Millions of people have been bombarded throughout their facebook and twitter feeds about a video produced by the controversial media company “Invisible Children” about Joseph Kony, (now) one of the world’s most infamous criminals.

The main purpose of the video is supposedly to make Joseph Kony so infamous that his capture would be inevitable. It appears to be working, with over 50 million views, 1 million likes, and 400,000 comments on their Youtube video within only 5 days.

All of the controversy surrounding the company Invisible Children aside, the Kony 2012 campaign is undoubtedly a massive viral success. Washington Post echoes this sentiment, calling viral the “future of marketing.” As Rochelle van der Linde points out in her blog post on marketing shifts, there has been a transition from traditional marketing to contemporary social marketing. This campaign is a clear example of the latter, the methods of its implementation, and the massive influence and potential it holds.

Viral marketing differs substantially from traditional marketing in the way it is carried out. Companies need only to create a clever ad and seed it online, while social media spreads their message for them to a potentially massive audience. In Dominik Bundschuh’s blog post on viral techniques, he links to a very interesting article that outlines viral marketing and its techniques in a clear and useful manner. Kony 2012 employs viral marketing very effectively – the video is carefully planned and makes use of strong, disturbing, and sometimes even irrelevant or unrelated imagery in order to effect an immediate visceral response in its viewers. In doing so, it establishes a powerful emotional connection which in turn creates the urge to share this message with others. Though some may brush it off as nothing more than emotional propoganda, this is the very essence of viral marketing – creating a connection with viewers, who are then compelled to spread the word.