What do Viral Marketing and Passing Gas Have in Common?

With the expansion of online social networking media, marketers now have another highly useful channel to utilize for spreading the word about their campaign. With the emergence of these channels, and now that the Internet is available to over 760 million people worldwide, viral marketing has had astonishing effects for pushing products, goods, services, and raise awareness. Recent studies show that 58% of the US population uses the Internet as a primary source to get information. This percentage is the highest among other traditional sources of information such as professional advisors, newspapers and magazines. Therefore, marketers have a great advantage when it comes to exploiting the Internet, because of its long reach. As far as viral marketing goes, the Internet is a gold mine for targeting specific niche audiences; even the fickle Gen-Yers, especially now with all the social networking sites available. With use of the Internet, viral marketing can take on many faces and use many themes to spread the word.
I was browsing through YouTube today and I came across what I thought was an excellent viral marketing commercial for Troegs Beer. Troegs Beer is a microbrewery from Harrisburg Pennsylvania that is run and crafted by two brothers. Considering that micro-breweries do not have the financial muscle or the audience to compete with behemoth breweries like Anhueser Busch or Coors, viral marketing is great way to go to reach the crowds that enjoy exclusivity as well as specialty products. This is nice, but what I really enjoyed about their commercial is that it was simple, and had a specific target: men or men who love beer. The commercial displayed a beautiful model in a yellow bikini describing the great taste and array of products; meanwhile she’s belching and farting. The use of potty humor has given this specific video on YouTube an excellent rating, over half a million views and many comments. After I watched that commercial, I started noticing that there were many food and drink commercials that utilized potty humor; and my best guess is that it’s entertaining, and in a gross way, authentic. There were several videos about girls passing gas in general; this must be a new trend.

What does all this mean? It means that with viral marketing, a marketer can maximize the use of that specific channel to an audience by being specific; and letting people with similar interests spread the word. With the expanding numbers of bloggers and the millions of members involved with social networks; the possibilities are endless, no matter how stinky.