Viral Marketing: How to raise massive interest in a startup?
Juha Väisänen CEO, Fantastec
Finland http://www.polarheroes.com
http://fi.linkedin.com/in/juhavaisanen10 http://twitter.com/mr_Fantastec
Develop Conference
Brighton, UK
11 July, 2012
Contents
•Who is he and where does he come from? •Fantastec & educational game revolution •Viral marketing, what is it? •Case: How to get massive media attention and thousands of job applications for an unknown startup?
Banker squirrel helps children to learn the value of money
Epilogue:
Finland
The country with the most beautiful nature in the world….
….where your
mother is beautiful….
Finland
….and your father is rich.
Finland…
….well, not really.
A small nation with limited financial resources and extreme
conditions.
Finland…
Finland…
• This is how our staff lives
Finland…
• The most typical reasons why an employee is absent from work:
• Lazy
• Drunk
• Polar bear attack
Finland…
• To be honest, Finland is a great country with very strong ICT expertise, a well-managed society and a happy nation
• OECD (PISA tests): The best education system on the globe
• Several very successful game companies
• Rovio, Digital Chokolate, Remedy, Supercell..
Fantastec
& learning game service Polar Heroes
•M. Sc., in Economics (Marketing) •BA, education
•Research: game- based learning
•Energetic innovator, marketer, humour producer, learning expert and much more! •Now combining all of those: CEO, Fantastec
Juha: Background
Background:
producer of humour content
•Humour magazines, sketch TV shows etc •Hilarious application for the post of Bank of Finland’s Governor
•Instead of a CV, attached was a service manual of Massey Ferguson tractor
Fantastec Ltd
•A two-year-old company •Programming and creative talents plus education and business experts •Nominated the 3rd most attractive Finnish ICT company at Zero 2 IPO venture capital Forum at Beijing, China (December 2011) •Winner of Innovative Business Idea competition •Finalist of eEemeli, competition for digital education innovations
Flying Sledge with rocket engine
Fantastec
powers children’s happiness
and creates
great value for parents
with fun and educational games
Fantastec:
Mission & passion!
Kids Wiz Street and Math House
Fantastec: Background
Ella, 4 years old
Problem?
• Current educational children’s games?
• Boring...
...
What if learning
met…
Fun! Adventures!
Solution?
Polar Heroes: “Moshi Monsters* with IQ”
Fantastec presents:
Edutainment gaming revolution
*Comment by a local investor at Entrepreneur festival, London, Nov 2011
Polar Heroes: 3D MMO virtual world & rich
portfolio of fun, educational games
•Fun for kids, beneficial for parents!
Watch the trailer: http://www.polarheroes.com/
Polar Heroes: Play and learn!
•The children are little Polar Hero and Princess candidates •Task is to help their characters to grow and gain fun skills and super powers •While playing children learn math, reading, behavior, general knowledge, languages and much more
Learning analytics services
for parents and schools
Teacher Owl
93 % very interested
93 % want to use (Reseach of 500 beta user families, Omega Research ltd.)
Does it work?
1 2
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100% 93%
7%
0
1
2
3
4
5
4,8
Does it work?
Rate of interest: 4,8 (scale 1-5, where 5 is best) 100% of children wanted to continue playing Polar Heroes Most interesting things: minigames, pets, funny objectives and functions. (Qualitative Focus group research, Omega Research ltd.)
”Really fun game”
”Nice game!”
”I could play this
whole week”
Testing principles
Viral marketing
What is it? Case: Fantastec
Traditional vs. viral marketing
•Traditional marketing funnel
•Viral marketing funnel
COMPANY
CUSTOMER
Viral marketing
•“Marketing your business with things that can get passed around the Internet, such as social media and emails” •Traditional viral channels; word of mouth (users, customers, influencers, media…) •Cost effective, yes! •Easy? Definitely…not.
Viral marketing
•Research: “Virality is driven by psychososiological arousal. Content that evokes high-arousal positive (awe) or negative (anger or anxiety) emotions is more viral” •Feelings: Happiness, anger, laughter, love… •“See this cute baby seal? Buy our product or it will be killed” •Things to take into account; shareability, media, audience, momentum, etc.
How can you do marketing with a budget of zero €/£/$?
How can you get massive media attention
for a startup? How can you get 1000 job applications for
one job?
Viral marketing
Case: Fantastec
Starting point
•Game developer and programmer needed •Problem: an unknown startup •Problem: Fierce competition for best talents (Rovio etc) •Problem: no money for recruitment campaign •But… We are not doing this with big bucks, we are doing this with brains…and a big heart!
Goals of marketing
campaign
•Publicity for Fantastec •Raising awareness and interest among potential employees •Brand building: An energetic, talented and fun company – That’s Fantastec!
Recruitment campaign:
Action!
•Job ad on Finnish employment office (very concervative) web pages …job ad with a strong humoristic twist and reverse psychology
•”Fantastec is a tired and grey game company. We are looking for village idiots and foolish daydreamers”…
•We wanted to attach a picture of a hard working employee. We couldn’t find one so here is a picture of our office kitchen.
Content samples
1/3
Content samples
2/3
•We offer the support of a spineless organisation and miserable bonuses like only slightly used bus tickets •You will get a Commodore 63 and internet connection, so you can enjoy your work day on Facebook •Our morning meetings may be anaemic, but in return, team gatherings include a sufficient amount of alcohol. •On Fridays, we leave work early, but we compensate this by coming to the office later on Monday. •Work experience as a CEO of Rovio is a benefit.
Content samples
3/3
•The truth was also revealed: •To the point! This company doesn’t need idle tweakers, but people with a great sense of humour and creative insanity •Show your spiritual potential by sending an application, a CV and a picture of your grandfather wearing his wife’s underwear. •Please inform us about your desired amount of salad
What happened?
Humor portal
Naurunappula…
http://naurunappula.com/536435
•The first comments were wondering if it was a real job or just a parody ad •Then somebody sent an application and told others that he got a response
A blogger translates it into
English…
Advertising agencies
react…
Facebook and Twitter
buzz…
The press wakes up!
Dozens of articles
For example: Second largest newspaper Aamulehti; print and online news article
Tekniikka & Talous:
a two-page article
Internet marketing conference:
Fantastec as a case example
Academic interest arises:
Doctoral dissertation!
“Unconventional employer brand communication through digital advertising. Insights into a startup company.”
(Eeva-Liisa Oikarinen, Doctoral student, University of Oulu)
So what?
• Applications from several countries
• Over 1000 applications for one job
• National record: the largest number of applications for one job
• Altogether almost 2000 job applications
• Dozens of co-operation inquiries
• Articles in several Finnish newspapers
• Now over 300 000 people know Fantastec
Fantastec brand
1/2
• The Fantastec brand was built
• Humoristic, laid-back and energetic people
• An agile, joyful company
• The core of brand image: That’s Fantastec! Fantastec Spirit!
Fantastec brand
2/2
• Reputation still strong:
• COO search process: dozens of excellent applicants; several executives of leading Finnish game companies
• Interest among the media and financiers
• Many co-operation possibilities
The craziness
continues…
– If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it
– Game developer: • http://creacom.fi/fantastec-rekry-ilmoitus
– COO: • http://jobs.igda.fi/job/124/kaupallinen-johtaja-coo-at-fantastec-oy/
Viral marketing:
Summarizing • Company policy, culture, resources…
• (media) relationships
• Best practices
• Plan (takes time!)
• Consult experts
• Goals?
• Audience?
• Main message, style and context?
• Channels, media?
• Organising: Who, what, why, when, what resources?
• Test, iterate
• Measure the results and learn
Fun is our business
…and our business is FUN!
Juha Väisänen CEO, Fantastec Ltd
http://www.polarheroes.com http://fi.linkedin.com/in/juhavaisanen10
http://twitter.com/mr_Fantastec
That’s all, folks!
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