The most outstanding advantage of viral marketing is low cost. Before the launched date of Sina Micro-Blog, Sina had invited 800 hundred people (including some artistes) to use the Micro-Blog. Through the word-of-month from these trial users, the registered blog users dramatically increased. Since Micro-Blog is an online public platform that users can post his/her messages, buzz spreads much more rapidly.
There is, however, one significance drawback of viral marketing. Once the message spreads, it cannot be controlled, especially some negative buzz. Many users feel dissatisfied with Sina as their messages are deleted and their accounts are removed when it thinks the contents include some sensitive political words. The voice of discontent widely spread via online and offline channels and that could not be stopped by Sina. There is no doubt that negative voice will affect people's desire to sign up to become a user.Reference: http://t.sina.com.cn/, newsSource: alvinchan
Viral marketing is a useful strategic and tactical tool in any promotional model. It is a speedy method of transmitting message via the web. Basically, the duration of a film showed in cinemas is just about few months. How to make the exposure of the film's messages grow exponentially must be the most important aspect for a movie. In this sense, viral marketing is a useful tool for promoting Avatar.
The film Avatar cooperated with McDonald's to create and promote this online application not only because it can reduce the promoting cost, but that can let people likely to be a part of the movie. When the user uploads his/her photo in the web site, it can create his/her sole picture that is different from the others. This individualization leads the users feel interested and then they are willing to send to their friends. Thus, once the viral marketing launched, the viral message does not require any resources input from the originating organization.
This viral marketing campaign not only bring a great box office record for the movie, but that benefits McDonald's for short term revenue and buzz.
Reference: http://www.avatarizeyourself.com/
