Which Came First? Viral or Marketing?

I’ve been asking myself this question lately. The more I read my RSS feed, namely from Mashable, I start to wonder: Did it go viral because Mashable said so?

I’m pretty active on the web. I spend some time watching funny videos as they come to me or as I stumble upon them. But a lot of the time I see an article on Mashable that makes the claim that XYZ video or campaign has gone viral.

That’s when I say, I didn’t see it. Not that I’m the end-all-be-all of viral marketing knowledge. Just because I didn’t see it, doesn’t make it less viral, but ya know. But still, which came first; in some cases, the viral or the marketing?

Is apart of the marketing that asset that makes it viral? Old Spice had a great campaign. One that I saw on TV then the viral aspect kicked in. But some of these stories like Cee-lo’s song goes viral makes me stop and wonder. I would’ve never come across this – most likely – had it not been for Mashable telling me it went viral.

The scene from the Matrix also comes to mind where the Oracle tells Neo not to worry about the vase and he asks, “What vase” then bumps into it and it breaks. She then replies, “…would you still have broken it if I didn’t say anything?”.

Make sense? What do you think?

Photo by: The Wander’s Eye