Viral Marketing the ‘Snakes on a Plane’ Way

Every marketing professional has learned to fear the words viral (meaning herpes like) and Guerilla (something to do with flinging shit at passers by). They’re terms only ever used by clients who want ‘to make something happen’ without spending any money. Executives sane enough not to separate a designer from their Mac or an engineer from their tools, think it’s perfectly reasonable to expect an appearance on Letterman from a marketing director armed only with time, charm and a cocoa-brown nose.

I taught myself to be really good at viral marketing through trial and being fired from jobs. Looking at the ‘Snakes on a Plane’ (with my special marketing-o-vision) I can see the people behind that movie are doing the same thing I do. If you haven’t realized yet - it’s working.

Most marketing campaigns start with a ‘message’ but that’s back to front. No one cares about your message, why you designed your website how you did, or what the ‘point’ of the cum-snorting scene in your video is for (I think that’s the first use of ‘Snakes on a Plane’ and ‘cum-snorting’ on record. If I throw in ‘Samuel Jackson’ we can have a lot of fun with Google in about a weeks time).

Viral marketing works when you amplify what the public’s already thinking. Like pushing a swing with a child on it so you can check out the yummy-mummies in the park, when you follow instead of lead, tiny inputs can become hugely effective. Instead of preaching to people you agree with them - and when you agree with people they love you and think you’re a genius.

For example - someone delivers ‘Snakes on a Plane’ to you, you laugh through the script, and realize that Samuel Jackson did it because he thinks it’s comically stupid. The smart thing to do is to forget trying to fight ridicule, recognize it’s a camp classic, and amplify the cheese (being careful not to be seen laughing at your own creation and remove the fun people have thinking that you’re not in on the joke. The genius next move for ‘Snakes on a Plane’ would be to have the driector ask to have his name removed from the movie. The bigger a mess it seems to be, the funnier it gets.)

How do I know that’s what’s happening with SOAP (yeah - that’s what I call it now). The typeface on the official website. Block capitals with a red/orange fade only ever mean ‘Adventure Serial’ and that translates as ‘This is kind of stupid but we think it’s fun so go with it’. If the studio really saw ‘Snakes’ as a thriller that type would never have made the poster. I get the impression they barely held back from throwing an exclamation point on there - ‘SNAKES ON A PLANE!’

Want a viral smash? Listen to what people think about what your trying to sell, eliminate the negative, and amplify the rest (this still won’t work all the time but it’ll work a hell of a lot better than arguing with them).