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Category: Viral Marketing

Where Did Viral Marketing Start?

While doing some “ego surfing on Google”:http://www.google.com/search?q=%22ken+schafer%22 I stumbled upon something I wrote seven years ago and completely forgot about.
Back in September 1998 I wrote “Viral Marketing at its Best”:http://www.o-a.com/archive/1998/September/0118.html a post to the (at the time) incredibly influential “Online Advertising Mailing List”:http://www.o-a.com/archives.html run by “Cliff Kurtzman”:http://www.kurtzman.biz/.
This was the first time I wrote publicly about viral marketing although we at Sony Music had been working on viral things back in 96 and 97 even though I don’t think we used the word back then.
My post is a deconstruction of the then new idea of “Wish Lists” with an aside to explain “forward to a friend” links:

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What About Word-of-Mouse?

I’m all for word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing, but I couldn’t help but be repelled by “a recent article”:http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9674318/ I came across on MSNBC.com. In it, Entrepreneur.com advertising columnist Roy Williams points to WOM as “one of the most credible forms of advertising.” Businesses must greatly exceed their customers’ expectations, he says. So far, so good. Then he goes on to provide a series of tips for generating WOM that include transforming your brick-and-mortar business into an eyesore and giving away free desserts.

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