5 Rules for Undercover Viral Marketing

With the internet and social networks being what they are, companies have begun to pour more and more money and effort into making content go viral.  The idea behind this is that, assuming the company can generate appropriate content, distribution of it is essentially free.  Companies are absolutely salivating for customers to like, tweet, and favorite their content.  But when this content is deliberately deceptive, where is the line?

For me, one of the best examples of this was from baseball's Double-A New Britain Rock Cats.  If you haven't seen the video, the company paid two employees to stage a fake marriage proposal; one that goes horribly wrong when the woman rejects the man posing as her boyfriend.

Was this successful?  Definitely.  The video received over 600,000 views on YouTube and the only cost was the wages for probably an hour of two employees' time.  So is this something that all companies should be doing?

Marketing in this way is similar to negative political ads; everybody claims to hate them, but they wouldn't be produced if they didn't get results.  Nobody wants to be deceived by a Minor League team.  However, how many of the 600,000 people that watched the video had even heard of the Rock Cats prior to the video?  And, of those who hadn't, how many of those will remember the name after the video?

For companies considering going undercover and trying to get content to go viral under deceptive pretenses, here are some rules to ensure the desired result is achieved:

1. Ensure the concept of undercover viral marketing is consistent with your brand identity.  Customers may be more willing to forgive being deceived by a brand known for a playful culture than one that is more straight-laced.  In other words, customers might expect something like this from Virgin Atlantic or Boston Brewing Company, but probably not from Lexus or Charles Schwab.
2. The content should be humorous, but not offensive.  Giving people a light-hearted chuckle based on something that turned out to be staged is very different from emotional exploitation.  So the content should be harmless and humorous.
3. The content needs to be very believable.  Your sales force is essentially the entire networks of Twitter, Facebook, etc. who are spreading links.  When it is revealed that the content was fake, these people will feel foolish for having not been able to see this beforehand.  Therefore, they need the plausible denial of content that seemed real in every possible respect.  Otherwise, you will have left a sour taste in their mouth about your brand (and these are the last people you want to offend).
4. Be timely with admitting the ruse.  Of course, content that is obviously fabricated will not go viral as easily, so companies shouldn't admit their plans immediately.  But the longer you wait, the more you risk insulting your customers.  Fess up early and people will be more forgiving.
5. Do it infrequently.  If you cry wolf all the time, even legitimate content will go unnoticed.  By making this a small, infrequent part of your marketing strategy, companies can generate an enormous amount of brand recognition for very low cost.  But the risks are high if it is not done carefully.