A Thai tourist visited Singapore and wanted to buy some snacks back to Thailand and to her surprise, she found some fried lizards with it.
She immediately shared this experience on her Facebook and it went viral. In no time, everyone was talking about ensuring quality checks on Irvins products.
IRVINS took this matter to their social media account and apologized to everyone by not avoiding this matter or covering their mistake. Irvins choose to face it and learn from it to prevent it from happening again. Kudos to them for being honest and genuine in their business.
Using John Berger’s six steps to Contagious content, we can easily reach out to more consumers and use this to our advantage in creating a viral advertisement.
- Social Currency – Sharing to look good in front of others
Here is Bellroy comparing their wallets against conventional one and it shows how slim their product can really be!
2. Triggers – Associating your brand that people will encounter often.
Need a fizzy drink to quench your thirst? A Coke is all you can think of!
3. Emotions – The more consumers can connect with the advertisement emotionally, they can instigate a form of positive emotions towards it.
Apple advertisement always amaze me with their cinematography when they shoot their advertisements! Have you watched the entire film before skipping them on YouTube?
4. Public – Making your brand visible so people will notice them.
The above is Dele Alli a famous footballer who collaborated with Secretlab a Singapore gaming chair company. When they see how comfortable he is in, I am sure many supporters want to own one too!
5. Practical Value – Offering useful tips to help your consumers.
Haylee sells mattress and they educate their consumers on finding the perfect score for firmness in their mattress to have a good night sleep.
6. Stories – Building a story to your advertisement that carries an emotion that you want to bring across to your consumers.
This video is about a Malay delivery driver working for MacDonald during the Ramandan period and the uncle decided to break fast with him and this touched the heart of many Singaporean. Will you buy an extra drink for your delivery driver? A simple gesture goes a long way.
In conclusion, creating contagious content is key to every marketer as it plays a big part to viral marketing. It could easily reach out other millions of users through the internet.
Readers, have you experienced any 6 STEPPS throughout your life? Do share with me some of the interesting articles that you come across! I will be delighted to take a look at them!
*Mr Ricky extended our blogpost submission to the Fourth of August 2020.*
Digital Marketing Blog 
Hi! I enjoyed reading this blog on viral marketing. And the incident of Irvins is so awful, but thankfully the company handled it well before consumers develop negative feelings to the brand. Have you tried watching thai commercials? They are really great in creating unique advertising content and conveying their brand message well in it!
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Hello Joan, It was really admirable of them to admit their mistakes and thankfully there haven’t been any reported cases of unwanted ingredients in their products anymore. I heard that Thai commercials are really melodramatic which makes us resonate with them strongly. I will check them out and see how well do they convey their feelings to us. I hope they do have English Subtitles for me to understand them better!
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What an interesting post, Nigel! I am sure you and I, as consumers, have come across several viral contents before. Though I am sure it was never IRVINS’ intention to go viral in such a negative light, it must have been a huge damage for their brand. In the framework you mentioned, which step do you think a business like IRVINS should focus on for their next huge hit?
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Hello Nigel. What an informative post! I personally owned a Secretlab chair for few years now and I bought it because of how comfortable it looked in the ads! I think it is important that brands that make their products visible to the public should ensure that the quality is delivered as promised so as to prevent a backfire!
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Hello Delywn! Me too! I personally own a Secretlab and the way that they market the chair to consumers on the comfort and the assurance that they give was a major factor before I made my purchase, I personally feel that sharing a photo on my social media to obtain an additional 2 years warranty from them was a brilliant idea to increase their product awareness!
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Hello Valere, I agree with you and I am sure no brands in this world would want their consumers to view them in a different light. I feel what IRVINS can do is to leverage on connecting with their consumers emotionally by creating a touching storyline to touch their consumers light. In view of the current pandemic that the world is facing, what IRVINS can do is to help with the COIVD-19 situation by donating bags of chips to frontline workers to keep their spirits up!
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Hi there, I do remember both about Irvins and the Delivery Driver! It’s pretty crazy how we can remember things that go viral. However, do you think that viral marketing is more short-term than long-term?
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Hi Nadia, right! It is crazy how somethings can go viral and it is impossible to predict! I think Viral Marketing is a very unique and special way of marketing as it is totally unpredictable. The theory behind viral marketing is well understood but the application of it is another thing. I personally feel that viral marketing is a short term effect, do you remember the incident regarding the Blue and Black Dress vs White and Gold dress? The internet went crazy…
Many companies actually leveraged on it like Lego and Oero. They were quick on their feet to tap onto the viral wave of the dress and made some tweets to showcase their new products that were related to the colors. It was a very smart move but it is more of a short-term effect as consumers were able to recall their campaigns when they pass by them at the supermarket and may consider getting a packet just for their social feeds and increase their awareness for them.
Ultimately it is a short-term effect to jump on the bandwagon of marketing campaigns that went viral.
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