REVIEW: Unleashing the Ideavirus

Authors Seth Godin and Malcolm Gladwell describe the viral marketing phenomenon — a contagious concept that has caught the attention of the Internet industry since its inception during the mid-1990s. They show how this word-of-mouth consciousness-raising approach is set free by those who are most likely to catch it and wait as users become “infected,” passing it on to others. This paperback contains original analogies and a tribute to Richard Dawkins — the evolutionary theorist who created the viral marketing idea. Dawkins believes the message “replicates itself like a growing, living organism that passes from one person to another.” There is also a creatively written foreword that takes readers to a business school reunion where former classmates trade fibs and boast about themselves. This alone reveals the strength of the decades-long buzz-based marketing concept.