Flashback: Columbia Professor Blasts Influencer Model†

Brandweek, July 16, 2007 — Influencers. Connectors. Mavens. For years, it has been conventional wisdom that to create a buzz, you have to first target those archetypes to get your word out. The theory, outlined in Malcolm Gladwell's 2000 best-seller The Tipping Point, posits that a minority of the population, some say 15%, have an undue influence over the rest of us. Such influencers tend to have more friends than most and also have an urge to acquire social capital (i.e. exclusive information and products) before everybody else.

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.

The Viral Marketing Effect

Getting the word out.

eMarketer, July 10, 2007 — Of all word-of-mouth (WOM) tactics, viral marketing has probably drawn the most attention from marketers. And they have lofty goals for it. According to a 2006 study by JupiterResearch, cited in Internet Retailer, the biggest goal of viral marketers was to increase brand awareness (71%). Half also expected to drive online sales, and 44% hoped to drive offline sales.

P&G Using Influence To 'Bring The Love Back' To Brands

MediaPost Publications, June 15, 2007 — PROCTER & GAMBLE IS "BRINGING the love back" through what it calls influencer marketing--sort of a public relations on steroids. P&G's Anthony Rose described it in depth at yesterday's ANA Masters of Integrated Marketing event. Rose, associate director, Global Beauty External Relations, and co-leader, Influencer Marketing Center of Excellence at P&G, was really echoing a message others had delivered during the day: telling consumers what they need to hear doesn't work.

The hot new viral: advertising!

The killer TV spot is dead. In its place are killer YouTube videos you watch on your cell, Bluetooth billboards that flash you private messages, and online fantasy worlds you wander in for hours. How

San Francisco Magazine, June 1, 2007 — The pool party is a bust: so boring, one woman has resorted to reading a book. The man next to her, a nerdy type with no tan, is fiddling halfheartedly with a mobile video game. “I’m sorry I forgot the beer,” he says to a woman tanning in a bikini. “Whatever,” she says, rolling her eyes.

Diesel Underwear Viral Sends Web Surfers Into Tizzy†

Traffic to Swedish Apparel Maker's Site Jumps Fivefold as Consumers Try to Get Their '15 Megabytes of Fame'

Advertising Age, May 14, 2007 — Two gorgeous, crazy girls steal an underwear collection, kidnap a sales manager and lock themselves in a hotel room with their victim for five days.

This was Diesel's unconventional approach to marketing its Intimate Collection, but it may well have put the company in the frame for a Cyber Grand Prix at this year's Cannes International Advertising Festival.