What's Plaguing Viral Marketing†

Sorry, Malcolm, but the Tipping Point Might Be More Myth Than Math

Advertising Age, July 16, 2007 — Since the term "viral marketing" snuck into vogue in the mid-1990s, the ad business has been sold on sickness as the way to describe how information, ideas and influence spread through populations of consumers. Once a sideshow to traditional marketing, it has developed its own canon of research and books — most famously, Malcolm Gladwell's "The Tipping Point" — and has become the order of the day in a world where people wear their social networks on their sleeves.

But now a long-taken-for-granted central principle of viral marketing — that large-scale changes in behavior can begin like disease epidemics, with just a few highly connected people — is facing its toughest challenge yet.