Connecting Shakespeare and Viral Marketing

As I continue my research of Shakespeare as a product, I want to address the question, "What business strategies did Shakespeare use to achieve success?" In this post, I'm going to analyze the modern phenomenon of viral marketing in comparison with some of the marketing strategies that made Shakespeare a success in the 18th century.  First, I'll offer some insights that I found in my research of viral marketing. Then I'll analyze a Shakespeare video game, which was an attempt at using viral marketing to promote Shakespeare Country.  Finally, I'll explore some of the marketing strategies that increased Shakespeare's popularity in the 18th century.

Viral Marketing
Some of the most powerful recent marketing and advertising campaigns in recent history have made use of viral marketing. This type of marketing relies information being spread person to person through social networks. A person watches a funny video at work, emails it to a few friends and posts it on Facebook, and each of these friends pass it on in a self-replicating process. A few of my favorite viral successes include the Old Spice commercials, "Where the Hell is Matt" sponsored by Stride Gum, and a recent spoof of viral videos (but successful viral video of its own right), Jennifer Aniston goes viral. Since viral marketing takes advantage of the social networking power of the internet, just one video made on a low budget can be passed on exponentially and reach millions of people. Connecting with others on the internet is effortless, mindless, and addictive--viral marketing thrives for just that reason.


While it's difficult to predict what trends will receive mass attention, a few people have had incredible success with this type of marketing. In particular, a man named Jonah Peretti is known as a viral marketing guru. He's led several successful campaigns, including creation of the Rejection Line, a phone number that women could give to guys who asked for their phone numbers. According Peretti, viral marketing relies on several rules including "target the 'Bored at work' network" and "seeding a campaign around the internet." I imagine that the strategies behind viral marketing will improve and evolve as more and more companies look to share their product in this way.

Making Shakespeare Viral

Hoping to catch the viral wave, Shakespeare Country asked a tech company called Koko Digital to produce a viral video game of Romeo and Juliet. I want to thank Bryan Mulkern for directing me to this game with his recent blog post. While I've already specifically mentioned viral videos, viral video games are another aspect of the marketing trend.

In analyzing the video game, I questioned how this type of digital mediation will affect our interpretation and understanding of Shakespeare. I played through a few levels of the game. As far as I could tell, the game hardly incorporates Shakespeare's actual work. Slight connections to Shakespeare are made through the scenery, the character names (and title of the game), and Renaissance-sounding music. However, playing the game does not increase one's knowledge of Romeo and Juliet or Shakespeare, so you hardly feel like you're experiencing Shakespeare at all. I think one of the main flaws with this marketing strategy is that the appeal to play the game is different than the appeal to visit Shakespeare Country. The promotion attracts people that want to play a video game, but the medium almost seems to be a misrepresentation of Shakespeare Country, with a few hints at Shakespeare that are an attempt to create a correlation. The game could be considered a success if its sole purpose is to increase awareness of Shakespeare country, but I think the game offers a shallow parody that might devalue the reputation of Shakespeare that they are trying to perpetuate.

Marketing of the Past 

In this last part of my post, I wanted to more specifically relate viral marketing to some of the marketing that occurred with Shakespeare's plays in the 18th century. I found particular information about this period in the book Marketing the Bard, by Don-John Dugas. Dugas explains that Shakespeare's work was static from about 1623 to 1708, but increased in popularity with a new printing by the publisher Jacob Tonson. Prior to Tonson's publication, most Shakespeare publications (folios) had taken the same form, published by a man named Henry Herrington. While Herrington was a well-known publisher, Tonson made improvements to the form of the plays that was more appealing to audiences: he added illustrations, he made the size smaller and more manageable, he included lists of dramatis personae, and he added a biography and critical introduction. Tonson's publication was a radical change in the form of producing Shakespeare, and it resulted increased attention to the plays.

Of course, Shakespeare wasn't alive to reap the benefits of the 18th century marketing. But it seems that this marketing effort is similar to viral marketing in several ways. First, it takes on the idea of "seeding," because Shakespeare was produced by several different publishers and that increased the availability of his work. Second, Tonson's revised edition appealed to a much broader demographic--the average reading class--similar to the way that viral marketing appeals to the large "bored-at work" class. While viral marketing via the internet was not possible at the time, it seems that Shakespeare's success relied on principles that apply to viral marketing today.