Completed

Problem situation Viral Marketing: In search of the exponential effect

Published on the November 27, 2023 in Finance & Management

About this project

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Viral marketing employs marketing techniques to try to exploit social networks and other electronic means of trying to produce exponential increases in brand recognition, through viral self-replication analogous to the expansion of a computer virus. It is usually based on the word-of-mouth method by electronic means; uses the "social network" effect created by the Internet and modern mobile phone services to reach a lot of people quickly.

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Furthermore, the users’ activity on social media allows us to understand aspects of consumer behavior that, until now, had not been able to be observed or measured so directly. This information is of great value to brands, as it allows those responsible for their management to have new and different criteria to make decisions in their strategies, both in the communication on their online environment, and in the decisions that affect the other levels of their business management. For example, when Hotmail started offering free email addresses, the following was included at the bottom of each message: "Get your free private email on http://www.hotmail.com". When people received emails from friends and family who were already using Hotmail, many of them signed up for their own accounts. Later, these new Hotmail users would send their own emails, thus continuing the cycle.

Project overview

Main question You wish to create an advertising campaign for your own business, why use viral marketing? To answer the above question, we proceed as follows. 1. Create an ad which is intended to "go viral" and show it to multiple focus groups. Suppose the average viewer will forwards your ad to three others the following day, this, because the viewer sent the ad to five people on the first day. How many new people do you expect to see your ad each day during the first week? Graph the number of people you expect to see your ad during the first week. How many people in total will see the ad during the first week? 2. How can you mathematically describe the number of new people who will see your daily ad? What can you say about the number of people in total who will see your ad? 3. Estimate the number of people who will see your ad in a month. What conclusions can you draw from this estimate? 4. It turns out that the average viewer forwards your ad to six other people the day after they receive it. How does this affect the audience during the first week? 5. If you do a second ad campaign and again estimate that the average viewer will forward your ad to three new people the next day. If you decide to send the ad to 20 people on the first day. How many new people will see your second campaign each day during the first week? How many people in total will see the ad during the first week? 6. Conclusions on your estimates. What conclusions can you draw from the answers to questions 4 and 5? What does this tell you about viral marketing math? Are your estimates efficient and sufficient to handle this situation? (Explain your answer) If not, is there another way that can more easily describe viral growth? 7. Mathematical model. Did you use an exponential feature to model your viral marketing campaigns? If so, why did you think it was a good idea? What is the basis of its exponential function? ¿How do you know? If you didn't use an exponential function, try using an exponential function to model the growth of your campaign. What should be the basis? What else is there to consider? Did you get the same results with any of the methods? Which method do you like best and why? 8. What are some deficiencies in the viral marketing model? Should other factors be considered? Will an exponential function always give you the right number of new viewers to expect for each day? 9. Why do you think this type of advertising is called viral marketing? What other types of viruses do you know? What do you know about how they spread? 10. More "traditional" forms of advertising include advertisements such as ads printed in a newspaper or magazine. Make a mathematical model of how the number of people who see your ad changes from day to day if you use more traditional forms of advertising like these. What is the mathematical difference about traditional ads and viral ads? 11. Design your own campaign. Imagine you've started your own business and need to design an ad campaign that lasts two weeks. Write a proposal to your co-workers on how to do this. Don't forget to include easy-to-understand math explanations of why your campaign will work better than others (feel free to be creative and make up the expected number of people who will see your campaign, make sure you're reasonable).

Category Finance & Management
Subcategory Other
Project size Small
Is this a project or a position? Project
Required availability As needed

Delivery term: November 29, 2023

Skills needed