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This is a recent form of communication, the result of technological evolution. Specifically, the result of the advent of the Internet. Viral marketing can be understood as word of mouth with the Internet as a means of support, that is, a digital version of traditional communication. word of mouth.The term "viral marketing" is inspired by epidemiology, and the message, in this case, is considered a virus that "infects" internet users, who, supposedly, will pass it on to other users. For example, you you know someone who has never received and relayed an email message that you really liked that beautiful Christmas message from last year, or Easter from last year.

Viral marketing or viral advertising refers to marketing techniques that try to exploit pre-existing social networks to produce exponential increases in brand awareness, with processes similar to the extent of an epidemic . The definition of viral marketing was originally coined to describe the practice of several free email services to add advertising to messages that come out of their users . What is assumed is that if such an ad reaches a "susceptible" user, that user will be "infected" and forward the email to other susceptible people, "infecting them" as well. While each infected user sends an email to more than one susceptible user, on average (that is, the basic reproductive rate is greater than one), the standard results in epidemiology imply that the number of infected users will grow according to a logistical curve , whose initial segment is exponential.

More generally, viral marketing is sometimes used to describe some types of internet- based marketing campaigns, including the use of blogs , seemingly amateur sites, and other forms of astroturfing to create the rumor of a new product or service. The term "viral advertising" refers to the idea that people will spend and share fun content. This technique is often sponsored by a brand, which seeks to build knowledge of a product or service. Viral ads often take the form of fun video clips or interactive Flash games, images and even text.