. While they are a blessing, at the same time they are a curse especially when one cannot trace their origin or authenticity.

 

Buy Online Now!