“Viral Friend Generator” Video - Horrid, dirty spam
Posted by: Marketing Guy Date posted: March 8th, 2007 Published in: Marketing, Public Relations, Spam, Viral Marketing“Viral Friend Generator” - this is a video that has been hitting a load of video distribution sites claiming to show how to raise the traffic to your site by a whopping 300%! WOW! Unfortunately what they don’t say is that the dirty, low quality video has been referral spamming marketing related sites to drive traffic to their own poxy little piece of crap get rich quick scheme.
Imagine my surprise (I thought I would start with that literary faus pax to set the tone of my sheer disgust) when I checked my logs this morning to find trickles of traffic for a multitude of video sharing sites such as Google Video, YouTube, MSN Soapbox, Yahoo Video and a range of lower tier sites. Not having ever bothered my backside to ever create a video podcast, let alone bother trying to distribute it, I was somewhat intrigued to see where the…3…extra visits were coming from.
Unfortunately my morning cup of tea and cigarette weren’t as sweet today because I wasted several precious seconds of my life watching this stupid damn video. And no, I’m not going to drop a link - it’s not worth the effort.
So starting from the beginning…
“Viral Friend Generator” appears to be yet another get rich quick scheme - it holds all the ill-thought out concepts of MLM - low quality production, outrageous claims (2 beta testers made over $200k!), and piss poor marketing techniques. Ironically I suspect that by tomorrow, the viral “friend” generator will only have served to make enemies across the web. As one YouTube commenter says, “die spammers, die”…
So 3 easy steps to increase your site traffic by 300%? Let’s hear them:
Oh no no no, but first, let’s talk about the big mistake that 99% of marketers make….
“The 2 step process” - marketers use a 2 step sign up process to get visitors into their “marketing funnel” - we’re going to show you how… *video end*
Lol.
Anyone seen “There’s Something About Mary” - know the scene where Ben Stiller picks up the hitchhiker - yes, you know where I’m going…”7 minute abs!”. Best. Marketing. Gimmick. Evah! You see 8 minute abs sitting there and next to it, 7 minute abs, which you gonna pick? 
Lame, lame, lame crap viral friend generator my ass.
Referral spam is hardly revolutionary and throwing out a 2 minute presentation video that doesn’t actually say anything about your company or your product is stupid, dumb ass 80’s marketing (and frankly I think it only ever existed on TV and films because I really believe people aren’t that dumb as to fall for it).
I guess though, that the people behind the viral friend generator may call it a success. After all, they’ve had exposure - their “brand” is being talked about - and no doubt the traffic to their site has increased (probably from 1 visitor a day to 3 - 300% increase - score!). But that’s just like convincing yourself that the dog you just clipped with your car is probably OK and shouldn’t have been on the road anyway.
The old marketing adage - even bad publicity is good publicity - is perhaps an appropriate philosophy for the people behind the viral friend generator video. Maybe someone should tell them that the adage is in fact an in-joke between marketers poking fun at idiots making a fool of themselves and their businesses and thinking they just did something good! 
If you have something that warrants the effort you are putting into any marketing campaign, then surely it warrants doing it right? Of course, where your product is lame in the first place (or you are in fact ripping people off - which I’m not in any way insinuating that the people behind viral friend generator are…), then the approach you might want to take is to grab as much eyeball time as you can for the lowest cost.
The one thing that really bugs me about the marketing world is the righteous approach to PR that people often take, even in the face of facts that suggest otherwise. Read: Zipatoni after the Sony flog drama, or BMM after their ban from Google - established marketing professionals still cling to their guns to try and “save face” even when it’s glaringly obvious to everyone else that the best approach is to ‘fess up and admit they were wrong.
No folks, any publicity isn’t good publicity - in fact some publicity can be terminal for your business. Manage your outward appearance as best you can, even if it means you are going to focus on being the best moron you can. At least you are being honest and some people will respect that - coming out with trite sales pitches is just the lowest of the low.
Example - VirginMedia’s approach to the Virgin v BSkyB drama. Their customers have lost out and that could have hurt them a lot. But they have stuck to their guns and released a lot of honest (albeit sarcastic) responses to the situation. Lose a few points because I don’t get to watch 24 on TV anymore, but gain a whole lot more in respect.
MG
Comments
I really don’t know who’s the bad guy in the sky vs. virgin thing. I think VM were a bit childish with the changing the EPG to Sky Snooze etc. I admit Sky knew that provided they attracted a 100,000 new customers they wouldn’t lose whereas VM has a lot more to lose.
Hehe I thought the Sky Snooze change was pretty amusing (just my sense of humour though!).
It’s tough to tell what was going on in the background with the deal - I’d hazard a guess that there was a lot of dirty back room stuff going on to let things get this way in public.
I mean I think it’s clever on the both part. Virgin are playing the greedy rupert murdoch angle when they aren’t exactly a tiny little operation. Plus Sky are doing the whole, Virgin are ripping you off thing.
I think the reason the deal never happened is because neither party wanted the deal enough.
Damn you post hijackers - comment on the right post!
Just kidding (wish WP had a feature to move comments to different posts).
Yeh I agree they are both taking pretty good angles (in terms of marketing), although I’d say greed on both parts (mainly Sky) was the factor causing the deal to collapse.
Sky probably bumped up the price because Virgin have moved in on their market share and Virgin have simply refused to bend over.