The End of Viral Marketing?

Image via Wikipedia

Yes, I’m still in Italy and on holidays. However, I’ve come across this little piece of news in my feeds that I need to flag up.

On Monday 26th, a new law comes into effect in the UK (Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008) to protect consumers from ‘stealth marketing‘ – i.e. underhand marketing / advertising that pretends to just be user-to-user ‘advice’.

It’s interesting for me since I worked in viral marketing until February, and advised on/implemented various stealth marketing techniques (I won’t say what, and for whom, for obvious reasons ).

I actually think that pretendy spammy advertising masking as ‘friendly advice’ never worked in the first place. Consumers are far too savvy and can tell who’s genuine and who’s not – you can’t just invade people’s social spaces and talk about brands or products. There is still a market though in analysing current user opinion, and trying to engage with them in their spaces – as long as the brand or product is cool to begin with.

I.e.: don’t rave on about a crap product, e.g. a payday loan. It just isn’t authentic.