Jargonizing has never been my hobby. Never my forte. In fact whenever I meet people who throw Jargon around, I hate them as much as I hate people who drop names.

So I must apologize in advance for a stray attempt at Jargonizing that I am tempted to do today.

It all started with my pet subject ‘Viral Marketing’ and my pet theory that there is a huge difference between mere Digital Marketing and Viral Marketing. I have been preaching (and practicing) a theory that the transition from Digital to Viral only happens when the content or the communication integrates an element that enhances its shareability, its passability and so on.

I am for instance convinced that mere hits, views and/or likes are not a measure of the success of a campaign. It is the shares. It is the Pass-ons. In short, only if Word of Mouth is triggered, is the communication truly effective. And this is true in both the offline and online worlds.

I have been looking for a phrase that could describe that unique X - Factor I was trying to describe, to define and to deploy. But while I was slowly but surely getting a feel for what worked in the digital domain while going viral, I still had no label to hang my thoughts on.

For example I saw that while a Music Video, a Candid Camera Video, a Cute Baby Video and even a Porn Video were going ballistic in the viral zone…the moment the challenge of communication became product focused or service oriented there seemed to be a hesitation of sorts. It was almost as if the audience was very comfortable re-telling a joke but was extremely reluctant to share product knowledge or service highlights.

Then a phrase from the online world came to mind. A phrase that many people have used and misused while looking at content on web sites. The phrase is ‘Stickiness’ and it refers to the capacity of the content put up to hold the readers’/viewers’ interest for a period of time. If what you were showing held the audience’s attention for a few minutes/seconds more than normal, you obviously had content with the attention ‘grabbing and holding on’ factor…Stickiness!

While Stickability was a commendable term and concept, I was however looking at a turn of phrase that captured a message’s propensity to jump from one recipient to another to another etc. in quick succession.

And that is what made me think of the Flea…and Voila!!!By the natural rules of progression, I came up with the Theory of Flea Marketing.

And that my friends is simple enough to explain.

If your communiqué has the unique feature of landing on my desktop, and then immediately triggering off a chain reaction where I pass on your communiqué to a like minded friend or friends, who in turn pass it on to their contacts, you would have succeeded in Flea Marketing for your product or service. And that is the biggest favor you can do yourself and your client.

Because you only have two options. Use Digital Marketing as a mere domain where you are given a window for a small period of time…and you come there and shout out your message and hope that the right people heard it…and enough of them heard for it to matter..

Or push the limits of the Digital Domain by planning to go Viral by using concepts like Flea Marketing…so that all you have to do is whisper…and while preventing a Chinese Intrusion into your trail (and resulting in the dangerous Chinese Whisper)…ensure that your message reaches multiple audiences and is made to feel welcome.