Hi Babac,

Im getting the feeling theres a parallel universe! im a student at edinburgh university although currently on exchange in Singapore so experiencing the same problem of distance with my advisor, but also he is being very unhelpful which adds to my problems. I was just about to submit my proposal outline and thought i would search online for things to put down under the skeleton bibliography...when i was led to your post.

It is quite scary but what u proposed is exactly what iv just written! although as your dissertation was 2 years ago i guess my idea of it being a 'current' topic may now be questionable! but still i thought it was quite ironic how similar our circumstances and ideas were that i wanted to get in touch to see how your dissertation went? as i said my advisor is being ver difficult and refusing to help in any way so wondered if you would be able to tell me of any problems/pitfalls in the research area that you encountered?

im not sure if you are still a member of this site but thought it was worth a shot anyway.

look forward to hearing from you

Regards,

Nicola

On 15:24:17 13 January 2006 babacdadon wrote:

Hi there,

I’m a final year student studying for a BA Hons in Marketing and as part of my course I have to produce a 10,000 word dissertation on an area of marketing which I see fit. I am studying this year part time in Spain, even though my university is in England; I had to move here for job commitments. As a result I cannot see my supervisor when I like to ask for his help and guidance and he hasn’t replied to my recent emails, so I was wondering if you could help give your opinion on my project.

I have chosen to study viral marketing, and in particular peer to peer video sharing such as that of Trojan condoms, Trojan games. Furthermore, I have decided to investigate generation y’s (those born after 1981) relationship with viral marketing. Generation y, often referred to as millenials are often very skeptical of traditional advertising and with the rise in new digital interactive communications I want to look at their affiliation with viral marketing.

There are two areas I have decided to investigate so far and I would like to hear your opinions on them. Firstly, I would like to explore generation y’s usage of the internet, to gauge how susceptible they are to viral marketing. For example, I am looking to ask
• how many hours on average do they use the internet in a week/day,
• what is their primary reason for going online (work, shopping, email, entertainment, news,etc),
• how much time do they spend on other forms of media such as television, newspapers, radio, magazines, etc
• If they ever surf the net for entertainment purposes? If so what for, music, videos, games, etc

Basically I am trying to prove or show that generation y spend more time on the internet than exposed to other types of media and that they is a lot of people that use the internet as a source of entertainment, and not just as a source for work, shopping etc.

The second part I am looking more particularly into viral marketing and asking the question of what type of viral video messages would they pass on. For example, I am going to show them around 6-8 viral videos that have surfaced over the last few years, each of them using a different tactic to arouse interest, some of them using humour, some of them using sex, some using shock factor, some use amazing tricks so that you are in awe, some use a “cool” factor. I am looking to investigate which ones the generation y sample are more likely to pass on to a friend. The viral videos I am considering include Reebok Terry Tate one, Nike Ronaldinho skill, Napster Strip tease one, Trojan Condoms Trojan games, etc. All of the viral vids used will be from brands whose target market will be within the generation y bracket of those born after 1981. Do you think that this is ok, or maybe I should try exploring other issues of viral marketing, please let me know your opinions.

I am hoping to set up a website where males (as many of the virals I aim to use sport, beer etc) born after 1981 (that are above 18, however) could take the survey; I feel as this project is dealing with viral marketing, that it is appropriate that the survey should take place online.

Please let me know what you think about this project and how it could be improved. For example, if you think that I should compare generation y susceptibility to that of people born before 1981 (those 24+), etc etc, please let me know. Also do you think that I should find out about generation y’s experience with viral marketing, do they pass on videos, pictures games, etc etc to their friends??

Sorry for this long winded explanation.

Thank in advance

Babac Vafaey