viral marketing

Silicon Valley VC Redpoint Ventures, which is leading the Series A investment round, is convinced that Expensify co-founder David Barrett's strategy of getting small-biz employees hooked on its expense-report smartphone apps is the key to a huge market.

It started off as a viral Web sensation, quickly blossomed into a promising investment, and ended up as a dirty joke. Chatroulette is relaunching, but can the clever site clean up its act to appeal to audiences beyond exhibitionists and voyeurs?

The granite-bellied, cello-voiced Old Spice Man can bake cakes, refurbish kitchens, change pants instantaneously and generate millions of hits on YouTube -- but can he sell Old Spice products? The answer is a qualified yes.

The Girl Scouts have sold cookies since their early years, bringing in $700 million a year. But sales slipped about 1% last year, prompting the group to look for new ways to get its message across. The result? They've posted a video on YouTube called "What can a cookie do?" which has attracted about 24,000 hits.

There were two things wrong with valedictorian Kenya Mejia's speech at her recent high school graduation in Los Angeles, which she ended by announcing to the crowd, "I love you, Jake Minor!" Problem 1 -- she was paid $1,800 by a marketing firm to say it. Problem 2 -- Jake Minor was not her...

A month ago, DailyFinance reported on Murphy-Goode's search for an all-purpose networker-for-hire. The Sonoma-based winemaker conducted its quest through an online contest that encouraged candidates to submit videos to the company's site. These clips, in turn, were re-posted on YouTube, giving...

Murphy-Goode winery in Sonoma, California, is looking for a blogger, twitterer, Facebooker, and all-around social networking maven. The winning applicant will get free rent and $10,000 per month for six months. In return, he or she will have the full-time task of drinking Murphy Goode wine and...

They say sex sells, and if that's true, Airborne immune system booster is gonna reel in a whole lot of chicks and gay men with its new ad campaign featuring "Sebastian," a hunky young stud from an enchanted land. Sebastian is here in our world giving away free samples of Airborne, a tablet you drop...

YouTube may not be a profit machine yet, but it can be big business, and limitless free marketing, for the people who put videos on it. Validation of cultural realities previously thought of as throwaway come through academic settings, and as proof, Northwestern University, near Chicago, has...