We as people are highly connected today as compared to the previous generations. We have cheaper telephone call rates, emails that are virtually free of cost and social networking sites that allow us to stay in touch with all our friends. Because of this high connectivity, it is very easy for us to spread information by word of mouth. Marketing companies have begun making use of this high personal connectivity to spread around word of their products. This form of marketing is called buzz marketing or viral marketing and the production houses that make these commercials are called viral commercial production houses.
Viral promotions usually happen through commercials that are in form of video clips, flash games, e-books, images, text messages, and brand-able software which the viral commercial production houses make. These are files that can be easily shared and passed around in one’s network for mass distribution. As they are meant to be shared by people, these videos have to be either funny or informative for people to want to send them out.
Viral commercials are named because, like viral infections, they are spread from person to person, where each person ‘infects’ many others with the information. Viral commercial production houses have the responsibility of making a viral commercial so ‘infectious’ that anyone who sees it is compelled to share it. This is a novel and more interactive way of spreading information about a product which depends on people liking a concept enough to share it with their network.