There’s an open debate about viral marketing: is too stealthy to be adopted by mainstream marketers, or is stealth the very basis of good marketing. The other question mark that hangs over such tactics is about the branding value of word of mouth ‘advertising.’

I found this example (from a member of a discussion group, Marketing Vox) a good start at using WOM to spread something more than a pointless story for marketing something. The ‘product’ that the client is trying to spread is a quiz, with a twist: Anyone can create a 4-question quiz and email it to friends, whose answers are automatically emailed back to the others, The hook is that every one of the participants are entered for a prize. Of course the final product is a movie being promoted via a web site aimed at the teen demographic –the market for the movie.

The client is Warner Brothers.

The buzz tactic is for a new movie ‘Sisterhood The Travelling Pants.’

Check the quiz here.