Improving viral marketing campaign via mobile instant messaging (MIM) applications

Abstract

The emergence of new media provides new opportunities for marketing. Mobile instant messaging (MIM) applications such as WhatsApp and Viber are growing in both number of users and popularity. These applications can be used for viral marketing campaigns. The success of these campaigns depends on recipients’ willingness to forward the advertisement message to others. Hence, it is important to recognize and analyze the factors that influence individuals’ intention to forward a viral message. The purpose of this paper is to better understand the factors that motivate individuals to participate in viral marketing campaign via MIM applications. The paper argues that the predictors (entertainment and purposive value of message, market mavenism, social identity, and MIM applications) influence individuals’ intention to forward a viral message and it is anticipated that all the contributing factors have a positive effect on it. A paper survey will be given to 400 students of University Technology Malaysia (UTM). The data will be subjected to statistical analyses with SPSS. The study will provide guidelines to the improvement of viral marketing campaign through MIM applications.