Pros and Cons of Incentivised Viral Marketing

Since Happy Farm is one of the most popular applications in Facebook, it had cooperated with Minute Maid beverage of Coca Cola Company to conduct a successful viral marketing campaign.


The main advantage is cost efficiency and high possibility to get to a broader target market rapidly and it is generally trusted by many. Because there were some rewards involved, so the players were more willing to invite and refer their friends due to value-added for them. Furthermore, Minute Maid could enhance their brand awareness through this campaign, while the audience engagement was also enhance. This campaign could also convert the Happy Farm players to become physical Minute Maid beverage customers by offering the “Happy Farm coins”.


Unfortunately, viral marketing can be a bit tedious and subjective. It's so hard to pin down variables when the marketers try and prove ROI, so attributing sales growth or traffic increases due to viral marketing can be a stretch. Therefore, the marketers need to pay attention and monitor the opinions and feedbacks of the audience, otherwise it may drive away the customers.

Minute Maid beverage occurred in Facebook Happy Farm??

I think most of you guys have played Happy Farm which is a Facebook application, so many people have played and addicted to this popular application. Approximately 15 million urban white-collar workers are estimated to spend more than five hours a day on Happy Farm.


Players can grow crops, trade with others, sell produce, and steal from neighbors. The funnest thing for most of players is stealing crops from neighbors. Therefore the players are willing to send invitation to their friends in order to increase their neighbors.


If you are a player of Happy Farm, then are you remember Minute Maid beverage has been occurred in Facebook Happy Farm? That’s true!! Because this was a viral marketing campaign of Minute Maid beverage from Coca Cola Company in Tai Wan, which was cooperated with Facebook Happy Farm.

How can it be viral marketing? As I mention before, the players can grow and steal crops from neighbors, so same at this case. The more neighbors they have, the more crops they can steal. They also could use “Minute Maid beverage” as the decoration in Happy Farm. This campaign also offered “Happy Farm coins” as the rewards for the players if they brought the physically Minute Maid beverage.

 

Viral Marketing - Incentivised Viral

What kind of benefits for you can be defined as an incentive? Discount? Special offer? Or just an enjoyment? Well, it depends on what you want.


Incentivised viral is a type of viral marketing by offering some rewards for providing someone else’s address, so that the marketers can dramatically increase referrals. This method encourages and facilitates you referring more friends in order to gain more rewards.


On the other hand, the network effect of the Internet and can be effective in reaching a large number of people rapidly by the message is being transmitted more and more.


Viral marketing works best when a valuable and tangible incentive is offered, encouraging individuals to forward an email or message to their friends. Incentive can add value for you, so that you are willing to forward and transmit the message. However, marketers should cap the incentive to a specific quantity to avoid spam-like distribution of the message.