Introduction

One of the driving forces behind any successful discipline, institution, business, and any organizational structure for that matter, is the constant application of innovative ideas. Without innovation, things stagnate and can never realize their full potential. Advertising, as a creative social science, continually searches for innovative ways to capture audiences’ attention in order to communicate a particular message.

Businesses today face many challenges when finding ways to talk to their customers. Between the hundreds of television channels, specialty magazines, and the Internet, it is no wonder why the advertising landscape can provide a challenge for even the most experienced marketer to navigate. Viral marketing, word of mouth (WOM), and other stealth marketing techniques are making their mark as the newest ways to spread an advertising message by breaking through traditional marketing clutter and providing consumers with traditional information in nontraditional ways.

The paper seeks to examine viral advertising further and it’s presence in the changing world of advertising. Is it just a passing fad or does it mark the beginning of the end to conventional ways of delivering advertising messages?