• Business Week, Tuesday, January 16, 2007 10:45 AM

As we know, viral marketing on the Web is becoming something more essential to the marketers' media mix, but it's a tight rope they have to walk between engaging users to help get the word out and upsetting them. Case in point: Sony's fake blog designed last fall to help spur sales of its PlayStation Portable game console. Consumers don't like being duped into reading fake praise for a product; the press was all over Sony for the marketing ploy.

Sony could have avoided the backlash if it called on The Viral, a London startup that specializes in crafting clever video clips designed to spur users into sending them to friends. The Viral Factory says part of the reason for its success is that it knows its limitations. Co-founder Matt Smith adds: "We also understand when and when not to use viral."

The Viral Factory's body of work includes a Ford video in which its SportKa model car flips a bird threatening to ruin its paint job off its hood; another for Trojan Condoms features made-up highlights of athletes participating in sexually suggestive sporting events.

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