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A viral epidemic?

On a random google search for Shineshah (yes, like we’re the only self-obsessed ones out here), found this on a nice blog called ‘Day in and Day out‘.

This post is Perfetti and Digivaasi’s fault.

To cut a long story short ( the longer version is available on AlooTechie) is that Perfetti and Digivaasi have launched a game called Shineshah Challenge as a social media activity.

What i find very odd is the use of the term VIRAL while describing the game. I find it a bit difficult to comprehend that digitally active clients such as Perfetti and an agency like Digivaasi would be so careless in the usage of the word.

A viral is something which is created not by the people developing it but through a massive cascading effect owing to the attractiveness of the content that is being shown.  In essence it is a stamp a particular item will get if its gets popular enough such as in the case of Evolution of Dance , Star Wars Kid and so forth, or the latest video doing the rounds in connection to United Airlines.

There is nothing wrong ofcourse is promoting a viral either , though personally i believe that pure virals are ones which are promoted through word of mouth and not an advertising push , but in the context it sounds like an Oxymoron unfortunately for both parties involved , in essence its saying :-

We have a viral video which we will promote through a banner campaign – If you had a viral video , there would be no need to promote it.

(Original post here.)

Well, we must say, we agree with most of what this blogger is saying.

While it may be true that some pieces of web advertising fall in the ‘viral marketing’ category, the misuse of this certain adjective has started to go too far these days. As the blogger points out, both the clients and the agencies are at fault here, distorting the meaning of the term and generally roasting their chickens before the eggs are hatched.

Although we make an effort not to indulge in this, we do plead guilty too because the bloody word has become so entrenched in our language that it’s easy to just use it. And it doesn’t help that it makes people feel good.

Anyway, we shall take extra care before using the v-word without proper justification. And we shall certainly not be using it as a noun. The next time someone tells us they want a ‘viral’ made, we’ll just say ‘Why what? We’ll make you some shit so funny, your target audience will go bonkers laughing!’.

Unfortunately, something tells us people won’t like to hear that.

But then, that’s what makes it fun, right?

P.S.

For the record, ‘ShineShah’ has been around for a couple of months before the media promotion and contest began (the need for which is another debate altogether). And although we can’t provide metrics at the moment, and the benchmarks of course differ, but we think we can probably risk using the v-word for this one :)