A Study Into The Effectiveness Of Viral Marketing 6v5v6r

A Study on factors affecting viral marketing success

DECLARATION This dissertation is a product of my own work and is the result of nothing done in collaboration. I agree that this dissertation may be available for reference and photocopying at the discretion of the University.

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the use of viral marketing on the Internet, and assesses its effectiveness, in of generating awareness. Many viral marketing techniques are being used to target consumers, however it has been concluded that not all techniques are being utilised in an effective way on the Internet. The general attitude towards viral marketing, from the point of view of consumers, is that the information provided in viral marketing campaigns, is useful. This study has concluded that we need to use a variety of viral marketing techniques, in order to market effectively over the Internet.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many thanks to all those who participated towards this study, either by taking part in the experiment, or completing the questionnaire. Thanks also, to the project advisor Miss. Anjali for the advice given throughout the project.

CONTENT ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................ 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................. 3 CONTENTS ........................................................................................................ 4 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................ 8 1.1 Pitfalls in viral marketing ………………………………………………… 1.2 Hypothesis ............................................................................................... 9 1.3 Aims and Objectives .................................................................................. 9 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................ 10 2.1 Marketing for Business............................................................................. 10 2.2 E-Marketing.............................................................................................. 10 2.3 Viral Marketing ......................................................................................... 11 2.3.1 History................................................................................................ 12 2.3.2 Viral Marketing Techniques................................................................ 13 2.3.5 Successful Viral Marketing Campaigns .............................................. 18 3. METHODOLOGY ......................................................................................... 23 3.1 Questionnaire........................................................................................... 23 3.1.1Questionnaire Design.......................................................................... 24 3.1.2 Questionnaire Sample........................................................................ 26 3.1.3 Data Collection Method ...................................................................... 26 3.4 Method of Data Analysis ..........................................................................33 3.4.1 Questionnaire..................................................................................... 33 3.5.2 Experiment ......................................................................................... 34 3.5 Reliability and Validity .............................................................................. 34 3.6 Ethics ....................................................................................................... 34 4.RESULTS ...................................................................................................... 36 4.1 Questionnaire Results.............................................................................. 36 4.2 Experiment Results .................................................................................. 46 5. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION .............................................................. 50 5.1 Questionnaire........................................................................................... 50 5.1.1 -along Viral Marketing ................................................................ 50 5.1.2 Control ....................................................................................... 51 5.1.3 Web-linked Viral marketing (consumer reviews) ................................ 52 5.2 Experiment ............................................................................................... 52 5.2.1 The use of viral marketing in promoting brand awareness................. 52 5.2.2 Product Identification.......................................................................... 53 5.2.3 Purchase Intention ............................................................................. 54 5.3.4 Viral Potential ..................................................................................... 54 5.3 Summary.................................................................................................. 55 5.4 Recommendations ................................................................................... 56 6. EVALUATION............................................................................................... 57 6.1 Questionnaire........................................................................................... 57 6.2 Experiment ............................................................................................... 58 REFERENCES ................................................................................................. 60 APPENDICES................................................................................................... 65

INTRODUCTION Marketing is used to increase an organisations success, by promoting its products of services to targeted potential consumers (Hill and O‟Sullivan, 1999). It is essential therefore, that marketing evolves and is redefined, in accordance with consumer behaviour, enabling organisations to remain successful. One recent development is that consumers have become more sophisticated and individually focussed, which is related to the introduction of new technologies such as the Internet. It is estimate that the total size of the global online population is currently over eight hundred million, and this figure continues to rise (O‟Connor, Galvin and Evans, 2004). This is resulting in developments in online advertising, with organisations identifying the potential in targeting this new online market (Nunny, 2000). Online advertising formats such as the press, television and outdoor media can be said to help create brand awareness and encourage consumer product preference (Nunny, 2000). However, a new technique being implored by some businesses is the use of viral marketing which can be used to generate brand awareness among a large populous extremely quickly, and uses the consumers themselves to encourage product preference to others (Meerman-Scott, 2007). 1.1 Pitfalls in viral marketing and how can one avoid themProblem: Breaking netiquette Phonefree.com, a free long-distance-by-web company, recently got involved in a lawsuit over a netiquette fiasco. The viral campaign involved getting people to for the service, then ing their address books, and ing everyone in there with the message " for free long distance with us, and you can talk to so-and-so who just signed up!" In this extreme case, not only were they spamming all the people on the lists they lifted (by ing them without permission), they were violating the privacy of the voluntarily ed , too. Not only did they incur the wrath of anti-spam factions, they also were sued. Solution: Know the rules, and educate your minions. 1. the basic premise of viral marketing: You are motivating your s to evangelize for you by offering something positive. "Motivation" does not mean force, threats, dishonesty or stealth. 2. the basic rule of business: Build a customer base through good service, good products and trust. Whatever tactics you try, dont violate the trust of customers youve already won. When you evaluate a viral campaign, ask yourself if it violates these basic tenets, or if it asks the participants to violate them. Is the prize so large that it motivates false entries and spamming? Is the tactic so aggressive that you will saturate the message? Is it gaining new customers in such a way or at such a rate that you will alienate your previous customers? Problem: Too much of a good thing. Viral tactics are designed to grow exponentially. You tell two friends, then they tell two friends, then they tell two friends, and so on and so on. On the web, the growth is instant, as well as the reaction. A good joke

can spread to thousands of people in one day because it's so easy to click "Forward," add ten addresses, and hit "Send." Behold, the power of viral marketing. When you are dealing with web promotion, the action might involve the respondents hitting your web site, ing, ing a large file, requesting a freebie, or buying something. If the promotion is big enough and response strong enough, you might see a ten- or 100-fold increase in traffic within a day. Is your web server ready? Is your response staff ready? Is your budget ready? Solution: Keep the spread of the virus properly valued, paced and targeted. Target, target, target. Again, viral marketing works best as a community-based event. Visitors should be spreading the word to friends that will be interested in the topic, not to everyone in the world. How can you make sure your visitors properly target their word-of-mouth, when they may not even know what targeting means? The reward should be relevant to your market. The reward shouldn't be so large that it motivates cheating or over-spread. The reward should have your message or brand all over it, so that everybody knows this is about you. 1.2 Hypothesis Viral marketing is an effective medium for advertising over the internet.

1.3 Aims and Objectives This study aims to investigate two areas surrounding viral marketingThe first aim is find out what are the factors that affect viral marketing success. This will be done through the use of a participants being assessed before and after the questionnaire analysis. The second was to investigate the effectiveness of viral marketing on the internet in promoting a video. This will be explored through the use of a questionnaire.

LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Marketing for Business Marketing is essential for businesses as it allows them to make their products or services known to the consumer and persuade them to invest in them (Hill et al, 1999). It has been noted that the use of marketing will improve a businesses performance (Jobber and Fahy, 2006). For instance, in a study carried out by Narver and Slater (1990) the use of marketing within a business had a significant effect on how profitable a business was deemed to be, with businesses that did more marketing having the highest levels of profitability. This therefore suggests that to enable a business to be successful it needs to have a high level of market orientation. There are many ways for businesses to begin marketing themselves, these include television campaigns, national and regional newspapers adverts, billboard posters, radio adverts, business and consumer magazine articles, or more traditionally through direct mail campaigns. (Zimmerman, 2001)

2.2 E-Marketing The introduction of the Internet and the World Wide Web created an opportunity for businesses to reach a wider audience (quickly and easily) in their marketing campaigns. Advertising over the internet via pop-ups in websites, or banner adverts, became an effective way to market in the mid „90s and is known as emarketing (Jelassi and Enders, 2005). As a result of this, new marketing techniques have been implemented into business marketing strategies. One example would be e-mail campaigns, where a company sends out an e-mail detailing their latest product offers to a range of consumers, hoping that they will get an increase in business. However, this can be problematic as the company must first gather email addresses from prospective customers, and they must also design their e-mail campaigns according to target the audience they wish to sell to. Also, when marketing material is sent to a list of email addresses it is hard to target the preferred audience. This is because often businesses do not have any other information to link the email address to an actual person (Chaffey, 2003)

2.3 Viral Marketing Viral marketing can be used for ing along adverts, animations, photos, hyperlinked promotions, newsletters, games, press releases, petitions or whatever else will your business. This type of marketing encourages individuals to on information that they receive in a hypermedia environment to friends and acquaintances (Moore, 2003). The way in which data and information is sent between s in viral marketing creates a chain effect that spreads the message, or purpose, of the sent content onto the next , and therefore the cycle continues onto the after that. As Mohammed and Fisher (2003) suggest, viral marketing generates a „buzz‟ around a product or service, created by -to- recommendation. It has been noted by Mohammed et al (2003), that s are more likely to trust recommendations made by friends or acquaintances on a product or service, rather than the company themselves. This is one reason why products that are part of a viral marketing campaign tend to „take off‟ in popularity very quickly. Evidently, this is the reason that businesses are now starting to understand the possibilities and opportunities that viral marketing can create for them.

2.3.1 History Viral marketing was first recognised in 1997 following the rapid growth of the email service “Hotmail” through the “invite friends” request. Hotmail is a key example of how quickly business may become successful using viral marketing, as Simonsen (2008) states its s grew from 500,000 in 1996 to 12,000,000 s just a year later. The film „The Blair Witch Project‟ is also considered to be a pioneer for viral marketing techniques, with its use of the Internet to communicate „leaked‟ information to the wider audience (Mohr, 2007). Marketing in this way had not been seen before on the Internet. Previously, companies who decided to use the internet to themselves rarely produced material that created a viral buzz. Instead, corporate video about a company, which often was mundane and predictable, was produced. For example snippets of a Managing Directors Speech may have been ed. However, this is not something that would excite viewers, and certainly wouldn‟t encourage them to tell others to watch the material (Stern, 2001).

2.3.2 Viral Marketing Techniques As described by Smith and Chaffey (2005) there are four viral marketing techniques available for businesses to use.E-mail plays a key part in these techniques as it provides the portal for communication exchange to take place. -along email viral is one technique. It is where one email is sent containing a link or attachment to view the marketing material a company wishes you to. The viewer is then prompted to „email a friend‟, spreading the message in the link or attachment further. Another technique is web facilitated viral, where a link to „email a friend‟ is placed on the company website to gain additional email addresses to use in other marketing campaigns. A popular viral marketing technique is incentiviezed viral, where an award or offer is made available to an individual once they have provided the company with an email address, or addresses of friends or colleagues. This technique often works well because individuals are far more likely to participate if there‟s something in it for them. Finally, the last viral marketing technique being discussed is web-linked viral.This is where links in articles, chatrooms or even social networking sites, sent by friends or colleges direct you to a businesses website. This technique relies on the word-of mouth (or rather word-of-mouse) of the every day web , and so it is much harder for businesses to manipulate in their favour. This means that if their products and services are good, then people will advocate this. However, this is also true if the products and services are bad.

2.3.5 Successful Viral Marketing Campaigns Creating material that others wish to view and ultimately send on for others to see is essential for viral marketing to work. There are many ways that businesses can create successful viral marketing campaigns to aid the growth of their business and get it known world-wide. This is because, in some ways, successful viral marketing campaigns are heavily influenced by luck, meaning that someone has found the information interesting enough to on to another. The businesses need to be aware of negative that appears online, as well as the positive (Scott, 2007). If positive comments are made businesses should then step in and encourage them to snowball using viral marketing techniques.It is generally advised that viral marketing campaigns should be kept simple in concept (Baily, 2006, Morrissey et al, 2008). Mohr (2007) explains that to make a successful viral marketing campaign, it must include something that is interesting, clever, catchy or remarkable that will create a buzz and propel the subject into being a key talking point with people.

Recent studies have shown that the majority of people who receive some kind of email ment will forward it on. A study by Zimmerman (2009) found that 81% of recipients will forward a message to at least one other person and 49% will send it to two or more others. When considering those percentages, it becomes clear how quickly these viral messages spread, and therefore why businesses need to harness them to aid their marketing objectives. Thus, digital world is the place in which a brand communicates with its young market, with one in four people aged between seven and sixteen estimated to have replaced watching television with online activities in recent years. It is evident that businesses can use the internet to reach this younger audience, but this is too often overlooked and undervalued by most companies. Instead these companies opt to stick to more traditional marketing methods. However, a changing to new marketing methods is required to ensure businesses are targeting the most current markets. This is because businesses can‟t afford to lose the interest of the young.

METHODOLOGY An effective promoting medium is being outlined in this study as a tool which is able to generate interest in videowatching . In order for the aims and objectives of this study to be realised, The method of questionnaire designed is used to find out if participants have themselves been part of viral marketing, and the feelings they have towards viral marketing techniques.

3.1 Questionnaire A questionnaire has been designed to establish the effectiveness of viral marketing in generating awareness of a video (gangnam style) in a real-world environment A method of obtaining data through a questionnaire was chosen as it allows many potential participants to be targeted quickly. Also, as questionnaires were sent via email and surveymonkey.com This style of questionnaire is a self-completion questionnaire, which as Brace (2005) suggests is effective in gathering data from participants as they allow the participant to respond to the questions in their own time, and so there is no pressure put on them that may result in any unnecessary anxiety or stress. In addition, as the questionnaire was anonymous, the participant is more likely to be truthful in their answers, so better results can be obtained (Brace, 2005)

3.1.1Questionnaire Design The questionnaire has been designed to ensure participants are clear on the information they are required to provide, making it as easy as possible for them to complete. This is important because a poorly designed questionnaire is not likely to gain many results, and for the results that are recorded, their reliability should be questioned (Brace, 2005). The questionnaire, therefore, had a logical structure and was split into three defined parts. The first area the questionnaire explored was whether participants had been involved in viral email marketing campaigns, as previously mentioned this is one technique used in viral marketing. The second area the questionnaire investigated was if participants have been aware of a recent viral marketing campaign for the video „Gangnam style by PSY‟ , and assessing the effect this had on them. Finally, the third area that the questionnaire covered was the use of web-linked viral for product reviews and how participants respond to them. There were a total of twenty-two questions asked in the questionnaire, however all questions in each section were not related to one another. The questionnaire included closed questions, that force a choice to be made. Thirteen questions required the participant to select either a „yes‟ or „no‟ response. This was designed to enable the results obtained to be as clear and defined as possible. In only giving participants a choice of two possible answers, it ensures they make a considered choice. This method was reported to minimise discrimination against the less literate as the answers categories are easy to understand.

3.1.2 Questionnaire Sample An opportunity sample will be used to gain results for the questionnaire. This questionnaire will be sent to one hundred prospective participants.It is essential for the questionnaire to be sent out to as many prospective participants as possible,this is to ensure that enough responses are sent back to be able to asses the results successfully (Brace, 2005).

3.1.3 Data Collection Method The questionnaire will be distributed via email, which will contain an attachment to the blank questionnaire in the form a word document. A cover letter is contained within the email as a participant can be influenced by this, and therefore it provides a means to persuade the participant to complete the survey . The participants were not obligated to answer all questions, although ideally this was preferable. Therefore, areas that a participant felt uncomfortable in providing information for, could be left unanswered. The received email was then immediately deleted from the system to ensure that the participant‟s anonymity was upheld. It is important that any identifying information is destroyed in this way and the participant is notified of this procedure to reassure them that their anonymity will be maintained. The data was also collected through the online questionnaires that each participant completed. The responses to these questionnaires are stored online on the surveymonkey.com server and are accessible via the researcher‟s details for the site.

3.4 Method of Data Analysis There are two methods of data analysis used in this study; one used for the questionnaire and another for the experiment. Although, both methods analyse data obtained from questionnaires, they do so in differing ways.

Findings and Analysis

4.1 Questionnaire Results The data obtained from the questionnaire produced some interesting results, which were then analysed with the aim of the questionnaire in mind, to investigate the effectiveness of viral marketing in generating awareness of Gangnam style by PSY .

Exihibit: 01

Age 8%

27%

<20 20- 30 30- 40

55%

>40 10%

This shows that the age of the surveyed.They range from the teens to the middle aged highest being the age group of 20-30 yrs with 59% and lowest is 3% in the 40 above age goup.

Exihibit: 02

How long do you usually spend on the internet per day ?

22%

16% >1 hour 1-2 hours 3-4 hours

24%

<4 hours 38%

The chart above shows that 38% of people spend an average of 3-4 hrs a day surfing the internet followed by 24% respondents spending 1-2 hrs a day.

Exihibit: 03

How likely are you to watch videos ? 6% 2% 8% Extrememly Likely Likely Neutral

38% 46%

Unlikely Extremely Unlikely

46% people are likely to watch videos and 2% respondents being the most unlikely to watch videos.

Exihibit: 04

How likely are you to watch music videos ? 4%

14%

16% Extremely Likely Likely Neutral

14%

Unlikely Extremely Unlikely 52%

52% respondents are likely to watch music videos whereas 4% people are not at all attracted towards music videos.

Exihibit: 05

Which type of music video do you prefer? (select all that apply)

38%

40%

Funny Serious Romantic

22%

38% respondents preferwatching Funny videos voer Serious and Romantic. And 40% people like to wath Romantic videos n least preffered is watching serious videos.

Exihibit: 06

Which of the following videos have you watched in the last few months?(select all that apply) 19% PSY Gangnam Style Baby (Justin Beiber) 51% 21%

On the floor (jennifer Lopez) Kolaveri Di

9%

In the last few months the video of PSY Gangnam style has been watched the most with a percentage of 51 followed by On the floor and Kolaveri Di.

Exihibit: 07

Have you seen the video of PSY gangnam style? 4%

Yes No

96%

There are only 4% people who have not watched the video of PSY Gangnam Style.

Exihibit: 08

If yes, from which source did you get to know about Gangnam style music video? 4% 34%

31%

Friends Facebook Youtube Newspaper

31%

Gangnam style has mostly been spread by word of mouth followed by Facebook and Youtube holding the same percentage.

Exihibit: 09

How well the video visually appeal you?

14%

16%

Very well Somewhat ok Not at all

70%

70% of the respondents liked the video whereas 14% and 15% found it very well and not at all appealing respectively.

Exihibit: 10

Why did you like the video ?

30% Funny Special

50%

Exciting Catchy beat

14% 6%

The video is most widely like because of being Funny and having a Catchy Beat.. the respondents did not find the video very Speacial or very Exciting.

Exihibit: 11

Why do you think the video became so popular?

26%

27%

Easy Dance Steps Humor Celebrity Collaboration 7%

Music 40%

The video became popular among the respondents due to Humor majorly i.e. about 40% followed by good music and Easy Dance steps.

Exihibit: 12

On the scale of 1- 5 ; what score would you give to the to the video of gangnam style? (1 being the lowest & 5 the highest) 13%

10% 4%

1 2 21%

3 4 5

52%

The exhibit shows that 52% of the people rate the video as a 4/5 and being the least preffered rate as 2/5 by only 4% respondents.

Exihibit: 13

What do you about the video ? 4% 14% Dance steps 6%

45%

Song beat Costume PSY himself No idea

31%

The USP of the PSY Gangnam Style video comes out to be its Dance Step followed by the Beats of the Song.

Exhibit: 14

What was the reason behind forwarding the link? Wanted to share link

Appear cool

Liked the video

Normally share link

26%

50%

21% 3%

The exhibit shows that 50% wanted to share the link whereas 21% people only shared it because they liked the video.

Exhibit: 15

How often do you forward/share links with others? Quite often

Sometime

Rarely

20% 30%

50%

This exhibit shows that 50% of the people share links sometimes whereas 30% and 20% of the respondents share links rarely and quite often respectively

Exhibit: 16

How often would you watch a link from a friend ? Often

If interesting

After knowing about it

Ignore

5% 24% 30%

41%

41% of the respondents view a forwarded link only if it is interesting, 30% want to

Exhibit: 17

How often do u open a link from a stranger? Always

If virus free

Never

13%

50% 37%

50% of respondents never open a link from a stranger whereas only 13% open links from strangers always.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION After Interpreting the analysis I found thatAs shown in exhibit 1, the surveyed population has maximum 58% of people lying in the age of 20- 30 followed by 22% of people ranging from 30-40 years. The next set being of 16% people less than the age of 20 and the rest 4% lying above 40yrs of age. 

40% females prefer watching videos compared to 60% males doing the same.



38% of people spend an average of 3-4 hrs a day surfing the internet followed by 24% respondents spending 1-2 hrs a day. The next slot is another 22% and 16% of people spending <4 hours and >1 hours a day respectively.



8%, 46%, 38%, 6% and 2% respondents watch videos in the order of liking ranging from extremely likely to extremely unlikely respectively.



14%, 52%, 14%, 26% and 4% respondents watch music videos in the order of liking ranging from extremely likely to extremely unlikely respectively.



38% respondents prefer watching Funny videos over Serious and Romantic. And 40% people like to watch Romantic videos n least preferred are watching serious videos with 22% of the respondent.



The video of PSY Gangnam style has been watched the most with a percentage of 51 followed by 21% people watching on the floor and 19% respondents seeing Kolaveri Di and the least watched being 9% and that of Baby by Justin Beiber.



4% people who have not watched the video of PSY Gangnam Style.



Gangnam style has mostly been spread by word of mouth in about 34%, followed by Face book and YouTube holding the 31% each and the least been spread by the newspaper.



70% of the respondents liked the video whereas 14% and 15% found it very well and not at all appealing respectively.



The video is most widely liked because of being Funny attracting 50% and having a Catchy Beat attracted 30% of the respondents. 6% and 14% of the respondents did not find the video very Special or very Exciting respectively.



The video of PSY Gangnam Style became popular majorly about 40% due to Humor, followed by 27%, 26% and 7% respondents being attracted due to Music, Easy dance Steps and Celebrity Collaboration respectively. 52% of the people rate the video as a 4/5 and being rated 3/5, 5/5, 1/5, and 2/5 by 21%, 13%, 10% and 4% respectively. 5/5 being the highest and 1/5 being the lowest.





45% respondents ed the dance steps, 31%- the song beat, 6%- costume, 14%- PSY himself and 4% people did not really find anything memorable.



50% respondents shared the link because they wanted to, 3%- to sound cool, 21% shared the link because they liked the video and the rest 26% because they normally shared links.



50% of the people share links sometimes whereas 30% and 20% of the respondents share links rarely and quite often respectively



41% of the respondents view a forwarded link only if it is interesting, 30% respondents viewed a link only after knowing what it was about, 24% watched links often and 5% ignored it.



50% of respondents never open a link from a stranger whereas only 13% open links from strangers always and 37% respondents see a link only if it is virus free.

Summary

The results conclude that the use of incentivised viral marketing is not being effectively utilised enough on the Internet. This is because the majority of s stated they do not provide businesses with an additional email address, of a friend or acquaintance, when prompted to, which suggest that incentives are not being provided. The study has concluded online reviews are an effective way in generating awareness of an video, and the results also found that s are more likely to forward link of the same if it is worth sharing. It has been concluded from results that viral marketing material created by companies needs to include information that enables s to identify the products being promoted, so that it is effective in generating potential sales.

Finally, it has been concluded that the majority of s will -on marketing material to one another. This suggests therefore, that businesses need to target these s effectively to enable their viral campaigns to be successful in generating sales.

5.4 Recommendations The study highlighted two recommendations for further work:

The first area to be looked into further is the relationship between the content of viral marketing campaigns and the number of potential sales that are generated as a result. This relationship should be analysed, possibly by categorising the type of content used in viral marketing. For example the differences in sales resulting from viral marketing campaigns containing humorous content compared with content generating different emotions, could be assessed.

The second area where further work is recommended is the effect viral marketing has on brand awareness. The differences in viral marketing campaigns that generate positive consumer attitudes towards a brand, should be analysed against those that generate negative consumer attitudes, and the results should be concluded.

QUESTIONNAIRE

Gender:

Male

Female

Age Groups : 1. How long do you usually spend on the internet per day? a) >1 hr b) 1-2 hrs c) 3-4 hrs d) <4 hrs 2. How likely are you to watch videos? a)Extremely Likely b)Likely c)N L /Unlikely d) Unlikely e)Extremely Unlikely 3. How likely are you to watch music videos? a)Extremely Likely b)Likely c)N L /Unlikely d)Unlikely e)Extremely Unlikely 4. If yes,which type of music video do you prefer? a)Funny b)serious c)Either 5. Which of the following videos have you watched in the last few months?(select all that apply) a)gangnam style b) baby ( justin beiber) c) jennifer lopez( get on the floor) d) kolavari di 6. Have you seen the video of PSY gangnam style? a)Yes b) No

7. From which source did you get to know about Gangnam style music video? a) Friends b) Facebook c) Youtube d) newspaper 8. Did the video appeal to you? 5 scale a) Yes b) No 9. How well did the video catch your attention ? a)very well b) Somewhat well c) not at all 10. Why did you like the video ? a)Funny b)Special c)Exciting d)Catchy beat 11.. Why do you think the video became so popular??? a) Easy Dance steps b) Humor c) Celebrities collaboration d) music 12. On the scale of 1-5 ; what score would you give to the to the video? (1 being to lowest & 5 the highest) a) b) c) d) e)

1 2 3 4 5

13. What do you about the video ? a)dance steps b) song beat c)costume d)PSY himself e) No idea

14 . Did you forward the video link onto your friends to watch? a)Yes b)No

15. What was the reason behind forwarding the link: (Select all that apply) a)I wanted to share the link with my friends b) I wanted to appear as a cool person who knows the trends c) I liked the video a lot d) I normally share links with my friends 16.How often do you forward/share links with others :a)Quite often b)Sometimes c)rarely

17. How often would you watch a link from a friend :a)I watch the video b)I watch until it seems interesting c)I open only aftr asking what‟s the link all about d)I ignore it 18. How likely are you to open a video from someone who is not a friend ./family – a)I always open the link b)I open until it is virus free c)I ignore it