Viral Advertising-Infectious or Affliction

My flatmate studies Fashion Marketing and Branding and was commenting on how she is getting irritated by the increasing trend for viral advertising campaigns that involve short films featuring expensive clothing, extravagant settings and influencial models, actors and actresses, thus, I began considering how effective and cost-efficient viral advertising campaigns can be for designers and manufacturers.

From the perspective of brands that are identified using celebrity names and linear symbols and features, viral campaigns spread the links between products and marketing features that allow them to be easily and automatically identified by consumers when they go to shops or are purchasing products online. This also allows marketing departments to effectively create association with certain qualities such as expense, luxury, quality, beauty, class, functionability for their products without having to repeatedly spell it out in every form of advertising. This can be done using music, photography, iconography and endorsement.

Considering viral advertising campaigns past and present I would lean towards arguing that they are very effective in marketing a product and will most-likely increase sales, however they are very expensive, require a lot of very accurate direction so as to portray exactly what they are attempting to promote and as they become more popular and increase in number, the effect of them becomes more diluted and less cost-effective. Therefore, I feel it is time for an entirely new and unique form of advertising and marketing to be brought forward and exploited.