Spreading viruses can be a good thing.(Focus: Marketing)(Brief article)

Crain's Chicago Business, January, 2007 by Hendershot, Steve

Byline: Steve Hendershot Viral marketing sounds fantastic: Get people to spread your company's message by forwarding your e-mails to their friends or directing them to your Web site. It's cheap, personal and usually fun. But sometimes it works too well. In 2005, Palatine marketing firm Pepper Group launched a campaign for Brugo coffee mugs by sending samples and product information sheets to the authors of coffee blogs like www.singleservecoffee.com.

Buzz about the heat-regulating mugs built quickly, culminating in a plug on "Good Morning America'' that caught Brugo's ...