Marketing content going viral : What are the factors that may boost virality?

Abstract:

Viral marketing allows companies to promote their products and services using very small budgets and the viral ad can be considered the holy grail of digital marketing. In this light, the aim of this study is to discuss the main factors in the existing literature that are considered to boost virality and articulate a summarized Virality Theoretical Model. The empirical study included in this thesis involves the monitoring of an actual ad and an assessment of whether it went viral or not and if it follows the guidelines of the Virality Theoretical Model. The empirical study showed that the ad did not go viral and did not include and display all the attributes proposed by the Model. This further indicates, in regards to theory as well as for marketing executives and advertising practitioners, that virality is a complex phenomenon that depends on several different factors involving both content characteristics and dissemination.