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Forget Viral Marketing. It is all about Reverberating Marketing!

Written on 1st December 2008 22 COMMENTS
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Serial Internet Entrepreneur

Marie-Claire and the last white spot on Patrick

I never liked the term Viral Marketing. It just sounds like bad karma. Viruses are associated with diseases and death. Do you want to associate your product or service with that?

It also sounds too easy. All these marketeers being asked for, or offering, a quick ‘Viral Campaign’ by clients. That is like asking for a quick number one music hit or a quick successful start-up. Wishing for it doesn’t make it so.

Anyway. I have found a better word: Reverberate

Reverberating, according to my dictionary, means: To resound in a succession of echoes; reecho

I like that! This is exactly what a good marketing campaign does. It reverberates through the blogosphere, on Twitter and offline. With every reecho of your message a new echo is born. You can hear the whispering bouncing off the walls in dark alleys. Your message, reverberating from individual to individual. Constantly changing in form, just like a real echo. The underlying message, the concept, always strong and carrying your echo, but maturing as it passes along.

Just like an echo your marketing campaign will die out, eventually. That isn’t bad. It will be replaced by your actual product or service. People will be prepared for it because they have heard the echo. Maybe not even conscientiously. They might not even know they heard the echo. But they did, and they recognize it.

Forget Viral. Aim for a message that will reverberate.

22 Comments »

About the author: Serial entrepreneur and founder of several companies. Current activities include TwitterCounter.com & this Blog. Boris is also very active on Twitter: @Boris

22 comments/trackbacks to “Forget Viral Marketing. It is all about Reverberating Marketing!”

Dec 1, 2008: Viral Marketing is last year. Enter Echo and Reverberate Marketing. | Kyle Lacy, Social Media - Indianapolis
[...] Veldhujzen van Zanten from the Next Web has a great post called Forget Viral Marketing. It Is All About Reverberating Marketing! . I completely agree with his choice of HATING the term viral [...]
Dec 2, 2008: jansn » Blog Archive » Advertising should be about fun and happiness
[...] Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten wrote an article where he questions the term ‘Viral Marketing’. Normally I’m not that big of a fan [...]
Dec 2, 2008: Creativity,Marketing and Innovation » Blog Archive » Viral Marketing is last year. Enter Echo and Reverberate Marketing.
[...] Veldhujzen van Zanten from the Next Web has a great post called Forget Viral Marketing. It Is All About Reverberating Marketing! . I completely agree with his choice of HATING the term viral [...]
Dec 2, 2008: A viral disease — Vad NU!
[...] maybe it’s the term. The more I think about it, the more I think I agree with Boris from The Next Web: I never liked the term Viral Marketing. It just sounds like bad karma. Viruses are associated [...]
Dec 3, 2008: Red Links 3/12/08 : Alexia Golez
[...] Ding, ding, ding… Reverberate marketing! [...]
Dec 4, 2008: Transform Your Blast Email to Echo Email « Erin McMahon: Possibly Related Posts
[...] I thought about this after reading Kyle Lacy’s post where he talks similarly about the use of the word ‘viral.’ His alternative? Echo and reverberating marketing, coined by Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten. [...]
Mar 1, 2009: craigworrell (Craig Worrell)
Just read: http://is.gd/9NAN ~ Interesting. Any thoughts?

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By dealsend on Dec 1, 2008

We support “Reverberate” , do you have any suggestions of how you want us to pronounce it as well?

Seriously now, this post is the first viral for a “word”, nice job!

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By Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten on December 1st, 2008:
Click here to hear how to pronounce it:

http://www.merriam-webster.com.....everberate

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By Bob Jansen on Dec 1, 2008

I really like the term! Certainly sounds more open and happy than viral marketing.

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By drivingsouth on Dec 1, 2008

Too hard to pronunciate, too many ee’s and r’s :D

This bul$#t lingo is like seasonal but viral kinda sticks to more web-ignorant minds.

Clueless clients always want 1/2 kilo of viral marketing. If this reverb think sticks, they’ll start asking less if they cant pronounce.

(it’s like that cop that was making an report about an accident, and since he didnt knew how to write ’sidewalk’, he kicked the head of the poor guy so he could now write: “The head was on the road” :S :)

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By David Martel on Dec 1, 2008

Totally agree. I always kind of cringe when I use viral…just waiting for someone to say it sounds negative. Thanks for “reverberate” suggestion. I think I’ll use it.

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By Blake Cahill on Dec 1, 2008

Boris,

Like the terminology.

Blake

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By Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten on Dec 1, 2008

Thanks for the feedback everybody!

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By Philip Campbell on Dec 1, 2008

Amplify is better.

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By Nalden on Dec 2, 2008

Best post i’ve read here until now!
I love the idea behind your terminology Boris.

Oh and I will swing by to pick up my canvas this week haha.

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By Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten on Dec 2, 2008

Thanks Nalden! Your canvas is in our office!

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By Wouter Van den Neste on Dec 2, 2008

Well, I like the term. I hope this terminology will spread all over the world. Because viral marketing sounds really scaring for some people.

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By m on Dec 2, 2008

I believe this is the wrong term.

The reverberation cannot be louder than the original noise.
It does not grow before dying off.
It does not imply spreading from person to person.

The term viral is used and popular because it describes what happens: it spreads peer to peer without additional input. It grows the number of people using or viewing it organically. It spreads exponentially as more people take it up.

Reverberate does not imply any of these things.

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By Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten on December 5th, 2008:
It actually does. Check out the dictionary:

Reverberate; To have a prolonged or continuing effect
Example: Those talks with his teacher reverberated throughout his life.

An echo dies down. That is true. That is why I’m not talking about Echo Marketing Reverberating is stronger.

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By m on December 6th, 2008:
Even what you are describing is an after-effect of a larger effect. “The Reverberations of World War 2″ may have a strong and continuing influence on our world but they are after effects – not repeats of the same effect, and they are diminished.

They neither grows exponentially nor spread peer to peer. Those are the essential characteristics of viral marketing.

What you are describing is any marketing which is “effective”, or “persistent”, not which “spreads itself through the mechanisms of peer interaction” and “grows larger exponentially through natural communication”.

imo

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By m on December 6th, 2008:
For example you could say the “I’m a Mac I’m a PC” ad campaign “reverberated through our culture”, in that it has been spoofed multiple times and eventually even by microsoft themselves.

This is an example of reverberation of an idea or advertisement – it has a lasting impact, it generates ads of a similar nature, and it becomes embedded in our culture.

It is not, however, viral by any means. It did not spread peer to peer starting at a small “infection” point. It did not grow exponentially through people sharing it because they thought it was interesting.

It reverberated, but it was not viral.
Interchanging one term for the other will give an inaccurate picture.

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