viral marketing

[ vahy-ruhl mahr-ki-ting ]

/ ˈvaɪ rəl ˈmɑr kɪ tɪŋ /

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noun

a marketing strategy that focuses on spreading information and opinions about a product or service from person to person, especially by using unconventional means such as the internet or email: Which online social networks can help with viral marketing?

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Origin of viral marketing

First recorded in 1985–90

Words nearby viral marketing

viral hemagglutination, viral hepatitis, viral infection, virality, viral load, viral marketing, viral tropism, Viramune, Vira Saiva, Virazole, Vir Chakra

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use viral marketing in a sentence

Giving launch-party guests the chance to pose for a professional photographer, and potentially appear on a Times Square billboard, was a brilliant viral marketing move.
How Juul Got Vaporized|Jamie Ducharme|May 17, 2021|Time
It is also important to avoid using the pope as part of a marketing strategy.
Pope Francis Has the Pleasure of Meeting Angelina Jolie for a Few Seconds|Barbie Latza Nadeau|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
That video of you doing all the New York impressions went viral.
Coffee Talk with Fred Armisen: On ‘Portlandia,’ Meeting Obama, and Taylor Swift’s Greatness|Marlow Stern|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
There are already places like this emerging around the country, and marketing themselves this way.
Will Texas Stay Texan?|David Fontana|December 29, 2014|DAILY BEAST

Brooklyn musician Bobby Shmurda, whose ‘Shmoney Dance’ went viral, was arrested today on ‘gang conspiracy’ charges, police said.
Rapper Bobby Shmurda Arrested at New York’s Notorious Quad Studios|M.L. Nestel|December 17, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Despite the acclaim and the viral popularity, the band has never lost that independant creative spirit.
OK Go Is Helping Redefine the Music Video For the Internet Age|Lauren Schwartzberg|December 15, 2014|DAILY BEAST
So, that very evening, when she was marketing, she chanced to see something that brought Lils affairs into her mind again.
The Girls of Central High on the Stage|Gertrude W. Morrison
Obviously the landlady, who did the marketing, must be cheating on a royal scale, and there was nothing for it but to move.
The Daughters of Danaus|Mona Caird
The cut of the trousers is most important, said Flick, who had already formed ambitious plans for the marketing.
The Woman Gives|Owen Johnson
This verbal obscurity is becoming daily more common in the literature of firms marketing nostrums.
The Propaganda for Reform in Proprietary Medicines, Vol. 1 of 2|Various
She came home from marketing one morning, quite pale, and could hardly speak when she entered Von Rosen's study.
The Butterfly House|Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

British Dictionary definitions for viral marketing

viral marketing

noun

a direct marketing technique in which a company persuades internet users to forward its publicity material in e-mails (usually by including jokes, games, video clips, etc)

a marketing strategy in which conventional media are eschewed in favour of various techniques designed to generate word-of-mouth publicity, in the hope of creating a fad or craze

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012