viral marketing

English

viral marketing (uncountable)

(advertising and marketing) A technique aiming at reproducing "word of mouth", usually on the Internet or by email, for humorous, political or marketing purposes.
- 2006, Oded Maimon, Lior Rokach, Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery Handbook, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 424:
  A famous example of viral marketing is the rapid spread of Hotmail as a free email service. Attached to each email was a short advertisement and Hotmail's URL, and customers spread the word about Hotmail simply by emailing their family and friends.

a marketing technique