People tend to see traditional marketing and online marketing as two separate things. But constantly we see examples of the fact that they are really not that different. A good “traditional” marketing campaign such as the one I’m going to write about today: the IKEA‘s public showroom, will become widely discussed online. Just as well as the campaign I talked about before by Volkswagen: the fun theory will be discussion face to face.

When the marketing is interesting enough, it wont matter were or when it is, people will speak about them at anytime they have the opportunity and share with people both online and offline. Thus viral does not have to be online and mouth to mouth does not have to be offline.

I have mentioned before that IKEA used Obama’s message of change in their commercials they had advertisement reading “Embrace change.” Though in their case it was more implying of a redecoration than a political change. However, what I had not mentioned was that they build an mock up oval office in the union station in Washington DC. The mock up featured low cost solutions to furnish an oval office, and gave visitors a chance to sit in the executives chair of course monitored by their secret service officers.

Picture: Apartmenttherapy.com

A few days ago they did the public showroom again, but this time in Paris. Between the 10th and the 24th of March four of the Paris metro stops are furnished with sofas for the travellers to use while waiting for the metro. The walls are covered with showroom examples and the furniture have price tags. I do not know about you, but I have waited for the Paris metro, and I for sure, would have appreciated these sofas.

Photo: Freshome.com

So what is what is so great about this marketing campaign? Well, except for the obvious benefit for the travellers to have a place to sit and something to look at the advantages are many.

• Something to do while waiting - Most people get really bored while waiting for the metro, if they do not have music or a book to occupy them. Thus, having something to read or do while waiting is appreciated, and we also tend to actually “take in” what we are reading, as anything is more fun to do, than just wait…
• Playing with more senses - Instead of only giving us something to look at, they also give us the opportunity to feel, touch and try the furniture they are selling, which gives us a better idea of what we are getting if we buy it.
• It is memorable - How many times have to sat in a sofa while waiting for the metro? Not that many, nor in any other public place either. Thus, it is unusual enough to mention to a friend, who might just remember that she need a few things for IKEA, and head over there the next they… BAAM! conversion …
• People talk about it both online and offline - If you search on any of these campaigns on Google you will find thousands of mentions, if you look at the local newspapers you will find articles about the  events as well and if you speak to any of the locals I’m sure many of them will have a few things to say as well. Showing that new ideas does spread everywhere.

Create an online point – to !

I don’t know if IKEA planned any online activities for the Paris metro stations displays, but for the oval office, they complemented the offline showroom with the ability to design your own oval office on their website. Giving people a easy ”point to” when they want to discuss the subject online, is also a great idea to stimulate the buzz in the online media sphere. Actually, most people who have talked about the oval office event choose to show a picture of the online showroom as this was more available for the general public.

They have been going on a while, the viral Facebook status updates. I was first asked to post my bra-color in my status, which has turned into a mystery as no one knows who started it. A day later came the question about the length of my hair, and I’m sure there has been many more like them.

After that came the doppelganger week, where you where supposed to publish a picture of your celebrity look-a-like as you profile picture. This caused some drama as it might violate the terms of service for the network as first published by Cnet. But there is still people participating in this.

Because of these trends I got the question from @Thrimpth on twitter:

At the time the idea that companies, organizations or even blogs could benefit from this hit me right away. But I had not developed my thought more than that at time.

Today the next viral campaign spread and indeed there is a website that is getting a lot of attention for it. Urban Dictionary is the “winner” of being the first to actually benefit from these weekly trends.

Urban Dictionary is the dictionary you wrote. Define your world.

The trend is that people look up their name on the urban dictionary and then post the result for it in their Facebook status. Of course you can also find the word for “To look up your own name on Urban Dictionary, either for definition or myspace useage” which is Urbaning. So technically the latest Facebook trend is called Urbaning, and indeed it is a trend, as the urban dictionary page for Urbaning is in the top ten most popular webpages right now according to the alexa toolbar.

The dictionary’s visitor count changed + 143 % yesterday (Feb 2), according to alexa. Considering the fact that most online media journalists and bloggers just began writing about this trend around 24 hours ago, this is only starting. My guess is that because of this viral trend Urban Dictionary will double their visitor-count five times at least because of this.

Now, an interesting consideration to take here is that there is a big chance that the creators of the urban dictionary did not initiated the campaign themselves, but simply some user who saw the potential it had. Though regardless of who started it, many people will now know about the dictionary.

Many companies might think that they would have a hard time implementing a trend like this, because their message, product or service is not as easy to spread or and interesting to share. But I would have to disagree. There is a lot of successful viral campaign’s that wasn’t too connected with the initiators. Take the fun theory that I wrote about a while ago, I’m sure that people did not think about Volkswagen when they first found out about it. But I would say that most of the people mentioning it to a friend will know who created it. And they did not scream “we did it,” they simply but their logo in the end of the clips.

Thus, sure Urban Dictionary had an obvious “pitch” for starting a trend on Facebook. However, a good idea is a good I idea, and I think any great idea could make it.

What do you think? Could any company, organization, blog or website start a viral trend on Facebook? Have you seen any other facebook trends that I have missed? Do you think that anyone benefited from the previous viral status updates?

From time to time, there are a few marketing campaigns that is just so creative that you have trouble getting them out of your mind. One of the latest brilliant ideas is “The fun theory” an initiative by Volkswagen. Though it is not obviously connected to the cars they sell, or marketed in the old fashion way, this is a campaign that will be stuck in my mind for a long time.

It’s fun, it proves a point both while being produced and when later shown, and you get a few fun statistics to share with your friends after watching them.

The videos that went viral

It all got started when Volkswagen published three videos, the piano staircase, the bottle bank arcade and the world’s deepest bin.

Here are links to the other two:
The bottle arcade & the world’s deepest bin.

About the project

“The fun theory award recognizes those thoughts, ideas and inventions that help prove the fun theory. That fun is the easiest way to change people’s behavior for the better…” (From the fun theory website)

The whole project is based on a competition that gives people a chance to send in their fun theories and compete for a price of 2500 EUR. You can still send in your contribution as a written presentation with a visual picture of the idea. The later could be a sketch, a photo, or a film of a prototype. The competition is open until December 15, and then they will select 10 finalists that will be presented in front of a jury. Here you can see a few of the entries.

Multiple level marketing both viral and creative

This well rounded marketing campaign plays on so many levels:

1. When they did the videos, it most likely created a buzz from the people who tried the different theories.
2. First off all it is fun and visual, and easy to share.
3. The fact that it is a competition where money is at stake, means that many people take it with them after they leave their computer to discuss possible contributions to the competition.
4. As they keep posting new entries to the competition, people keep coming back to the website to check out other fun theories.
5. You can find the campaign in many places; their website, a Facebook group, twitter buzz and a youtube channel.

Volkswagens role

When you watch the movies, the Volkswagen logo only comes up on the last picture in the movie. Thus, they have chosen to not over use their logo in the campaign, which I think it an interesting move. As most brand do not seem to be able to create anything without their logo being on display.

While watching the movies, most people will wonder who made them, because they are done professionally.  I think that people will unconsciously appreciate that there is not brand name embedded in the movie.

Volkswagen is not flaunting their brand and let the brand “the fun theory” with logo be in the spotlight, and I think that this could increase the amount of people who will actually remember that Volkswagen was the initiators.

I am usually impressed by how IKEA manage to keep their advertising and marketing very current so they play on what is actually going on in the world. Like their metro adds in Washington DC, around the 2009 election.

Pictures by buschap

A few days ago I found this new Swedish campaign where they use let people invite their friends to a breakfast at IKEA, via Facebook.

The ad read: “Invite your best Facebook-friend to breakfast. Click here”
then it switch to a picture of two Facebook user and breakfast

and it says “Cris treated Anton to breakfast at IKEA. ten SEK/two people. (Two for the price of one.)”

If you click on the ad you get to a Facebook application that they have built for this. The application allows you to invite your friend to breakfast by posting an invitation to your friends wall as well as an invitation to use the application. And of course you can write a personal message along with the invitation if you want to.

People often talk about building viral marketing campaigns. That means that the message you want to send is spread trough social networks and the internet by the users through word of mouth. I think this IKEA campaign is a great example of a successful viral campaign as people benefit from it.

Ten SEK is a bit more than one dollar, and who would not want to have breakfast for that amount with a friend. Also I think Ikeas is often a place where you go as to with your family, by expanding that to a place where you go shopping with your friends, the number of visits to IKEA will increase per person.

Thus this marketing campaign is not only spread by the customers, the customers are also reminding one another that IKEA, is a place where you could take your friend just because its it pleasant to meet.

Can you see other benefits with the campaign that you want to share? Or can you find a disadvantage to share?

If you want to see more examples of IKEA check out these pictures

From a marketing perspective you can see a RT on Twitter as spreading the word mouth to mouth. So if many people does it, I becomes a bit of a viral campaign that is growing by other peoples work.

What I’m wondering is if the text in the Tweet is that get the attention, what is it spreading, or if the person actually tweeting get’s in on the marketing campaign too. (If I may call it that)

Let’s say that you see a Tweet marked RT.

• Do you pay any attention to the Twitterer who sent if originally and consider following this person?

• Or do you only think that this have to be a good tweet and if there is a link is probably worth following?

Please share your thought about this, I’m curious, am I missing something?