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April 07, 2008
How free goes viral
Michele Miller posted this on SWOM. It's so good I wanted to repost it here:
One of the hottest videos on YouTube today is the Free Hug Campaign - one man giving away free hugs and the effect it has on the people around him.
It's a perfect parallel to building a viral campaign for your business.
Watch the video and observe:
- People's resistance to anything free... even if it's a hug
- The breakthrough that happens when one random individual decides to try one
- A tsunami of response once people watch the experience of others
- The fight to defend their right to hug when barriers are erected by "authorities"
If you believe strongly enough in your product or service, give it away for free. In the beginning, no one will believe you. Stick with it long enough, experience breakthrough, and you'll have more business than you know what to do with.
And you'll have a band of merry men (and women) who will be your brand evangelists.
Other blogs that reference How free goes viral:
Wow! That actually got me a little choked up! Thanks!
Giving away your product or service for free? An interesting business model. You will need to convert that to some financial return, otherwise that is a charity. My experience is that you spend a great deal of energy and time on "customers" that have not actually paid for anything. Then when it comes time to pay the "customer" goes away.
If you do not believe me. Show me the YouTube video about $12 hugs!
BRAVO!
People are permitted to hug me anytime.
David, you don't need a youtube video of a 12 dollar-hug to prove the free business model works. You have youtube itself to prove that. And you also have great examples in: Google, gmail, facebook, myspace, yahoo, open office, ubuntu, digg, google apps, skype, blender, abiword, foxit reader, zonealarm, avg-antivirus, flickr, winamp, audacity, linux, freebsd, gimp, cinepaint, radiohead the band, network television, commercial radio, and the list goes on. And imagine if you were to consider the sheer amount of companies out there that are making money just on google ads alone. Ask.com, cgtalk, and about.com, to name a few.
The free business model is very powerful when it's well implemented and applied to the right products and services.
Very concise and correct post. As an avid YouTuber, I've noticed the same benefits of "freedom". After 2 years of web entertainment, I designed a DVD of my videos and offered it for sale to my subscribers. However, I also invested in 100 plain DVD-R copies of my DVD and offered to send one of these free, "pirated" copies to whoever wanted one. Months later, I've mailed free DVDs all over the world: New Zealand, England, Brazil, Thailand, Australia, Norway and Switzerland.
If I had only offered a purchased version of my DVD, I would NEVER have achieved that much world wide exposure. It cost me money, but it helped my product. Some of the "free DVDers" actually purchased the official DVD as a show of their support, so all in all, I win. It just depends how you define "success".
great exemple (simple but effective), but how do you get the first hug?
From barcelona (sorry for my splanglish)
Just beautiful, Jackie. You nailed the analysis of it, too. Thanks for this post!
Regards,
Kelly
I was just listening to a seminar by Frank Furness on this topic. It is a great small business tool!
Rock on
My question is off topic from the theme of this post, but can the police really stop you from giving free hugs?
Great video. It is quite emotional to watch for something so simple the music helps. As for how it relates to marketing, I would say giving away your product for free can sometimes devalue it. If it's so great, one try should convince the user, but that try doesn't have to be free. Hugs are a different story. I've been giving those away free for 36 years and (some) people keep coming back for more . :-)
Atul
http://www.thingsivenoticed.com
Great video ... shows how fragile we are in our certainty about who we are, what we can handle, and what things mean. Humans are interesting creatures who are very FEAR based. We want love ... and fear the process.
For valuable and Free Psychology and Business articles go to my site below.
Prof. Paul Cline - www.AdvancedTrainingSeminars.com
Love this video. I first saw it a year or so ago, about the same time I first saw the "where the hell is matt" videos. http://tinyurl.com/5ahz59
Great post. Thanks!
