The Dylan Viral

There is a "You". There is your "Social Network".
And there is a "Channel".

This is all it takes to spread the message fast, in marketing parlance, virally. Almost all!

The Dylan Viral
[get infected and more]

The edge of the Dylan Viral is that it appeals you to indulge. It shows you a flick and challenges your creativity. I chance landed on a very interesting blog - with a lot of stickiness factor. The writer keeps the 'goal simple' and effectively touches upon 7 tricks for successful viral marketing. I thought, why not analyze Dylan Viral using the borrowed tricks*.

1. Make People Feel Something
Like I said earlier, the Dylan Viral challenges my creativity. I applaud at my own creation and want to share it within my close network. Sometimes, just to share. Otherwise, just to show-off. In any case, the objective is very clear. It makes people think and keeps them engaged through out.

2. Do Something Un-expected
When I first saw the Dylan Viral, I did not think it was a viral. I felt, it was a cool medium to quickly create your advertisements. I was surprised at the thought, that you could have a template for marketing your products. Isn't marketing all about differentiation? Could there be a possibility to have a template for Advertisements? Well, seeing this in action, made me think for a while - "this might work". And yet, this was not what I first thought.

3. Do not try to make Advertisements, It sucks
Well, yes! The Dylan Viral is anything, but an advertisement. It just lets you be in charge. You drive the show here - not the singer, neither his songs. No product involved (yet, it sells).

4. Make Sequels
Well, the sequel of this message is in-built in the design. This is a creative master-piece. It again lets you be in charge. Create as many sequels as you want. It is you who is driving the campaign. Exhaust only when you have no more willingness or creativity left. Or you reconsider your social network. You might be lacking one.

5. Allow Sharing, Downloading and Embedding
Now, this is where, I don't think I can eulogize the Dylan Viral. For some reasons, the thing about incompatible Flash Version, its availability only via Email, the fact that it cannot be embedded etc makes it difficult to share easily. Why??? I wonder why this was neglected. Or if there was a purpose (read exclusive sharing) , I fail to understand what.

6. Connect with Comments
Allowing users to comment not only gives you the feedback, but also serves as a pull strategy to have users stop by a little longer and interact in a more direct way. The Dylan Viral provides the option to add comments. But the entire interface looks deterring to me. I think, the creative and implementation team don't get along well.

7. Never Restrict Access
The incongruous interface and imposing the need to have right version of Flash breaks the fluidity of the process. Nevertheless, if someone has driven all the way to Yesomite, the fear of bears will not stop him from camping. It takes learning only once. After that you know that you must keep all edibles (including lipsticks) in the food stations. And yes, in the Dylan Viral, which link to click.

Will Dylan Viral do its Job?
I do not know the future of Dylan Viral. It may fail, or it may succeed. That is the challenge of marketing. There is nothing as "tried and tested" formula. Its unpredictability keeps the game interesting. Net savvy people: If you are Dylan Fans, you may want to show it now.

For now, all I can say is - watch out for the new Dylan Release on October 1st. Acknowledging my limited creative talents, I infect you with my two Dylan Virals:

http://www.dylanmessaging.com/messages/2398-TJLN-42A1-6D0B-ZZ18
and
http://www.dylanmessaging.com/messages/37R9-OE20-450K-1KO5-BJ5L

* Thanks to Thomas Baekdal for his excellent articles that inspired me to write this one.

Update:
Dylan Viral can be embedded. Not so straightforward, but it can be. See here for an example.