Marketers turn to online viral marketingSo word-of-mouth marketing is by no means a complete panacea for the ‘much advertising no longer works’problem. This is why marketers are now turning to online viral marketing, the flipside of the word-of-mouthcoin. Online viral marketing kills two birds with one stone: 1. It avoids the need to have a product with a wow factor in order to raise awareness, generate buzz and kickstart peer-to-peer spread. Instead, the viral campaign’s communication agent –often video-based advertainment content – is the element that needs a wow factor. 2. While it is closer to traditional advertising than word-of mouth, (because it delivers classic ATL drivers - such as increased awareness and premium brand building - rather than directlydelivering product recommendations), it is not an interruptive technique and it doesn’t ‘buy’exposure. Instead, viral campaigns ‘work’ the Internet to deliver exposure via peer-to-peerendorsement. The focus is on campaigns with material that consumers want to spend timeinteracting with and spreading proactively. So in this way online viral marketing provides themissing link between the word-of-mouth approach and the top-down, advertainmentapproach to brand marketing. [Figure 3]