the perfect opportunity to test my hypothesis con-cerning viral marketing within the promotionalindustry. My plan was to place the distributorshow attendees right smack into the center of alive viral marketing case study concerning a par-ticular product Fey produces for its line ofReflectix products.

While I was confident it would work, success-ful viral marketing needs six specific things tohappen in order for the strategy to truly be con-sidered viral and this was the part about which Iwas nervous.

The Six Viral Marketing BasicsSome illnesses are caused by viruses usually

caught from contact with somebody else. Thevirus piggybacks on other hosts and uses itsresources to increase its numbers. A virus doesn’tneed to mate—it replicates over and over withgeometrically increasing power, doubling its num-bers with each iteration. In a few short genera-tions, a virus population can explode.

Viral marketing works in a similar way:Individuals are encouraged to pass on a marketingmessage to others, creating the potential for expo-nential growth in the message’s exposure andinfluence. Viral marketing strategies take advan-tage of rapid multiplication to explode the mes-sage outward as fast as possible.

Viral marketing isn’t complicated, confusingor expensive to conduct. However, in order to gen-erate the most powerful results an effective viralmarketing strategy must:

1. Give away product(s) or service(s)The purpose behind giving away products

and services is to attract attention. Engaging inviral marketing strategies may not produceprofit today or tomorrow, but the generation of

a groundswell of interest from some-thing free will result in a profit soon-er rather than later.2. Be easily transferable/spread-

able by others, to othersNurses, doctors and mothers know that

cold and flu season means staying away fromcoughing people, washing your hands often and

MARKETING

tTHE PPAI EXPO 2011 BEGAN LIKE MOST OTHERS, with meetings, dinnersand show floor maps highlighted in yellow marker. While distributors were plan-ning their routes through the maze of booth-lined aisles at the Mandalay BayConvention Center, I was planning something completely different.

Industry suppliers look for ways to distinguish themselves from the competitionand promote their products to the distributor network hoping they, in turn, willpass this information onto their clients. Truth be told, the majority ofsuppliers follow the same marketing pattern over and over hoping forbetter results.

While some call this the classic definition of insanity, I’ve alwaysbelieved it is a lack of truly effective marketing techniques that can be used by bothsuppliers and distributors to prove promotional products return on investment(ROI) and return on objectives (ROO).

One such marketing technique is viral marketing, and The PPAI Expo 2011 was

VIRALMARKETING

By Ron Williams

HOW AN EXHIBITOR PROVED REAL PRODUCT ROI AT THE PPAI EXPO 2011.

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Viral Marketing:Highly Contagious

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never touching your eyes, nose or mouth. They know this is howthe spread of viruses is prevented. Viruses only spread to otherswhen they are easy to transmit and have no barriers or block-ages in place—your viral marketing message is no different.

Whatever medium or promotion you decide will carry outyour marketing message, you must ensure the message is easyto transfer and replicate without any managing on the part ofthe carrier. This means the viral spreading is so effortless thoseactually spreading the message aren’t aware of what they aredoing until it’s too late. From a marketing standpoint, you mustsimplify your marketing message so it can be transmitted easilywithout degradation or unraveling.

3. Easily scale from small to largeFor your viral marketing message to spread like a virus, the

transmission method must be rapidly scalable from small tolarge instantly without any oversight whatsoever. If you do notbuild or include scalability in your viral model it will implode.

4. Exploit common human motivations and behaviorsClever viral marketing plans take advantage of common

human motivations and behaviors. Viral marketing strategieswork best when they leverage the human components of greed,status, popularity, love or understanding. Design a viral market-ing strategy that exploits basic human motivations and behaviorsfor its transmission vehicle and you’ve created a winning strategy.

5. Use communication/networksHumans are social creatures. It’s been estimated that each

person has an immediate network of eight to 12 with anexpanded network ranging from hundreds to thousands. Theinherent nature of people desiring to be social with others mustbe magnified and leveraged upon in order for your viral cam-paign to thrive. The key to any viral marketing strategy is beingable to insert the message directly into conversations and com-munications between people without them knowing they areactually doing the marketing for you.

6. Take advantage of others’ resourcesThe goal of any viral marketing plan is to use others’

resources rather than your own to get out the word.

The PPAI Viral Marketing Case StudyWith the economy the way it is, distributors have a difficult

time overcoming the issue of price shopping via internet sites andcompeting distributors lowering margins to earn a sale. Whatwould happen if distributors could almost guarantee to theirclients the ROI produced by using a certain promotional product?Could it possibly start a chain of events within the industry mind-set concerning the viability of certain promotional items and themagnitude by which they were actually promoted to clients?

On Tuesday, January 11, 2011, the live viral marketing casestudy began, and I was about to find out.

Fey Promotional Products Group has been a supplier in thisindustry since literally day one, and during the past three years ofattending The PPAI Expo, Fey has averaged 813 scans for theentire three-day process. Remember, the total average scan num-ber is 813.

Don Sanders, a well-known and respected promotional prod-ucts professional of many years, gave a lecture to a group of 350distributors at the Four Seasons Hotel in the Grand Ballroom onTuesday during The Expo week.

Don didn’t know it at the time, but that Grand Ballroom wasactually ground zero for my experimental case study for using apromotional product to virally drive booth traffic thereby increas-ing ROI and confirming my hypothesis that viral marketing andpromotional products can go hand-in-hand when done correctly.

Everyone attending the lecture was handed a special wristlockbracelet made by Reflectix, which were sequentially numberedand created with three removable tabs. Don instructed everyoneto put on the bracelet and lock it in place. He then told them tocome by the Reflectix booth the following day to be scanned andentered into the Fey/Reflectix iPad giveaway drawing to be heldon Thursday at 4 pm.

I stood at the ballroom’s exit making sure all who wanted onereceived the bracelet and taking mental notes of how many hadactually put it on when asked. Three out of 10 (30 percent) hadcomplied with Don’s request, and I began to worry I wasn’t goingto be able to hit all six aspects of a truly viral campaign withoutgetting buy-in from the remaining 70 percent who left with thebracelet in hand.

I wanted to test the beliefs distributors had about themselvesand their abilities to virally sell a marketing concept to others, soif I had to start with only 105 distributors as my initial test group,so be it.

The show opened and I was nervously waiting to see some-body, anybody, wearing a white bracelet walking down the aisles.Finally, after 10 minutes, Subject One entered our booth.

“I got this bracelet yesterday at the Don Sanders seminar andwas told to come here to enter the drawing,” he said.

Bingo! Perfect. The replication had started and now it wasmy turn.

MARKETING

Thanks to a viral marketing program, the crowd around theFey/Reflectix booth swelled to an estimated 900 in the min-utes before the drawing.

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“As you can see, the numbers on these removable tabs matchthe number on your bracelet. I’m going to remove this tab andplace it into the treasure chest to enter you into the Thursdaydrawing for the iPad,” I said to Subject One.

With dramatics that would make Elmer Gantry proud, I madesure Subject One saw the removable tab go into the chest.

“Great. Thank you very much!” Subject One replied.As he turned and began walking away I knew now was the time

to go “all in” with the viral concept, so I casually mentioned, “Say,would you like to put two more entries into the drawing as well?”

“Sure,” Subject One said, holding the bracelet out to me wait-ing for me to remove the other two detachable tabs.

“I’d be more than happy to do that for you,” I replied, “but youneed to do something for me. Go out right now and get two dis-tributors who are not wearing this bracelet and bring them backto this booth.”

Without hesitation Subject One left the booth and returned 30seconds later with a distributor, Subject Two, whom he had notknown 30 seconds ago and who was not wearing a bracelet.Without saying anything to the new recruit, I began to lock abracelet on him as well. While doing this, Subject Two asked,“How do I enter the iPad drawing like the guy told me?”

Is There A Doctor In The Expo?When Subject Two asked me how to enter the drawing, I knew

the viral marketing concept was going to work and the marketingvirus would begin spreading quickly and could not be contained.

I removed the first tab of Subject Two’s bracelet and immediatelytold him if he wanted to have two more chances entered into thedrawing for the iPad he needed to leave the booth immediately andbring me two distributors right now who were not wearing a bracelet.

Subject Two left immediately to get two distributors to bringto our booth.

I then turned to Subject One and said, “Great job!” whileremoving his second tab and placing it into the treasure chest forthe drawing. “Now,” I said, “go find another distributor without abracelet and bring them back so we can enter your third chance.”

Subject One left immediately, walking into the aisle and begin-ning to talk with another stranger whom he had never met. Lessthan one minute later, Subject One and his new ‘friend,’ SubjectThree, were in our booth. Thirty seconds after this, Subject Tworeturned bringing Subject Five and Subject Six, who were not

wearing a bracelet.Within a span of two minutes, one scan had virally replicated

itself six times.

This Was Going To Be BigAt dinner on Wednesday night, all of the individuals who

worked the Fey/Reflectix booth—Mike Fey, Jolene Walhof, JaclynHurd and Melisa Van Dyke—were informed of the first day’s scantotals. All of us were optimistic that we could pull it off and possi-bly do something that no other supplier had ever done before.

The next morning, Mike and I took part in the breakfast meet-ing for the online networking group “Coffee Talk.” Here distribu-tors talk about interesting and unique products they saw on dayone, and suppliers talk about special items at their booths. Mikehas been a member of Coffee Talk for quite some time, and I wasthe newbie to the group not knowing a single soul.

When the time came to address the group, I began speakingabout the bracelet while Mike handed out samples to all atten-dees. I informed the group how the bracelet could be used by cor-porations, universities and the like to ID large groups and controltheir food/beverage consumption by using the removable tabs astickets or vouchers.

As I continued to speak, I explained the entire viral marketingcase study that began the day before. I informed the group thatthis product should be used by their clients who display attradeshows as a means to drive insanely high booth traffic at min-imal cost, thereby delivering the highest ROI possible.

I was about to put my marketing reputation on the line withmy next statement. Mike had no idea what I was about to say tohis close friends. I took a deep breath and I uttered this challenge:“If I’m correct that viral marketing can be implemented with apromotional product and can be metrically tracked to prove itseffectiveness, at 4 pm today at booth #1239, there will be hundredsof people gathered. If I’m wrong, it will be no different than anyother supplier’s booth.”Day-One Results

Throughout the entire day, distributors were scanned andbracelets were placed on everyone who came by our booth. Theprocess of entering second and third chances, that the drawingwas to be held on Thursday at 4 pm and that they needed to bepresent to win was explained within forty-five seconds.

When the show closed for the day, I wanted to access the data

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111

111111111111

111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111

1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111An example of how a virus population can explode exponentially.

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immediately to begin my calculations. We had been steadily busyall day, but I wanted to know what the hard count was. The finalcount for day one was 982 distributor scans.

Day-Two ResultsJust like the previous day, distributors were locked with a bracelet

and told to bring two new distributors not wearing bracelets to thebooth so we could enter their second and third chances.

But something different was happening. Distributors wereshowing up at our booth holding the little white tear-off tab intheir hand and saying, “I was told to come here to register for thedrawing, and I’m supposed to give this to you.”

I was shocked because it told me the marketing virus was nowbehaving exactly like a human virus. When a virus is running itscourse in humans, it sometimes develops an artificial intelligenceof sorts and begins to change its replication process when it isfaced with a hurdle that needs crossing. Something was happen-ing on the show floor concerning this viral bracelet, and all of usat the booth sensed it at the same time.

As every hour passed it seemed our booth traffic becameheavier and heavier until eventually we had groups of five to sixdistributors congregating around each of our three scanningmachines. As one distributor was scanned, given a bracelet andsent off he or she seemed to be replaced by two or three others.

As 3:20 pm approached I was able to take my first break of theday, thankfully, because our Midwest multi-line rep Joe Keely(Select Lines Marketing) showed up to work the booth.

“What in the world is happening, Ron?” Joe asked. “I know youguys were busy yesterday, but this is ridiculous. I’ve never seenanything like this. I could actually feel the energy and excitementwalking down the aisle!”

Joe took his spot in the booth with viral bracelets in one handand a scanner in the other. He took a deep breath and said, “Don’tbe long.”

As I walked back to our booth at 3:30 pm, the noise levelseemed to be getting louder the closer I got. I turned down theaisle and saw that a crowd had started to gather across from ourbooth in the SAGE open-booth area. Distributors were laughing,shaking hands, exchanging business cards and waiting for 4 pm tocome. I took a quick head count. It was 42.

I looked back at our booth. Now the three groups of distribu-tors wanting to be scanned were now 10 to 12 deep around each ofthe three scanners.

By 3:45 pm, 60 feet to the front, 60 feet to the left and 60 feet tothe right side of our booth were no longer visible. All I saw was amass of people.

I pulled a chair into our booth, jumped on top of it and took asample count based on an average number of people occupying ageographic space. I stopped counting at 750 distributors. At fiveminutes to 4 pm, the crowd had reached an estimated 900 distrib-utors. The crowd was excited, electrified and sold on the viral con-cept; they just hadn’t realized it yet.

The DrawingBefore the drawing, I got back up on the chair, spoke about

the viral marketing case study they all were part of and reiteratedhow this was the first time anything like this had been done. Itold them to not throw away their bracelets if they did not winthe iPad because they would be contacted by us the followingweek and the bracelets could be redeemed for one of three secretbut very cool offers.

We held the drawing promptly at 4 pm and, thankfully, wepulled a winning tab on the second draw, which meant thetradeshow traffic could begin moving again.

During the last three years of attendance at The PPAI Expo, Fey had obtained an average scan rate of 813. Utilizing viral marketing techniques in conjunction with the appropriate promotional product resulted in a total scan count of 2,130 for The PPAI Expo 2011.

The Reflectix vinyl tabber bracelet produced a 162-percentincrease in traffic to our tradeshow booth. On Monday andTuesday following the show, we were still receiving phone callsfrom distributors asking if they could take off their bracelets.

For those keeping score, scans for day one totaled 982, day twobrought in 998 and Friday scans amounted to only 150. Looks likethis viral strain is here to stay.

Ron Williams is director of marketing for Fey PromotionalProducts Group and Reflectix.

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M A R C H 2 0 1 1 P P B 33

ppb

The Reflectix bracelet was sequentially numbered and had three removable tabs.

Snap this QR (Quick Response) Code with your smartphoneor go to www.feyppg.com/ppai to view a video of theviral marketing campaign.

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