document: The paradigm of viral communication The IIW Institute of Information Management -LRB- www.IIW.de -RRB- is dealing with commercial applications of digital technologies , such as the Internet , digital printing , and many more . A study which has been carried out by the institute , identifies viral messages as a new paradigm of communication , mostly found in the area of Direct Marketing , and - who wonders - mainly within the USA . Viral messages underlie certain principles : -LRB- 1 -RRB- prospects and customers of the idea are offered a technology platform providing a possibility to send a message to a majority of persons ; -LRB- 2 -RRB- there is an emotional or pecuniary incentive to participate . Ideally , niches of needs and market vacua are filled with funny ideas ; -LRB- 3 -RRB- also , the recipients are facing emotional or pecuniary incentives to contact a majority of further recipients - this induces a snowball effect and the message is spread virally ; and -LRB- 4 -RRB- the customer is activated as an `` ambassador '' of the piece of information , for instance promoting a product or a company . It is evident that there has been a long lasting history of what we call `` word-of-mouth '' ever since , however bundles of digital technologies empower the viral communication paradigm
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