Open AccessSeeding a Message to Harvest Reach. Predicting and Optimizing the Spread of Electronic Word-of-Mouth
Author(s) -
Ralf van der Lans,
Gerrit van Bruggen,
Jehoshua Eliashberg,
Berend Wierenga
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
gfk marketing intelligence review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1865-5866
DOI - 10.2478/gfkmir-2014-0039
Subject(s) - viral marketing , promotion (chess) , marketing , context (archaeology) , word of mouth , business , advertising , computer science , world wide web , geography , political science , archaeology , politics , law , social media
In a viral marketing campaign organizations stimulate customers to forward marketing messages to their contacts. To optimize a viral campaign it is necessary to predict how many customers will be reached, how this reach evolves, and how it depends on promotion activities. a new Viral Branching model can provide these results. It is based on insights from epidemiology and the spread of viruses and was adapted to a marketing context and an electronic environment. The model is applied to an actual viral marketing campaign in which over 200,000 customers participated during a six-week period. The results show that the model quickly predicts the actual reach of the campaign and serves as a valuable tool to support marketing decisions related to online campaigns