History Main / ViralMarketing

* The ''Film/TropicThunder'' stars parodied this in a skit for the [=MTV=] Movie Awards in 2008: Creator/BenStiller brings Creator/JackBlack and Creator/RobertDowneyJr to his office to make a viral video to promote their new movie. Via Stiller's invocation of role association and the suggestions of his sullen nephew, most takes involve [[WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda Po]] taking {{Groin Attack}}s from Film/IronMan.

** ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' got a huge viral marketing push, starting with the "I Believe In Harvey Dent" teaser site in 2007 (which showed a pre-production photograph of Creator/HeathLedger in makeup as the Joker, revealed one pixel at a time). Afterwards, tons of sites (over 30, by last count) based on Gotham landmarks, a newspaper (called The Gotham Times), Harvey Dent's campaign and the Gotham vigilantes appeared. The 2007 San Diego Comi-Con had fans dressing up as Joker and going on scavenger hunts to get prizes and reveal more information about the film. This led to pictures and video clips (including the first glimpse of Two-Face) being revealed, and finally, a massive scavenger hunt that ended in a site being revealed where people in several cities across North America could sign up to attend a pre-release screening. Not to mention:

*** "I Believe In Harvey Dent" campaign trucks handing out flyers, t-shirts et al.

** ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'' exployed techniques, including a similar reveal of Creator/TomHardy as Bane, as well as "documents" relating to Dr. Leonid Pavel, and wanted posters of Batman.

* The movie ''Film/{{Cloverfield}}'' was extensively advertised through anonymous videos, Website/MySpace pages, and websites.

* The rival conspiracy websites run by Leo and Simmons from ''Film/TransformersRevengeOfTheFallen'', [[http://www.therealeffingdeal.com/ The Real Effing Deal]] and [[http://www.gianteffingrobots.com/ Giant Effing Robots]], exist on the real internet, complete with phony Website/YouTube videos of barely-visible Transformers.

* A Website/YouTube video of an attractive woman in a t-shirt and her underwear playing ''Wii Fit's'' hula-hoop game with the camera aimed squarely at [[{{Fanservice}} her backside]] was accused of being viral marketing by Nintendo. They, of course, [[PlausibleDeniability denied the claim]].

* ''VideoGame/PlantsVsZombies'' had a rather successful Website/YouTube campaign with their music video and videos of zombie cosplayers.

* The Youtube account ''ARG/PronunciationBook'' and the infamous Twitter account [[https://twitter.com/Horse_ebooks Horse_ebooks]] were eventually revealed to have been part of a multi-year project culminating in the AMV adventure game ''[[http://www.bearstearnsbravo.com/ Bear Stearns Bravo]]''.
** Unusually, Horse_ebooks was originally a ''genuine bot'' for an e-book site; it just so happened that one of ''Bear Stearns Bravo''[='s=] creators liked the surrealism of its glitched tweets so much that he secretly bought the account from its original owner. To keep up the charade, he kept the account tweeting on a 24/7 basis (despite having to personally type out each tweet) and even continued to advertise the original owner's website.

* Another backfire in the world of viral marketing: IBM's "[[http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/news/2001-04-25-ibm-linux-graffiti.htm Peace, Love, and Linux]]" ad campaign from 2001, in which artists would stencil images of a heart, a piece sign, and UsefulNotes/{{Linux}}'s penguin mascot Tux across the streets of San Francisco and Chicago to promote the operating system on IBM computers. The biodegradable paint was supposed to only last a couple of days from footsteps and weather, but for some reason the artists in San Francisco ended up using more permanent paints for their creations, charging IBM with vandalism and forcing the company to pay thousands of dollars to remove the hundreds of stencils across the city.

* The book ''Heat Wave'' written by fictional author Richard Series/{{Castle}} from the show of the same name was published as an actual book, written under the pen name Richard Series/{{Castle}}. The book actually made the ''New York Times'' bestseller list, and a published version of the fictional author's second book, ''Naked Heat'', is currently planned.

* A similar thing happened during the months leading up to the Canadian premiere of the US version of ''Series/HoleInTheWall''. Some cryptic, five-second bumpers aired during commercial breaks showing people in public places such as parks wearing the shiny jumpsuits and helmets worn by contestants, with an announcer saying "Bring on the wall" with no explanation. [ShortRunInPeru As the US aired these episodes first]], several Canadian viewers would only know what this was all about if they kept up with Creator/CartoonNetwork (which didn't exist in Canada at the time).

* When ''Series/{{Glee}}'' first came to the Italian network "Italia Uno", they aired some [[https://youtu.be/Jgt3BfIVTbs rather awkward bumpers]] which they dubbed "GLEE-talia Uno!". Evidently Mediaset wanted to surprise anyone who doesn't have internet and/or anyone who's never heard of ''Glee''. It's almost sickening.

* To promote ''[[WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle The Bullwinkle Show]]'', Creator/JayWard and company launched "Operation Loudmouth", a series of outlandish stunts meant to get the word out; these stunts included mailing humorous flyers, staging a mock protest in front of network Creator/{{NBC}}'s headquarters, and holding a block party featuring the unveiling of a Bullwinkle statue (which stood on Sunset Boulevard until 2013). The most elaborate stunt was the "Statehood for Moosylvania" campaign, which ended prematurely when they tried to get President UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy to sign the petition, only to discover that they had arrived at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

* ''VideoGame/AngryBirds'': To advertise the release of ''Angry Birds Space'', Rovio hung a 35 foot wide Red Bird from a slingshot attached to the Space Needle. Residents of Seattle were encouraged to stop by the Space Needle and try the game for free. Images of this spectacle quickly spread across social networking.

* Creator/KyotoAnimation is particularly well known for this, especially with regards to their breakout hit ''[[LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya]]''.

See also AlternateRealityGame, ForcedMeme and InUniverseMarketing.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* ''Manga/ElfenLied'' was actually spread almost completely by word of mouth. Not intentionally, but what happened was pretty much the same.
* Creator/KyotoAnimation is particularly well known for this, especially with regards to their breakout hit ''[[LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya]]''.

[[folder:Film]]

* Word of mouth was a key element of ''[[VisualNovel/TokimekiMemorial Tokimeki Memorial 1]]'' 's surprise massive success in Japan.

* To advertise the release of ''[[VideoGame/AngryBirds Angry Birds Space]]'', Rovio hung a 35 foot wide Red Bird from a slingshot attached to the Space Needle. Residents of Seattle were encouraged to stop by the Space Needle and try the game for free. Images of this spectacle quickly spread across social networking.

* Creator/SeanMalstrom exhibits a tendency for believing that those who disagree with him are [[NoTrueScotsman not true gamers]], but viral marketers who are afraid of their covert gaming forum marketing campaigns being jeopardized. He also notes how FanDumb and Viral Marketers are alike and, in his defense, his comment section clearly has ''some'' sock puppetry going on.

* Victoria Hoyt set up a [[https://www.youtube.com/user/savethepearls Save the Pearls YouTube account]] and put up videos in connection with her literary series of the same name.

* Adverts for with the slogan: "Your own personal Jesus" were placed in British newspapers, with no indication that it was a song (until a number was also printed which when dialed would let you listen to the song) to advertize the Music/DepecheMode single "Personal Jesus."

** ''Film/JurassicWorldDominion'' completed the trilogy with it's own viral site: [[https://www.dinotracker.com/ "DinoTracker"]], a site made by the DFW after the worldwide dinosaur outbreak of Fallen Kingdom that has information how to deal with dinosaurs and videos of "encounters" around the world. This too was full of [[CallBack call backs]] and Retcon for the series (revealing the much critiqued inaccurate dropping tail Stegosaurus was due to malnutrition, confirming the [[Film/JurassicParkIII quilled raptors]] were on the mainland, and [[spoiler: even having hidden documents revealing BioSyn's machinations hidden in the site code]]

** There was a secret fourth site involved in Echoes' viral marketing. It was the ''Luminoth Temple'', a special site with forums meant for those that earned access from the other viral sites. Those worthy to gain access could discuss more mature things and games that couldn't be discussed on Nintendo of America's ''[=NSider=] Forums''. The ''Luminoth Temple'' also was a way for the special fans to connect with the people of ''Creator/RetroStudios''. Unfortunately, leaks from the ''Luminoth Temple'' (including a leak of an interview about ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime3Corruption'') eventually [[WhyFandomCantHaveNiceThings led to this site being closed]]. You can read up more about the ''Luminoth Temple'' from former forum members [[http://forums.chozosanctuary.com/topic/7518-a-brief-history-of-the-luminoth-temple/ here]].

* ''Film/JurassicWorld'' has [[http://www.jurassicworld.com/ an actual website for the park]], complete with schedules, live cam, maps, reviews and factoids on all the dinosaurs. When the movie came out, the live cams were changed to that of people fleeing in panic before fading to static.

* Creator/SeanMalstrom exhibits a tendency for believing that those who disagree with him are [[NoTrueScotsman not true gamers]], but [[YouKeepUsingThatWord viral marketers]] who are afraid of their covert gaming forum marketing campaigns being jeopardized. He also notes how FanDumb and Viral Marketers are alike and, in his defense, his comment section clearly has ''some'' sock puppetry going on.

* The rival conspiracy websites run by Leo and Simmons from ''[[Film/TransformersFilmSeries Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen]]'', [[http://www.therealeffingdeal.com/ The Real Effing Deal]] and [[http://www.gianteffingrobots.com/ Giant Effing Robots]], exist on the real internet, complete with phony Website/YouTube videos of barely-visible Transformers.

** They did it again for ''[[WesternAnimation/{{Cars}} Cars 2]]'': Take a look at [[https://youtu.be/RRz5YDokhzE Cars N' Deals of Emeryville]]! (And be on the lookout for secret hidden messages.)

* The ''Film/TropicThunder'' stars parodied this in a skit for the [=MTV=] Movie Awards in 2008: Creator/BenStiller brings Creator/JackBlack and Creator/RobertDowneyJr to his office to make a viral video to promote their new movie. Via Stiller's invocation of role association and the suggestions of his sullen nephew, most takes involve [[WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda Po]] taking [[Main/GroinAttack groin attacks]] from Film/IronMan.

** The viral campaign for ''Film/TheMuppets'' in 2011 revolved around an entirely fake romantic drama called "Green With Envy", which was promoted (with stars Jason Segel and Amy Adams, and none of the puppets) as a legitimate project, which even had a fake press release and poster drawn up for it. The official trailer was even credited as "'Green With Envy' Movie Trailer", and seems to focus on a pair of star-crossed lovers...until the announcer suddenly starts introducing Muppet characters halfway through, and Segel (in-character) stops the trailer to break the fourth wall and ask if this is a Muppet film! Later online commercials parodied various popular films and shows that were all being released around the same time as ''The Muppets'', and the project got some serious viral promotion.

** As part of the promotional lead-up to [[Series/TheMuppets the 2015 Muppet series]] on Creator/{{ABC}}, reports came to social media and other websites that Miss Piggy broke up with Kermit. [[http://comicbook.com/2015/08/04/kermit-the-frog-and-miss-piggy-officially-break-up/?utm_source=Comicbook.com&utm_campaign=cdfb258090-2015_08_04%3A17%3A54%3A07Comicbook.com+Daily+Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_7a2d10cb6e-cdfb258090-268720229 Seriously.]][[note]]This serves as a SpiritualSuccessor to an early [[http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/The_Pig_of_the_Nineties viral marketing campaign]] that Creator/JimHenson himself was toying with in 1989-90 to repackage Miss Piggy as a quintessential gossip figure. The first stage of the campaign - a ''People'' magazine newsbit that also dealt with Piggy breaking up with Kermit - was published on May 14, 1990... [[DiedDuringProduction then Henson died two days after the issue was published]], thus halting the project.[[/note]] And it worked - its premiere got the highest ratings for a new ABC comedy show in the 8pm Tuesday timeslot in all of 2015. Sadly, the hype wore off fairly quickly and the show quietly ended after a {{retool}} failed to grab new viewers.

** ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' creator Notch has been accused of this in and out on the board. It's actually entirely possible, but more like Notch was a regular on /v/ and said "hey guys, check out this game I made in Java." Doesn't help that one of the random subtitles on the VideoGame/{{Minecraft}} splash screen is [[ShoutOut "Woo, /v/!"]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]