Unleashing the Ideavirus

Unleashing the Ideavirus
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 www.ideavirus.com
Compare this to the Harry Potter phenomenon… the bestselling books of the last few years,
created just because kids told kids. A classic ideavirus, and one that initially grew with no
promotion at all from the publisher.
It’s difficult to get from awareness to the “sale” of an idea, to convert a stranger into a friend
and a friend into a carrier of your ideavirus. An ideavirus succeeds when it pierces our natural
defenses and makes an impact.
In greek mythology, they tell the story of the Medusa. The Medusa was part of the race of
Gorgons—beings with a horrible curse. Anyone who looked in their eyes immediately and
permanently turned to stone.
There are plenty of marketers who wish that their ads or their product had the power of the
Medusa: that every person who saw it would be immediately transfixed, rooted to the spot,
and converted into a customer for life. (Of course, they don’t want their customers to die a
horrible death and be turned into stone, but I couldn’t find a Greek myth in which an evil
goddess turned you into a frequent shopper of Kate Spade purses, getting a second mortgage
just to pay for them.)
Alas, there are precious few Gorgon products and even fewer ad campaigns with Gorgon-like
properties. It’s foolish to expect that one exposure to your message will instantly convert
someone from stranger to raving ideavirus-spreading fan. So plan on a process. Plan on a
method that takes people from where they are to where you want them to go.
And while you’re at it, work on the product. Because a catchier, more compelling, more viral
product makes your job 100 times easier.
These are critical decisions because of the attention deficit marketers are facing. In 1986, the
year I published my first book, there were about 300 other business books published. In
1998, there were 1,778 business books brought to market.
The supermarket sees about 15,000 new products introduced every year. The Levenger
catalog alone features more than 50 different pens and pencils, none of which were available

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