Thursday, July 19, 2007

Viral is not the end-all

AdAge.com has a video summary of research questioning the efficacy of marketing that targets a very few "influencers" - which is the basic idea behind viral marketing. The research was conducted by Duncan Watts - a sociology professor at Columbia University. Prof Watts ran computer models of social networks and determined that marketers are better off not relying solely on targeting a few small group of influencers. So its not a repudiation of the "tipping point" idea, but more of a "reality check".

I have no idea how accurate Prof Watt's models are or what assumptions go in them, but I do appreciate the notion that any idea should ultimately be testable.

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