Pros and cons of viral marketing

This essay is all about the pro and cons of viral marketing, why it could be a bad idea and why it could also be a good idea.

Viral marketing has it's advantages, such as low cost. Making adverts to put on the television can be extremely expensive, costing as little as £3,000 to £10,000 (I found this information on http://www.tvadvertising.co.uk/costs?gclid=CKSe3rDIiroCFVDItAodj04Aig). The fact that viral marketing it much cheaper and is seen just as well, draws the advertisers to advertise online. In today's society, nearly everybody between the ages of twelve and sixty, are using the internet for social networking such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter etc. The advertisers know that if they post their advert on a social networking site, people will see it and depending on how much they like the advert, they will also post the advert they watched on a social networking site, causing it to go around fast, just as the advertiser had hoped for.
The disadvantage to this is it could be spam. Advertising in such a way, the viewer hates it but also sends it around a social networking site saying things such as 'This videos is so rubbish, must watch'. This could lead to everybody hating the one advert, but it still goes around fast, just in a negative way. A classic example of a bad viral advert is the 'Go compare' advert (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_-9QFvhQWo). It's a advert that nearly everyone hates because the song is so annoying but it is also very catchy, which were the advertisers initial intentions, to get people to send it around (promoting) their advert.

Another disadvantage when it comes to viral marketing is the fact that a lot of people make parody versions of the in particular advert. This could then make people not take the original advert seriously and almost make a joke out of it, losing the advertiser money and business.

Either way I believe viral marketing is a risk that advertisers should be willing to take if they want to save money and have their advert travel around from person to person, increasing views much faster than it would on the television.

“One theme [of viral marketing] will likely recur: originality. Originality that draws on popular culture or is so brilliant that it becomes popular culture.” -Which was found on:
 http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/9-great-marketing-quotes/3426/#ixzz2hGIBSXTw