Re: Seth Godin's new book

From: Gil Lavie <lavie_at_incredimail.com>
Date: Tue 1 Aug 2000 04:17:26 +0200

Good. It seems as though my comments on the
"ideavirus" sparked off a little healthy debate. I
can go on deliberating on this topic for days,
discussing the nuances etc. but rather, I'd like to
share some of my thoughts and vision.

I believe that one good thing that will come out of
this book is that people may (perhaps wishful thinking
on my part) finally stop throwing around the 'viral
marketing' buzzword when they don't in fact really
understand the definition. I've heard it pertaining to
discussion group marketing, to e-mail marketing and
what not--major overkill. The term was coined by
Draper Fisher Juvetson in 1997. Inconocast then named
it "marketing buzzword of the year" in the end of 1998.
Wake up world, it's mid 2000.

But there is a reason for this. The virus is about to
be unleashed and BIG TIME and quite frankly, it's quite
scary. Seth's book will bring the viral 'whatever' to
the mainstream marketers of the world. Yes, he will
get the glory for it. What will actually happen is
that all us marketers will start straining our brains
by all creative means possible to think of ideaviruses
to market our products and services--to give our
product that extra twist that will spur pass-along,
word-of-mouth and the like. Our mindset is about to
shift (for many of us it already has) towards the viral
zone of the brain.

I'll refer you to an article I read in Businessweek
Online (May 15) called, ironically enough, "Unleashing
the Monster of E-Mail Marketing" by Ellen Neuborne.
Ellen refers to the email onslaught that's about to
come "because when the dot-com community starts acting
like lemmings, barreling en mass into the latest tactic
(like the $2B spent on T.V ads), there's no telling how
great excesses will be." She finalizes by saying "Be
afraid. Be very afraid". Email together with
ideaviruses is one strong synergy and when it catches
momentum, there's no stopping it until the consumers'
radar notices it again, thereby putting an end to it.

So much for future reality. Now back to the
'ideavirus'. Seth did not invent the wheel, nor did he
reinvent it. However, the fact of the matter is that
when the ideavirus will soon be released--in the form
of a craze among all unscupulous emarketeers--Seth
Godin will get all the "kudos" for being a visionary.
Why? Several reasons for that: 1) his track record
with Permission Marketing, 2) the ground has been set
since 1997 but there is still much virgin esoil out
there (scary!) and 3) he came out with the right
product with the right positioning at the right time.

So whether it's 'sneezers' or 'efluentials',
'emarketers' or 'ideamerchants', 'smoothness' and
'velocity' or 'time to market' and 'sell-through' is
really not the issue here, the 'ideavirus' is a well
coined word that compliments 'viral marketing'. It is
the missing link--the 'whatchmacallit' that we've been
looking for in our everyday speech. For lack of a
better word, or in this case, for lack of the
'ideavirus' word at all, we've been so loosely throwing
around this overused 'viral marketing' stuff.

I don't think that Seth claims to have invented
virality nor does he claim to have exclusivity on the
concept. He gives ample credit and references to great
minds as Malcolm Gladwell, Bill Bernbach... He
acknowledges that the concept has been around since
early trade but that velocity especially has
metamorphosed with the advent of email communication.
What has changed is the fact that we are now
conscientious of the terms and concepts. That in
itself is enough to unleash an foreshadowing viral
revolution in the upcoming years.

Seth's book is a good attempt at making a science of
this new breed of marketing--marketing by the people
and not at the people. Who was it that said "ask not
what you can do for your customers but what your
customers can do for you?" :-) mmm Kennedy... Perhaps
another forefather and proponent of the ideavirus.

Now to a more bleak Macarena scenario: Imagine only
the singer sitting on a stool and singing the song.
Imagine no beautiful women. No catchy dance involved.
No one to share the dance with. No one to share the
enthusiasm with. Would the Macarena still have been
unleashed thoughout the world to such a great extent?
Probably it would have made top 20 for a short while.
So maybe the dance was the ideavirus around the song.
Whatever the case may be, there was some "intelligent
seeding" by the creators, intentional or not, and
giving the product/song a communicative twist (i.e. a
dance which people see and dance together), was what
made macarena, MACARENA. Things could have easily been
otherwise.

Perhaps there is a big 'Godinian' master plan behind
his book. Unleashing the book free of charge is
causing controversy, debate and even contention. Am I
serving his ends by writing this piece? People talk,
emails are being exchanged and word-of-mouth is taking
place this very moment. Is this what "creating the
environment where consumers will market to each other"
all about? Is this forum part of the "hive" he was
reaching out for at first? Are we the bees? Are we the
"sneezers"?

Gil Lavie
IncrediMail Ltd.
Tel Aviv




Received on Mon Jul 31 2000 - 21:17:26 CDT