Yet another frontier ruined

...by marketers.

Apparently, the gurus at Jupiter ("Flip a coin!") have issued a report about viral marketing. Micah points us to: Viral Campaigns Falling Short, Says JupiterResearch - 09/05/2007. The article says that the thrust of the report is that marketers are failing at viral campaigns because it only works 15% of the time, and that the most popular technique was "targeting influentials."

Excuse me... the most effective technique is making stuff worth talking about in the first place. True viral marketing happens not when the marketer plans for it or targets bloggers or skateboarders or pirates with goatees, but when the item/service/event is worth talking about.

There, now you don't have to buy a study to know what to do next. [I feel badly to be picking on a report I haven't even read. I hate it when people do that. I guess my knee jerk reaction occurred because marketers are always the first to look for a shortcut... and the shortcut is almost always the long way around. I apologize to the people who worked hard on the report, but here's my free alternative: Just make great stuff.]