Unleashing the Ideavirus

Unleashing the Ideavirus
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 www.ideavirus.com
Indiana Jones sold more hats for Stetson than any single person since the invention of the
Marlboro Man. Why? Because Ford has the influence to set style, because his appearance in a
movie wearing that hat coaxed millions of men who wanted to be like him into buying a hat.
The paradox of the powerful sneezer is that he can’t be bought. Every time a powerful
sneezer accepts a bribe in exchange for spreading a virus, his power decreases. When Bruce
Springsteen does ads in Japan, or Whoopi Goldberg shills for Flooz, they have less leverage as
powerful sneezers. The public knows that they can be motivated by more than just taste.
In fact, every time a powerful sneezer tries something new and introduces a new idea, she
takes a risk. If her followers reject the virus (for whatever reason), her ability to introduce
future viruses decreases. For this reason, it’s difficult to manipulate powerful sneezers, and
equally difficult to predict what might motivate them to adopt an ideavirus.
Here’s an analogy that demonstrates the difference between promiscuous sneezers and
powerful sneezers, and more important, explains how they might converge:
Anyone can buy an ad in the Pennysaver, or even write and insert a “special advertising
section” in some fancy magazine. The advantage of this kind of presentation, obviously, is
that it gives the marketer complete control over how the message appears and what it says.
Advertising is basically paid sneezing. And because the public realizes that that’s all it is, it
doesn’t have an awful lot of credibility. It still works, but it’s not as effective as real sneezing
from a powerful sneezer.
On the other hand, it’s up to the editor in chief of the 
New York Times
to decide what
articles appear in the paper. No matter how much money a marketer spends (even though
spending a lot might get you noticed by the editorial staff), there’s no guarantee that an
article will appear—and no guarantee that if it does appear, it will say what you want it to
say.

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