<P> The concept is often misused or misunderstood, as people apply it to any successful enough story without taking into account the word "viral". </P> <P> Viral advertising is personal and, while coming from an identified sponsor, it does not mean businesses pay for its distribution . Most of the well - known viral ads circulating online are ads paid by a sponsor company, launched either on their own platform (company webpage or social media profile) or on social media websites such as YouTube . Consumers receive the page link from a social media network or copy the entire ad from a website and pass it along through e-mail or posting it on a blog, webpage or social media profile . Viral marketing may take the form of video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames, ebooks, brandable software, images, text messages, email messages, or web pages . The most commonly utilized transmission vehicles for viral messages include: pass - along based, incentive based, trendy based, and undercover based . However, the creative nature of viral marketing enables an "endless amount of potential forms and vehicles the messages can utilize for transmission", including mobile devices . </P> <P> The ultimate goal of marketers interested in creating successful viral marketing programs is to create viral messages that appeal to individuals with high social networking potential (SNP) and that have a high probability of being presented and spread by these individuals and their competitors in their communications with others in a short period of time . </P> <P> The term "viral marketing" has also been used pejoratively to refer to stealth marketing campaigns--marketing strategies that advertise a product to people without them knowing they are being marketed to . </P>

The primary purpose of viral marketing is to