Live from Ad:Tech: P&G’s Buzz on Viral Marketing

(Direct)—Poor you: If you weren’t asked to help choose the music for a Pringles commercial and didn’t get an advance copy of a script to a television show aimed at teens, you just aren’t with it.

Those are two examples of viral marketing done by Tremor, a marketing unit within Procter & Gamble that builds word of mouth advocacy among teens, both for Procter & Gamble products and external clients.

Not just any teens, though, according to Erika Brown, Tremor’s brand manager.

The package goods company draws a distinction between trendsetters, who are the first to embrace new fashions, products or ideas, and trend spreaders, or “connectors,” said Brown, speaking this week at the Ad:Tech marketing conference in San Francisco. These are the 10% of the teen population who have “social networks like you would not believe.”

Brown did not go into too much detail about how Tremor recruits its charges, except to say that it doesn’t accept just any teen wanting to join.

Having a well-connected network is only part of the battle. A product has to lend itself not only to advocacy, but amplification as well. A user of the best adult incontinence product in the world may be fiercely loyal to it, but the chance of his walking into a cocktail party and loudly touting it is unlikely.

Furthermore, in order for a good or service to be buzz-worthy, it has to have a message wrapped around it. Brown characterized these messages as coming in one of three archetypes: get it first; inside scoop; and influence power.

Pringles allowed connectors to vote on the music that would be used in the snack’s commercials. This gave them ownership of the campaign, and participants pointed out the commercial to their circle whenever it aired.

In the case of the television show, advance copies of the season finale were mailed, several pages at a time, to connectors. While the juiciest details had been blocked out, what was revealed was enough to get tongues wagging—and to generate a 171% ratings spike.

A similar program worked for a retail chain that opened a new store. Connectors were given advance notice on the store layout, information on some of the models and an invitation to a VIP store opening, to which they could bring as many friends as they wanted.

The connectors each brought an average of six people, and each friend spent twice the average amount seen at other stores.

Brown did offer the caveat that within viral marketing campaigns it’s not easy to capture lightning in a bottle and it’s near impossible to capture lightning in a bottle twice. She pointed to the success of the campaign behind the movie The Blair Witch Project as a successful viral campaign—and the producers’ efforts to engineer a similar campaign for the little-seen sequel, which had a forced feel, as a failed one.