Viral Marketing and the New Cinderella

Sophie Merry, an Irish girl and complete stranger who posted a few videos of her dancing on YouTube was picked by an advertising company to represent the French clothing line Etam and is one of the best examples of successful viral marketing.

This modern-life fairy tale has been widely publicized (I heard of this on the televised Irish news) and now the company is running a contest for other girls to show off their dancing skills and the winner will get a year's supply of Etam jeans for the winner and 10 of her friends.

This is an example of viral marketing used by a clever company: a video showing Sophie Merry and her Groovy moves is being shown on a mini-site that is heavily linked to Etam's main website.

By spreading the Groovy Dancing Girl video and attracting young girls to their website (which offers contestants the opportunity of dancing to a slowed soundtrack and then producing a fun video of their dancing; once the soundtrack is being converted back to its normal speed, the results are amazing!), Etam is trying to modernize its image (they were one of those clothing lines that I would have considered as "For Grannies" before now) and so far, it looks likes their attempt at viral marketing is working!