why pass on viral messages

8/2/2019 Why Pass on Viral Messages

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Why pass on viral messages?

Because they connect emotionally

Angela Dobele a, Adam Lindgreen b,, Michael Beverland c,Jolle Vanhamme d, Robert van Wijk b,1

a Central Queensland University, Australiab

Department of Marketingand Marketing Communications,Hull University Business School, University of Hull, Hull, UKc University of Melbourne, Australiad Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Abstract In this article, we identify that successful viral marketing campaignstrigger an emotional response in recipients. Working under this premise, we examinethe effects of viral messages containing the six primary emotions (surprise, joy,sadness, anger, fear, and disgust) on recipients' emotional responses to viralmarketing campaigns and subsequent forwarding behavior. According to our findings,in order to be effective, viral messages need to contain the element of surprise. Byitself, however, surprise is not enough to guarantee message success; therefore, itmust be combined with other emotions. The effectiveness of the viral message is alsomoderated by gender, with disgust-based and fear-based campaigns being more likelyto be forwarded by male recipients than female recipients. To ensure forwardingbehavior, the message must capture the imagination of the recipient, as well as beclearly targeted. Moreover, achieving fit between a campaign and the featuredemotions is important, as this ensures an increased chance of forwarding. In additionto relaying these and other findings, we share and discuss the managerial implicationsof using different emotions in viral marketing campaigns. Finally, culture isrecognized as an influencer. 2007 Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. All rights reserved.

KEYWORDSViral marketing;E-Commerce;Marketingcommunications;Consumer emotions

1. Viral messages: Do we really know howthey work?

Viral marketing has been described as the processof getting customers to pass along a company'smarketing message to friends, family, and collea-gues (Laudon & Traver, 2001, p. 381). Like a virus,information about the company and its brandmessage, goods, or services is spread to potentialbuyers, who then pass the information along to

www.elsevier.com/locate/bushor

The authors contributed equally. Corresponding author.

E-mail addresses: [email protected] (A. Dobele),[email protected] (A. Lindgreen),[email protected] (M. Beverland), [email protected](J. Vanhamme).1 (c/o Adam Lindgreen).

0007-6813/$ - see front matter 2007 Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. All rights reserved.doi:10.1016/j.bushor.2007.01.004

Business Horizons (2007) 50, 291304
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2007.01.004http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2007.01.004mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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other potential buyers such that a huge network iscreated rapidly (Dobele, Toleman, & Beverland,2005; Lindgreen & Vanhamme, 2005). Viral market-ing has gained tremendous popularity with theintroduction of electronic media, as these outletsdramatically facilitate interconnections betweencompanies and potential buyers (De Bruyn & Lilien,

2004; Gruen, Osmonbekov, & Czaplewski, 2006).Recognizing this opportunity, several world-classcompanies and brands have jumped on the viralmarketing bandwagon, including Budweiser, DeBeers, eBay, Jose Cuervo Tequila, Kellogg's, Levi's,Nestl, Procter and Gamble, Scope Mouthwash, andVirgin Cinemas.

When executed effectively, viral marketing cam-paigns can create an instantaneous buzz in thepromotion and distribution of companies' brandsand products. This was the case with The BlairWitch Project. Artisan Entertainment, the maker of

the film, created much interest in the movie bygiving it the air of a documentary and by supportingit with a well-developed and elaborate Internetsite. Even before the film debuted in theaters,people were talking about The Blair Witch Project,and friends were referring friends to the website(Bernard & Jallat, 2001). Although the budget forthe movie's release was just $2.5 million (US), TheBlair Witch Project grossed $245 million in world-wide box office sales.

Despite the fact that viral marketing can be asuccessful means of marketing communication,there is still only a limited understanding of how it

works (Borroff, 2000; Brodin, 2000; Diorio, 2001;Helm, 2000). This notion is supported by De Bruynand Lilien (2004), who posit that it is difficult toexplain why and how [viral marketing] works(p. 4). What we do know is that viral marketingcampaigns can result in peer-to-peer recommenda-tions, thereby increasing the credibility of themessage. Viral marketing can drive sales, reducemarketing costs, and reach media-jaded consumersegments such as Generation X and Generation Y. Itmay involve people who know each other (e.g., theRefer-a-Friend program of Half.com) and those

who do not (e.g., Epinions.com and ConsumerRe-ports.org, which provide forums for consumers topost objective product reviews for the benefit ofothers). It is vital that companies choose carefullywhich consumers should first pass on the viralmarketing message, as the creation of viral net-works depends upon these people (Helm, 2000;Bannan, 2000).

For viral marketing to work, there must besomething uniquely powerful about the message,something that encourages would-be advocates topass it on. For example, in the case of Viagra, the

message captures the imagination and highlights acompletely new product that lends itself to refer-rals. However, if the goal of viral marketing is to usepeer-to-peer communications in order to spreadinformation about a brand or idea, what reallydrives consumers to pass the message on? Viralmarketing messages face several challenges

because spamming is frowned upon in the onlineworld and nobody likes to feel used (Dobele et al.,2005). Essentially, peer-to-peer electronic mes-sages face the same clutter and noise problemsthat afflict traditional advertisers. What, then, cancompanies do?

We argue that emotions, and in particular thephenomenon of social sharing of emotions, offer asolution to this problem. To illustrate, we considerthe impact of the six primary emotions on messageforwarding in nine chosen viral marketing cam-paigns. Also, we examine gender as a moderator on

the relationship between emotions and forwardingbehavior. We identify that the success of a viralmessage is dependent upon it capturing the imagi-nation of the recipient, as well as it being cleverlytargeted. Our study's findings are summarized in sixpoints that must be considered in designing success-ful viral marketing campaigns.

2. It's all about emotions: Why are theyimportant?

In this article, we argue that viral marketingmessages must build an emotional connection

between the campaign and the recipient in orderto ensure that the virus gets spread. Why emotions?By interviewing three leading spokespersons ofelectronic marketing businesses (Yankee Group,Giga Information Group, and Aberdeen), Hirsh(2001) discovered that viral marketing campaignsshould be either intriguing, passionate, fun, unique,or create interest (e.g., incorporating interactivegames). As articulated by Masland (2001), If thecontent of the e-mail is funny, interesting oremotional enough to have an impact, the recipientsoften forward it viral message and all to friends

and family (p. 3). According to research conductedby Clark McKay and Walpole Interactive (an inter-active sales promotion agency), the highestresponse rates can be found in messages thatcontain violence, pornography, or irreverenthumor (Witthaus, 2002). The Are you Type 1campaign developed for the Levi's brand usedcreation of curiosity among consumers as the maindriver of the movement. To pique people's interest,recipients were asked Are you Type 1? and werethen encouraged to ask themselves if they could bethe person Levi's was looking for. Table 1 provides an

292 A. Dobele et al.
http://half.com/http://epinions.com/http://consumerreports.org/http://consumerreports.org/http://consumerreports.org/http://consumerreports.org/http://epinions.com/http://half.com/


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overview of different emotions that have previouslybeen suggested in the literature as driving viralmarketing campaigns.

We argue that emotions work in viral marketingbecause they are related to the phenomenon ofsocial sharing of emotions, which is defined byRim, Philippot, Boca, and Mesquita (1992) as a

phenomenon involving (1) the evocation of theemotion in a socially shared language and (2) atleast at the symbolic level at some addressee(p. 228). People, who experience everyday lifeemotions, initiate communication processes duringwhich they share parts of their private experienceswith social partners. Only about 10% of emotionalexperiences are kept secret and never sociallyshared with anyone (Rim et al., 1992). There isalso evidence that the more disruptive the event,the sooner and more frequently it is shared. Social

sharing of emotions is also positively related to theintensity of the emotions (Rim, Finkenhauer,Luminet, Zech, & Philippot, 1998).

In particular, we examine the use and impact ofemotions on consumers' decisions to pass on viralmarketing messages. To our knowledge, previousresearch has not investigated this issue. We contend

that emotions are key in driving viral marketingcampaigns. For example, it has been shown thatemotional responses account for a large part (about30%) of the explained variance of referral behavior(Maute & Dub, 1999). Consider the emotion ofsurprise. It has been noted that companies need tomove beyond mere satisfaction to customerdelight (Rust, Zahorik, & Keiningham, 1996, p.229), and that the features that have the capacityto delight are those that aresurprisingly pleasant(Rust & Oliver, 2000, p. 87). The emotion of surprise

Table 1 Different emotions behind viral marketing

Mechanism(s) Source and explanation Mechanism(s) Source and explanation

Entertainment,amusement,irritation

Splash of Paint: People are directed tothe company's Internet site byentertaining, amusing, and/or irritatingthem.

Coolness, fun;unique offer

Virgin Atlantic: Customers pass on themessage when they think it is cool or fun,or if the offer is second to none.

Fun, quirk,amusement;specific andrelevant to theperson

Claritas: Viral marketing campaignsshould be funny, quirky, or amusing, orsomething that is very specific andrelevant to the individual customer.

Violence,pornography,irreverent humor

Clark McKay and Walpole Interactive:The messages drawing highest responserates are those that have elements ofviolence, pornography, or irreverent humor.

Fun, humor,

excitement(jokes, games)

Fabulous Bakin' Boys: Its website

supports the muffin products with flashanimation sites, fun, jokes, as well asgames that people can download andforward to their friends.

Comic strips,

video clips

Comic strips and video clips grab the

attention of people, who then forwardthe content to their friends.

Emotionalelements

Internet strategies must have highlevels of emotional content includinginteractivity, the ability to involveother people, chat rooms, and thecreation of online community.

Contests andhumor;important advice

Contests and humor are important elementsin successful campaigns, which can also besuccessful if they have important advice forcustomers.

Nature of theindustry; onlinetenure of theaudience; topic

Sage Marketing and Consulting Inc.:The success of viral marketing isdependent upon (1) the nature of theindustry that the company is in; (2)the online tenure of the audience;and (3) the topic. People are more

likely to pass on information aboutproducts like entertainment, music,Internet, and software.

Controversy A company gains publicity when the mediawrites about controversy on its website, andcompetitors will have to deal with thecompany. But such word-of-mouthmarketing can be dangerous becausedissatisfied customers are more likely to

share their negative experiences thansatisfied customers.

False, deliberatelydeceptiveinformation;popularly believednarrative, typicallyfalse; anecdotalclaims; junk

So-called urban legends and folklorecan be organized as (1) false,deliberately deceptive information; (2)popularly believed narrative, typicallyfalse; (3) anecdotal claims, which maybe true, false, or in between; and (4)junk. Such stories are frequentlyforwarded to friends, family, andcolleagues.

Fun, intrigue,value; offer offinancialincentives; needto create networkexternalities

People pass on messages if they find theproduct benefits to be fun, intriguing, orvaluable for others; if they are givenfinancial incentives for doing so; or if theyfeel a need to create network externalities.

Source: Lindgreen and Vanhamme (2005, p. 126).

293Why pass on viral messages? Because they connect emotionally


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has a strong influence on referral behavior (Derbaix& Vanhamme, 2003). Surprise is, however, only oneof the six primary emotions, the other five beingfear, sadness, joy, disgust, and anger (Oatley &Jenkins, 1996; Plutchik, 1980).

We contribute to the literature by examining theuse of these six primary emotions in viral marketing

campaigns. By looking from the recipient's viewpointat the decision to pass on messages, our findingsbuild on a previous study that examined tacticalstrategies associated with successful viral marketingcampaign execution (see Dobele et al., 2005). Wealso build on a previous study that explored whatmade consumers judge a viral marketing campaign

Table 2 Summary of the nine viral marketing campaigns studied

Name ofcampaign

Sponsor Aim Message

Amazon: Weaponsof MassDestruction

Blueyonder (an Internetservice provider)developed a viralmarketing campaign forAmazon.co.uk

Promote the company Type in the campaign name and an errorpage results in jokes about the USgovernment and a fake blueprint forinvading the country of choice.The fake error page provided three links todifferent pages, two of which lead to anopportunity to buy a book called Pieces ofIntelligence: The Existential Poetry ofDonald H. Rumsfeld at Amazon.co.uk with a

discount of 20% and Amazon shirts.e-Tractions

Christmas CardsIT c ompany Promote the company; impress

clients with the IT capabilities ofthe company and encouragereferral activities from theseclients

Online version of Christmas card played as ashort movie.

Dr Pepper/SevenUp: Raging Cow

The soft-drink producerDr Pepper/Seven Upcreated a new milk basedbeverage called RagingCow

Promote a new product By using six children (bloggers), the sitetried to get the product noticed by thecorrect target group that would thenencourage parents and guardians topurchase this product.

Honda Accord Honda Promote a new product Two minute movie showing all thecomponents found in the Honda Accord,dismantled and put together into aspecific sequence creating a slow moving

wave of actions that fall into place like adomino game.

Motorola V70 Motorola Promote a new product;enlargement of current database

E-mail newsletter sent to current customerslisted on the company's database.Tracking of all forwarded e-mails generatedthe larger list.Rewards offered to clients who forwardedthe information.

World Relief, theSalvation Army,UNICEF, and theInternationalFederation ofRed Cross

Several Non-GovernmentalOrganizations (NGOs)

Increase awareness of plights ofothers; seeking donations bothfinancial and resource

A viral marketing campaign provided aninformative newsletter and encouragedviewers to pass it on to friends and familythrough tell-a-friend buttons.The website also asked for donations ofmoney or other aid (e.g., old clothes,blankets, or physical assistance).

Organization ofWomen's Freedom

Organization of Women'sFreedom

Increase awareness of plights ofothers; freedom for Iraqi women

Online petition posted on December 30,2003.

BNN: Save BNN Dutch public broadcastingagency seeking to keeplicense

Save Company; required:membership > 150,000; publicsupport for company to putpressure on government

Encouragement of people to e-mailparliament and register support.

Rock the Vote Founded in 1990;non-profit

Encourage young Americans tobecome involved in politicalissues and register to vote

Shocking images about issues such asabortion, gun control, and capitalpunishment encapsulated in an interactivequiz. The images and text used in the quizmade the youth aware of the problemsand enabled them to empathize withthose affected.

http://amazon.co.uk/http://amazon.co.uk/http://amazon.co.uk/http://amazon.co.uk/


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as especially successful (see Lindgreen & Van-hamme, 2005).

3. The method

We selected nine viral marketing campaigns to

study, details of which are provided in Table 2. Froma list of numerous potential candidates, these ninecampaigns were chosen on the basis of two maincriteria: being global and being successful. Aconvenience sample was used for individual selec-tion. Success was judged from the initiator'sperspective through increased turnover, sales, orbrand development, or in terms of how far themessage spread. However, the final selection ofcampaigns could not be a completely randomprocess due to the size of the topic. For example,a Google search of the term viral marketinggenerated 680,000 hits, far too many for an

exploratory search of the relationship betweenemotion and forwarding behavior. As such, it wasnecessary to develop an alternative approach tocampaign selection. Individual campaigns wereidentified on the basis of a convenience sample ofcampaigns that had been seen recently by friends,family, and work colleagues. This approach resultedin a long list, which was then shortened to ninecampaigns that were judged to be both global andsuccessful. In summary, two of the nine campaignsselected sought to promote the company (Amazonand e-Tractions), four sought to promote new

products (Dr Pepper/Seven Up, Honda, Motorola,and Rock the Vote), two sought to increase aware-ness (Non-Governmental Organizations [NGOs] andOrganization of Women's Freedom), and one soughtto save the company (Save BNN).

Twenty consumers accepted our invitation toparticipate in a survey and a subsequent in-depthinterview, the purpose of which was to investigatehow consumers responded emotionally to each ofthe nine selected viral marketing campaigns. Asummary of emotional responses to each campaignis given in Table 3.

More specifically, the extent to which respon-dents experienced one or more of the six primaryemotions was investigated in the following way.Respondents were asked to evaluate the level towhich each of the six emotions was experienced(1= no such feeling; 5= very much this feeling).Surprise would be determined through three items

that related to the experience of surprise,amazement, and astonishment. The higher respon-dents evaluated their experiences of these threeitems, the more the respondents had felt theemotion of surprise. In a similar fashion, each ofthe other five primary emotions would be deter-mined using respondents' felt experiences of threedifferent items (see Izard, 1977). These itemsincluded feeling:

joyful, delighted, and happy (emotion of joy); distressed, sad, and downhearted (emotion of

sadness);

discouraged, mad, and enraged (emotion of anger); afraid, scared, and fearful (emotion of fear); and disgusted, distaste, and revolted (emotion of

disgust).

To decrease the likelihood of bias, the 18 itemsappeared in a randomized sequence in the survey. Inall, 180 evaluations were generated from surveying20 consumers (nine campaigns evaluated by 20consumers, indicating the extent to which they feltsix emotions that were determined by using threedifferent items). To illustrate, a summary ofconsumers' felt emotions for the Weapons of MassDestruction campaign is listed in Table 4. Foradditional information on the number of respon-dents, we refer to Appendix A.

4. Impact of the six primary emotions onmessage forwarding

4.1. Surprise-based campaigns

In our study, surprise was the dominant emotionidentified by the consumers across each campaign.

Table 3 Emotions elicited in the different viral marketing campaigns

Viral marketing campaign Surprise Joy Sadness Anger Disgust Fear

Weapons of Mass Destruction Christmas Cards Raging Cow Honda Accord Motorola V70 Red Cross Organization of Women's Freedom Save BNN Rock the Vote



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Table

4

Proportionalreductio

ninloss(PRL)reliabilitymeasurefor

theWeaponsofMassDestructioncam

paign

Emotiona

Gender

Surprise

Joy

Sa

dness

Anger

Fear

Disgust

Surprise

Amazemen

t

Astonishment

Joyful

Delighted

Happy

Distress

Sad

Downhearted

Discouraged

Mad

Enraged

Afraid

Scared

Fearful

DisgustedD

istaste

Revulsion

1

3

3

3

4

1

4

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

Male

2

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

Male

3

3

3

2

3

2

3

1

1

2

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

Male

4

4

3

4

3

1

2

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

2

1

Male

5

4

4

3

2

2

2

1

1

2

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

2

2

Female

6

4

3

4

2

1

3

2

3

1

3

2

2

2

1

2

3

4

2

Female

7

3

2

2

4

1

3

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

Male

8

4

4

3

3

1

3

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

Male

9

4

4

2

3

1

2

1

1

1

1

1

2

1

1

1

1

1

1

Male

10

4

3

3

2

2

2

1

1

1

2

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

Male

11

4

3

3

1

1

2

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

2

2

1

Female

12

4

2

2

4

3

4

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

Male

13

3

2

3

4

2

2

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

Female

14

4

3

3

3

4

4

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

Female

15

4

4

1

4

3

3

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

2

Male

16

4

1

2

4

2

4

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

Male

17

1

1

3

1

1

1

1

3

1

1

1

3

1

1

1

3

3

1

Male

18

5

4

5

2

2

4

3

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

Female

19

5

5

4

3

2

1

2

3

3

3

3

4

3

3

4

1

2

2

Male

20

5

4

3

2

2

1

2

3

3

3

2

1

2

3

2

5

4

3

Female

Scalevalue

Frequencies

1

2

3

2

3

9

4

1

6

16

16

16

17

16

17

18

17

16

13

15

2

3

5

5

8

6

3

2

1

2

2

2

2

1

4

4

3

4

7

9

6

2

5

1

4

2

3

1

1

1

2

2

1

1

4

11

6

3

6

1

5

1

1

2

5

3

1

1

1

20

20

20

20

20

20

2

0

20

20

20

20

20

20

20

20

20

20

20

#agreements

65

42

50

43

65

41

12

3

126

122

123

137

121

137

154

137

121

85

111

1803

#maximum

agreements

190

190

190

190

190

190

19

0

190

190

190

190

190

190

190

190

190

1

90

190

3420

aThefeltexperienceofemotionsar

emeasuredusing5-pointLikertscales(1=

nosuchfeeling

;5=

verymuchthisfeel

ing

).



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The emotion of surprise is generated when some-thing is unexpected or misexpected, with surpriseresulting in responses of amazement and astonish-ment (Ekman & Friesen, 1975). For example,Amazon's Weapons of Mass Destruction viral market-ing campaign masterfully employed the emotion ofsurprise. As one study respondent commented,

When the page opened, I thought I had made amistake and got something of a virus on my PC. Developed for Amazon by Blueyonder, an Internetservice provider, the Weapons of Mass Destructioncampaign sought to increase customer awareness ofAmazon's many services. An e-mail was sent outinstructing message recipients to type the termWeapons of Mass Destruction into the Google searchbar, and to then click on the I'm Feeling Luckybutton. (This button directs searchers to the high-est-ranked link page, the top paid-search positionwhich can be bought by owners of websites.) The

resulting search led to a Weapons of Mass Destruc-tion error page developed for Amazon, whichindicated that the weapons of mass destructioncould not be found, and provided satirical jokesabout how the U.S. government was incorrect aboutthe existence of such weapons in Iraq. The pageoffered a fake blueprint for invading a countrysupposedly having the capability of mass destruc-tion. The fake error page also provided three linksto different pages, two of which led to an Amazon.co.uk offer for a 20% discount on a book calledPieces of Intelligence: The Existential Poetry ofDonald H. Rumsfeld. The other link on the page led

to an Amazon.co.uk offering of t-shirts bearing anti-Iraq War slogans. The Weapons of Mass Destructionviral marketing campaign proved successful forAmazon. Of people who visited the fake errorpage, 30% clicked on the links to Amazon's homepage, well above the average banner click-throughrate of 4.7% (Gatarski, 2002).

In the nine viral marketing campaigns that werestudied, the emotion of surprise was alwaysexpressed in combination with at least one of theother five primary emotions. This corroborates aprevious finding that surprise is often accompanied

by other primary emotions (Charlesworth, 1969).

4.2. Joy-based campaigns

Campaigns that gave rise to the emotion of joyresulted in happiness and delight. Joy has beenlinked to helpfulness and cooperation, desire, andliking (Oatley & Jenkins, 1996). As indicated by ourresearch, consumers felt joy after viewing theWeapons of Mass Destruction, Raging Cow, HondaAccord, and Motorola V70 campaigns. Each of theseused different tactics to elicit the emotion; for

example, Raging cow exploited humor, HondaAccord employed idealism, and Motorola V70utilized financial incentives to elicit joy. Next, weconsider in more detail the Raging Cow campaign.

In March 2003, PepsiCo introduced a new milkdrink offering called Raging Cow. In order topromote the five flavors available, the company

developed and launched a viral marketing campaignaimed at children, whom they hoped would ask theirparents to purchase the product. Upon opening theRaging Cow website, an introductory scene waspresented in which a funny-looking cartoon cow ranamok, pitchfork in hoof. It crashed into fivedifferent-flavored bottles of the milk product,mooing loudly. This sequence over, the main menuopened and featured the animated cow highlightingthe items (fruits, chocolate, coffee) used forflavoring the milk products. Further into thewebsite, consumers had the option of viewing the

Raging Cow's diary, in which bloggers posted entries.Interaction with the site was possible through a quizthat determined which flavor best suited theconsumer's individual needs. Finally, a linked pageindicated locations the Raging Cow promotion teamwas scheduled to visit. At the height of the RagingCow phenomenon, a Google search of the termproduced approximately 42,000 hits in numerouslanguages.

Campaigns based around surprise and joy canhave a big impact. For example, to promote its newAccord model, Honda created a two-minute promo-tional film entitled Cog. Designed to bring viewers

in touch with the feeling of fun associated with thewebsite and the new vehicle, the mini-movieutilized the element of surprise. As part of thefilm, consumers saw a dismantled Accord, afterwhich a process was set in motion that eventuallyled to a fully operational Accord. Consumers felteven more surprised when a flag popped up and avoice said, Isn't it nice when things just work? Thisparticular viral marketing campaign started with500 e-mails (including the movie attachment) sentto employees of Honda and its agencies. Within oneweek, the website was visited by 2779 users. After

three weeks, that number had increased to 35,000.Half-way through 2003, three years after thecampaign's launch, as many as 4.5 million peoplehad seen the short film.

4.3. Sadness-based campaigns

The emotion of sadness results in feelings of distressor being downhearted (Ekman & Friesen, 1975), andcan be used to encourage support or sympathy for acampaign. Through use of viral marketing techni-ques, the International Federation of Red Cross

http://amazon.co.uk/http://amazon.co.uk/http://amazon.co.uk/http://amazon.co.uk/http://amazon.co.uk/http://amazon.co.uk/


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campaign (which also involved other NGOs such asWorld Relief, the Salvation Army, and UNICEF)sought to encourage donations for victims of naturaldisasters. For example, the campaign designed toaid Iranian earthquake victims in 2003 providednews stories about the death toll and the victims'plights, highlighting living conditions and hardships

faced. Further, it supplied an informative news-letter, and encouraged viewers to spread the wordvia a Tell-a-Friend button. The website also askedfor donations of money or other aid (e.g., oldclothes, blankets, physical assistance).

Sadness is useful in garnering support for victimsof natural disasters and Acts of God, for which noperson or organization can be blamed. If a person ororganization could be held responsible for acatastrophe, anger would be more of a motivatingemotion than sadness (Stearns, 1993). One impor-tant social function of sadness is that it may lead the

sad individual to make emotional and practicaldemands on others, thereby strengthening socialbonds that lead to altruism on the behalf of others(Izard, 1977). As such, sadness can be usedeffectively to encourage support for the viralmarketing campaigns of charitable organizations.

4.4. Anger-based campaigns

As mentioned, people feel angry when someone canbe identified as being the cause of an injustice;moreover, the emotion can be employed whenpeople believe they can accomplish a particular

goal by expressing anger (Power & Dalgleish, 1997).Anger can be used by NGOs or pressure groups toencourage support for a cause, particularly whenthe victim's plight is due to the actions of others. Forexample, on December 30, 2003, the Organizationof Women's Freedom posted a petition on theirwebsite alerting people to the plight of women'srights activists in Kurdish-controlled Northern Iraq(Kurdish authorities had threatened to shut downtheir offices). To show solidarity, the petition calledfor letters of protest to be sent to the Organizationof Women's Freedom, and encouraged supporters to

forward the message to friends and family. Addi-tionally, it requested that people e-mail standardtexts to their political party, indicating angertoward the situation in Northern Iraq. By listingexamples of injustices suffered by some Iraqiwomen, the Organization of Women's Freedomhoped to gain backing for their cause. Our respon-dents remarked that the situation of Kurdish womenappeared so different to the situation of women inWestern Europe that they almost could not com-prehend it, and that they got angry that this washappening in the 21st century.

Another example of the use of anger in viralmarketing campaigns involves the Dutch publicbroadcasting agency BNN. The Dutch minoritygovernment promised that BNN could keep itslicense if it had more than 150,000 members.Unfortunately for BNN, another parliamentarygroup had the right of veto over the decision, so

BNN sought support from the general public, askingthem to take action. The BNN website offered thefacility of e-mailing parliament and forwarding thee-mail to four friends through a viral campaign (SaveBNN). Consumers explained that they felt angryagainst the government, and expressed the beliefthat the government needs to keep its promises.Through these efforts, BNN reached 224,000 mem-bers. Speaking to the overall success rate of thiscampaign, in one month, 123,795 people used themailing service to tell the government to keep BNN.As a result, BNN was granted its license.

4.5. Fear-based campaigns

Fear is an emotion that can encourage action,especially when it results in outrage. When a scarysituation occurs, or when pain, danger, or a threat isanticipated, people feel fear (Ekman & Friesen,1975; Oatley & Jenkins, 1996). Founded in 1990 anddesigned to encourage young Americans to registerto vote and become more involved in politicalissues, the Rock the Vote organization employed theemotion of fear to help spread its message. Thisnon-profit developed and launched a viral market-

ing campaign that utilized startling and graphicimages to portray such issues as rape, abortion, guncontrol, and capital punishment, subjects whichdominated an interactive quiz. The images and textused in the quiz attempted to shock disinterestedyouth. When active, the campaign was viewedapproximately 22 million times and generated aclick-through rate of 35%. As testament to itssocietal impact, the campaign also had some rolein ensuring the highest voter turnout in years for the2004 U.S. election. The consumers found that fearmay be particularly useful for encouraging forward-

ing when it is used in campaigns that highlight issuesthat are known to be of relevance among peers.Furthermore, it is of benefit when attempting togain short-term support for a cause (such as during apolitical campaign), although it may be less usefulfor encouraging long-term support. Regarding theRock the Vote campaign (Fig. 1), respondentsremarked that the message made them afraidbecause of the high numbers of rape and abuse,and that they would definitely forward the messagebecause everybody should know this[so] thatthey can do something against it.



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4.6. Disgust-based campaigns

Disgust, or bad taste, has a very short duration andis relatively low in felt intensity (Scherer & Wall-bott, 1994). People feel disgusted when somethingis harming their soul, or when something threatensto do so (Ekman & Friesen, 1975). An example of theuse of disgust in viral marketing is the 2001Christmas Card campaign carried out by e-Tractions,

an IT company. Via this campaign, e-Tractionsencouraged and facilitated the sending of electro-nic Christmas cards, as opposed to traditional ones.The goal behind this effort was to impress clientswith the company's IT capabilities, and encouragethem to forward the cards and associated companyinformation to potential clients. The e-Christmascard depicted a snow globe that featured a houseand an outdoor Christmas tree. As the animatedscene played, snow fell inside the snow globe, andcharacters skied, snowboarded, shoveled snow, andmade a snowman. As the action ensued, the snow-

man ate one of the characters and then exploded,prompting more snowfall within the globe. Althoughthe campaign failed in its first year, as clients couldnot see the link between exploding cartoon char-acters and an ITcompany, it did become all the ragein years to follow. At the peak of its popularity, thee-card was viewed by over 200,000 people during asix-week period; on the six busiest days, the numberof visitors averaged 26,000 daily. Most astonishing ofall, the link to the page had been removed from thee-Tractions website after the failure of the cam-paign in 2001. Amazingly, people were sending the

site address through e-mail, and cutting and pastingit into their web browser's address bar. Logically, thehuge number of requests motivated e-Tractions torepost the link on their website.

However, this campaign illustrates that disgustcan be used for good or for bad, as it does notappeal to everyone equally, if at all. Someconsumers (particularly young males in our sam-ple) find humor in disgusting situations, or when

disgust is placed in surreal situations. Others donot react so positively. For example, respondentssaid of the campaign that it is not my type ofhumor, exploding children, and that parents willnot be glad when their children see this cam-paign. Yet, several respondents could still see funin the campaign, not having expected explodingcharacters in a surreal setting.

A summary of the six primary emotions (explana-tion, behavior, physiological response, and othercharacteristics) is provided in Table 5.

5. Two keys to secure the success of viralmessages

Our analysis of the comments made by campaignand viral message recipients suggests that emotionsmay not be enough to secure action, and therebyachieve success. Through scrutiny of the open-ended responses of interviewees, two main themesemerged. First, the campaigns triggered some-thing in the respondents who forwarded thesemessages. The messages captured the imagination

Figure 1 Rock the Vote campaign. Source: Rock the Vote (www.rockthevote.com).

http://www.rockthevote.com/http://www.rockthevote.com/


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of the recipient in such a way as to produce anaction: forwarding behavior. Second, the mostdownloaded campaigns were cleverly targeted.They were sent to cohorts that would be most likelyto respond favorably, and subsequently forward themessage. Each of these two themes is considerednext.

5.1. Viral messages must capture theimagination of the recipient

Our findings identify that the overall success of acampaign, in terms of forwarding behavior, dependson more than just an emotional connection. Acampaign must also capture the recipient's

Table 5 Emotions behind viral marketing

Emotion Explanation Behavior Physiologicalresponse

Other

Surprise Generated whensomething (product,service, or attribute)is unexpected or

misexpected.

Facial expressions like opened eyes andmouth, and raised eyebrows.

Changes in heartand respiration rates.

Subjective feelingof surprise.

Cessation of on-going activities. Increase in skinconductivity and

neural activation.

Spontaneousvocalizations

(Why, Oh, etc.).

Sudden and involuntary focusing on the

surprising product, service, or attribute. Different corticalresponse wave patterns.

Heightened consciousness of the surprisingproduct, service, or attribute. Subsequent curiosity/exploratory behavior. Increase in the ability to retain in memorythe surprising product, service, or attribute.

Joy Expressed when agoal has beenachieved, or whenmovement towardsuch an achievementhas occurred. Also,joy is caused by arational prospect ofowning what we love

or desire.

Facial expression of joy is the smile. Wanting, hoping, ordesiring to have anobject when it is notpresent.

Smile is used whenpeople are not happyto mask anotheremotion.

Happy people are more helpful andcooperative.

Loving or liking theobject when it isalready present.

Often energetic, active, and bouncy.

Prompts the person to aim for higher goals.

Sadness Experienced whennot in a state ofwell-being, which ismost often derivedfrom the experienceof a fearful event.

No longer wishes for action, but remainsmotionless and passive, or may occasionallyrock to and fro.

Crying orwhimpering.

Attention candecrease, but whencompletely focusedon the situation athand, it can increase.

Often, focus is turned more toward the self. Trying to solve the problem at hand. Refuging from the situation.

Anger Response to personaloffense (an injustice);this injustice is inthat person's powerto settle.

Attacking the cause of the anger throughphysical contact and verbal abuse.

Raised bloodpressure(blood boils)

Culturally dependent.Northern Europeanpeople show moremuscular reactions,southerners show abigger increase inblood pressure.

Anger is extremely out of control (e.g.,rage) and freezing of the body can occur. Face reddening.

Muscle tensioning.

Fear Experienced when

people expect(anticipate) a specificpain, threat, ordanger.

A system is activated, bringing the body

into a state of readiness.

Internal discomfort

(butterflies in thestomach).

In extreme form,

making laughing orgiggling sounds. Escape and avoidance.

Muscle tensioning. Facial expression as oblique eyebrowsand resulting vertical frown. Increased

perspiration andheart rate. Mouth drying out.

Disgust Feeling of aversionthat can be felteither whensomething happensor when something isperceived to bedisgusting.

Facial expressions like frowning. Decreased heartrate.

Making sounds likeach and ugh. Hand gestures, opening of the mouth,

spitting, and, in extreme cases, vomiting. Nausea. Distancing from the situation, this by anexpulsion or removal of an offendingstimulus, removal of the self from thesituation, or lessening the attention onthe subject.

Source: Ekman and Friesen (1975), Izard (1977), Power and Dalgleish (1997), Rozin, Haidt, and McCauley (1999), Scherer (1984),Scherer and Wallbott (1994), Scherer, Wallbott, and Summerfield (1986).



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imagination in a unique or unforgettable way. Wenote that 73% of our respondents said they forwardcampaigns that entail something more than just agreat joke (e.g., important messages, somethingparticularly disgusting). Our respondents also indi-cated that surprise was effective only when coupledwith (at least) a second emotion, such as joy

(resulting in delight) or disgust (resulting inhumor). For example, the Weapons of Mass Destruc-tion campaign was forwarded because of the funnyjokes it contained and the surprise (I thoughtsomething else was going to happen). Raging Cowwas forwarded because of the surprising ending,coupled with the use of humor (I was surprised theywould use such a crazy looking cow to promote theirproduct; I thought of it as finally, somethingdifferent, with the sound and everything). TheHonda Accord viral marketing campaign wasthought to be inventive, original, unique,

well thought out,

and

nicely made,

with a verynovel idea behind the advertising message. The e-Tractions Christmas card received particular atten-tion and was forwarded because of its maliciousdelight and gross humor. While the campaignwas deemed less funny the more times it wasviewed, it was still forwarded to others.

5.2. Viral messages must be cleverlytargeted

A well-targeted viral marketing campaign cangenerate positive response toward the message it

conveys and promote subsequent forwarding beha-vior from recipients; in fact, 44% of our respondentsindicated they would send on a campaign that waswell targeted. Of the nine campaigns we studied,those deemed to fit this description included Rockthe Vote (good reason to vote, everybody shouldknow about the information provided, it isrelevant to everyone) and Save BNN (BNN makesnice programs, so I was surprised by the fact thatthey could be removed from the television, It is apity that BNN should be removed). Not allconsumers, however, felt the Rock the Vote cam-

paign was successful, believing that the image of achild pointing a gun was too confronting. For itspart, the sympathy and empathy for BNN and theservice it provides resulted in forwarding behavior.

In another example of clever targeting, Motorolaincreased the success of its viral campaign by using adatabase containing the e-mail addresses of peoplewho previously registered on the company's web-site. As these individuals had already shown aninterest in Motorola's telephones, they comprisedthe perfect target group (as compared to sending e-mails to random prospects, who may or may not

have been interested in the product). In a period ofjust two weeks, the campaign grew the originaldatabase by 400%. On average, 75% of the recipientsreferred at least one friend, and 40% clicked on thelink to visit Motorola's website to investigate furthertheir V70 model.

6. Six things to remember for achievingfit between emotions and viral messages

Our analysis of the nine viral marketing campaignsleads to the important managerial implication thatmarketers must achieve fit between a key emotionand their brand or viral marketing campaignbecause this will ensure increased chance offorwarding. Keeping in mind that all campaignsmust achieve an element of surprise, suggested fit iscovered in the six points below.

(1) Viral marketing campaigns that use joy arebest suited to irreverent or fun brands (e.g.,Virgin, Apple, Chick-Fil-A), or efforts that seekto encourage interest in a mature category(e.g., Amazon's Weapons of Mass Destruction,Ford's Evil Car, the Australian Meat Board's EatLamb initiative). Joy-based campaigns are alsowell matched to brands that seek to revitalizetheir image (e.g., Honda). Brands that targetyounger customers may also benefit from usingjoy. In contrast, more serious brands or issueswould be ill served by campaigns that cen-tered around the emotion of joy.

(2) Viral marketing campaigns that utilize sadnessare best suited to social marketers who seekan immediate response to disasters, particu-larly Acts of God. In such situations, timing iscritical. Consumers reacting to campaignsdominated by sadness were likely to show ashort-term commitment to the brand orcampaign, rather than become encouragedto engage in long-term change. For example,campaigns seeking child sponsorship in lessdeveloped countries were viewed as less

successful when relying solely on sadness.Instead, these campaigns were often domi-nated by images of hope and messages thatsmall contributions would make a big differ-ence. Marketers must be careful to ensure thatcampaigns based around sadness encouragebenevolence rather than guilt.

(3) Viral marketing campaigns that employ angerare best suited to single issue crusades thatseek an immediate reaction to injustice. Forexample, the Save BNN campaign sought public



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support against a perceived unjust act of theDutch parliament. Similarly, anger-based cam-paigns may be launched by social marketers inreaction to threats against wilderness preser-vation, threats from governments (includingforthcoming acts), and perceived injusticesperpetrated by corporations. Brands that face

competitive threats, whether they wish tomobilize support for their cause or securegovernmental action limiting a competitor'seffort (e.g., Wal-Mart opening a new store in alocal area), may also benefit from anger cam-paigns. As anger is a fleeting emotion, it is illsuited to campaigns that require longer-termaction (e.g., climate change). Further, it doesnot serve initiatives that involve complex orsubtle issues, as these do not typically elicit anangry response from many people. Optimally,anger is best utilized in situations in which

people are being cheated, as the emotion thentakes on something of a protective role.

(4) Viral marketing campaigns that center on fearmust be used very carefully and sparingly. Asevidence of this, consider that the Rock theVote initiative received the most mixedresponse of all the campaigns analyzed in ourstudy. Fear is also a short-term response to aperceived threat. Therefore, campaigns thatseek to change behaviors such as drunkendriving, drug usage, risky sexual practices, orspeeding may be best suited to fear when the

emotion is combined with either a solution(e.g., designated drivers, using condoms), apunishment (e.g., speeding fines), or links tofurther information for concerned recipients.

(5) Viral marketing campaigns built on foundationsof disgust or bad taste are most effectivelytargeted toward young males, rebel-stylebrands (e.g., Australia's Maverick ChannelSeven), or cultures that generally find disgust-ing events humorous (e.g., Japan, Germany,the Pacific Islands). Disgust-based campaigns,

in particular, must walk a fine line of accept-ability and provide a humorous and surprisingmessage at just the right time. Brands shoulduse disgust campaigns only intermittently, forexample during major events such as the SuperBowl or during the Christmas season, and targetthem carefully to avoid unnecessary offense.Interestingly, we note that gender has amoderating influence on forwarding behavior,especially as regards the emotions of fear anddisgust/bad taste. As indicated by our study,male recipients of viral marketing messages

are more likely (63% male to 37% female) topass on those messages than are femalerecipients. Men are also more likely to passon messages involving humor, particularlydisgusting humor, than are women. In addition,we found the emotional responses of fear feltby female respondents were stronger than

those felt by the male respondents. For exam-ple, when responding to a campaign featuring afear element, female respondents used allthree fear-related terms: afraid, scared, andfearful. Male respondents were less likely touse all three terms. When, indeed, femalestudy participants felt fear in response to aviral marketing campaign, they were morelikely to forward the message to other women,this in attempt to alert them to the perceiveddanger or potentially scary situation.

(6) Finally, culture's influence on viral marketingcampaigns will need to be taken into account.For example, in contrast to bricks-and-mortarbusinesses, online companies are not confinedto a single country with a well-definedculture. Studies have identified cultural back-ground in this context as a key managerialconsideration (Singh, Zhao, & Hu, 2005). In ourstudy, in a similar fashion, whilst respondentsthink of sadness as being an unwanted emo-tion, people in several Asian countries regardfeeling sadness as a step along the road tosalvation (Izard, 1991). It is likely that incon-

gruities also exist in how people from differentcultures experience the other five primaryemotions. The global nature of viral marketingmeans the issue of culture must be addressedprior to the launch of a new campaign. Just asonline technologies facilitate the spreading ofviral messages, they also make it much easierfor recipients to complain to others about acampaign they find offensive. While no easyfeat, viral marketing must walk a fine linebetween innovative advertising and offensiveattention seeking. This delicate balancing act

is crucial to campaign success.

7. Conclusions

In today's increasingly competitive business envir-onment, viral marketing is only an effective market-ing tool so long as it encourages consumers to takeaction as a result of the message (i.e., consume thebrand, product, or service advertised) and passalong that message to other prospects. Therefore,the goal of viral marketing is twofold: consumptionand forwarding behavior. This article contributes to



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the literature by considering nine viral campaignsand the success or failure of each on forwardingbehavior. Our findings highlight that successful viralcampaigns link emotion to the message (to encou-rage the recipient to respond to that message);however, the use of emotions may not be enough.Companies must ensure that their message captures

the imagination of the recipient (in order todifferentiate it from all the other messages therecipient is exposed to on a daily basis). Also,companies must consider targeting cleverly. Send-ing a message to a cohort that is receptive to abrand, product, or service offers a better chance ofsuccess than simply e-mailing to the world at large.

While some authors have attempted to categor-ize the types of people who offer referrals (e.g.,Gladwell, 2000; Higie, Feick, & Price, 1987; Katz &Lazarsfeld, 1955; Slama, Nataraajan, & Williams,1992) and to consider the role of gender in referral

behavior (e.g., Wiedmann, Walsh, & Mitchell, 2001;Wood, 2005), the literature still does not empiri-cally identify the impact, if any, of gender onreferral behavior. Our findings contributed on thisimportant topic by identifying empirically theimpact of gender on referral behavior.

We already know that people talk to otherpeople. The Internet and communications technol-ogy make this far easier, faster, and less costly thanat any other time in history. For practitioners, viralmarketing offers a means of communicating mar-keting messages at low-cost, with a significantlyreduced response time and increased potential for

market impact. Has your organization learnt thismarketing language yet?

Appendix A

Box 1

With regard to the number of respondents, Rustand Cooil (1994) have demonstrated a highprobability of good reliability of uniformitybetween the different respondents when a

panel of 20 respondents and 5-point Likertscales are used. If we want an exploratoryproportional reduction in loss reliability of 70%(which is generally agreed to be acceptable),then a proportion of interjudge agreement of0.235 is needed (Rust & Cooil, 1994). Theproportion of interjudge agreements is found asthe total number of actual interjudge agree-ments relative to the total number of allpossible interjudge agreements. For the Weap-ons of Mass Destruction campaign, the value of1803/3420=0.527 (which is higher than 0.235)

indicates that we have good reliability ofuniformity between the different respondents(Rust & Cooil, 1994). For the other campaigns,the lowest proportion of interjudge agreementswas 0.324, while the remaining proportions ofinterjudge agreements were between 0.477and 0.765, all above the required 0.235. This

means, therefore, that it is possible to makereliable assumptions with regard to how differ-ent emotions were felt in each campaign.

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