We asked ContagiousMedia.org's Paul Berry to give us some tips on creating your own viral campaigns. (Perhaps someday you, too, will enter the Contagious Media Showdown.)
What advice could you give to someone that would like to do their own experiments in viral marketing or contagious media?
"Find a heart-string that you can pull on, something that really matters to people, and tug on it hard. Go too far—the volume of all the white noise out there is tremendous, so you need to keep shaping and reshaping the concept until it can stand out. When you hit the heart of this, keeping it from launching will become impossible, even your handful of friends will be enough to start cascading the contagious reaction."
What types of programs or classes are available for people interested in this type of media?
"This is a really new area, and many of the biggest successes aren't even planned or intentional. NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program has the right mindset for this, letting students experiment with technology and concepts, paired with some of the brightest minds in technology. But... there's no guarantee in this arena; it's a bizarre skill that even when perfected will still give batting average style percentages on success. One thing that really helps is to work in groups, so that the brainstorms can keep reshaping the concept to make it wilder, funnier, more outrageous."
