I had almost forgotten about the subservient chicken I met last July. One of my students had introduced the chicken's Web site to our class and we debated its merits, with opinions ranging from those perceiving it as clever, inscrutable, effective and even offensive.
Virtually every student had an opinion, though, which is probably why BzzAgent Founder Dave Balter uses the Subservient Chicken as just one example of why all "Buzz" is not created
equal.
In a new free manifesto, The Word of Mouth on Word of Mouth, officially published tomorrow at thought leadership communication portal ChangeThis.com, Dave Balter points to the chicken as proof that purely viral messages may quite rapidly, but fail to deliver meaningful returns. The founder of BzzAgent, a company built on creating change through real word of mouth -- genuine personal interactions, Dave Balter's manifesto is a buzz on Buzz and its often-confused cousins, viral marketing and word of mouth promotion, that is built on his success in generating the real word of mouth promotion that drives action because it is real and heartfelt.
A Burger King Web site, SubservientChicken.com, is a prime example of a viral campaign with widespread success in creating Web visits without ROI. Dave also shares what works, and defines and differentiates viral marketing, buzz, word of mouth -- some of the hottest buzz topics in marketing today -- as he shows why Buzz needs to be real to be successful. You may remember hearing his company, BzzAgent mentioned as one of Seth Godin's 99 Cows or from our Blog post published June 27, 2003.
The Subservient Chicken had the viral power, generating 15 to 20 million hits the last time I looked, back in July, a scant three months from the time the site was "launched." The launch consisted of showing the site to just 20 people, and randomly flashing the rather obscure URL at the end of some Burger King TV ads -- a strategy with virtually no incremental cost! However, as Dave noted in his manifesto, viral does not necessarily mean effective. Part of the buzz created was that it was hard to find the link to chicken sales, and, if my students were any indication, the chicken may have done damage to the BK brand.
A couple of the points in defense of the chicken that I noted at the time were that: 1) making the
chicken do your bidding is supposed to make customers think of the "have it your way" message that Burger King has promoted for years and 2) that this is designed to be a "viral marketing campaign." According to a Wall Street Journal article quoted on the Urban Legends Reference Page at http://www.snopes.com/business/market/chicken.asp that documented the viral effect:
The subservientchicken.com Web site launched the evening of April 7, Mr. Lewis says, and only 20 people were told about it — all friends of people who worked at the ad agency. Some TV ads have flashed the Web address. Burger King says the site has received 15 million to 20 million hits. According to the agency, Web surfers have spent an average of six minutes exploring the fowl game.
Anyway, if you haven't heard of the chicken yet, now you have, and so the viral effect continues.
