WHERE TO GET VIRAL MARKETING CASE STUDIES?

Reading the site of WOMMA (= Word of Mouth Marketing Association), I have found plenty of 'case studies' and viral marketing examples.
However, the WOMMA terminology is a little bit different. They prefer the term 'Word of Mouth Marketing' instead of 'Viral Marketing'. Because they think 'Word of Mouth' is a broader term than 'Viral'. The last is only a part of the first. The 'Word of Mouth Marketing' comprises, in itself, many types of marketing as, for example, 'Buzz Marketing', 'Community Marketing', 'Grassroots Marketing', 'Viral Marketing' of course, and others. As for me, I can add one more term I have found recently: 'peer-to-peer marketing'.

WHAT ARE THE MAIN FEATURES OF VIRAL MARKETING?

Today I have read the article Marketing More Powerful Than SEO. It brings some successful viral marketing examples from the near past: Xbox, Gmail, Viral Videos.
These are the article headings:
* Anatomy of Viral Marketing
* Buzz-worthy Sites Stroke People's Egos
* Buzz-worthy Sites Promise to Amaze
* Buzz-worthy Sites are Original
* Considering Buzz for Your Business

There are useful ideas and good viral marketing examples.

HOW TO USE PITHY SAYING TO BELITTLE YOUR RIVAL?

Do you know the popular expression "a quiche-eater"? It means a person far removed from practice and concerned only with academic matters, unwilling to "get their hands dirty"; a man who is effeminate or who lacks some putative masculine virtue. The source of the term quiche-eater was a bestselling humorous book "Real Men Don't Eat Quiche", by Bruce Feirstein, published in 1982. And why? Because a quiche is considered to be a "womanly" dish like other Carbohydrate dishes (сasserole, pasta etc.).

More example for the use of catch-words.
Arthur J. Finkelstein (a United States Republican Party PR professional) is credited with helping to make "liberal" a dirty word in the late 1980s and 1990s by using messages like this, intended to damage Jack Reed's image:
"That's liberal. That's Jack Reed. That's wrong. Call liberal Jack Reed and tell him his record on welfare is just too liberal for you."

Using negative buzzwords is an effective PR move to humiliate your rival.

HOW DID ROMANS COIN WORDS TO PROMOTE THEIR PR CONCEPTS?

It appears that ancient Romans were great public relations makers. When they wished to promote a certain understanding, they used to invent a new word (or a new couple of words) and to imprint it onto the public opinion. Examples are: vox populi (= voice of the people), and res publicae (= public affairs), from which we get our term 'republic'.
Today we call this phenomenon 'buzz' or 'buzzwords'.

The very fact of the word existence convinces the public of the necessity of that social phenomenon in real life.

WHY TO INVENT A NEW EXPRESSION?

What do you think of the term PR relations? Isn't it a tautology (= redundancy, useless repetition)? PR means public relations, so why to repeat relations twice? Nevertheless, this term became common: 10,600 search results for PR relations in Google.
You see, the formal logic is not enough here. The real life is stronger than formal logic. If the real language practice feels it needs some expression, it will invent it.
Today there are plenty examples of buzzwords (= a neologism commonly used, like Web 2.0, podcast etc.). Buzzwords often have unclear meanings. They are typically intended to impress one's audience with the pretense of knowledge. They are often universal. They make sentences difficult to dispute, on account of their cloudy meaning.

So you too don't be afraid of inventing new expressions when you need them.

HOW TO PROMOTE A NEW POINT OF VIEW, A FRESH PROBLEM CONTEXT?

The Hebrew word Hasbara (it literally means "explanation") entered the common language.
E.g. Bled Manifesto on a European Communication Policy in 2006 uses this word like this: "In Israel the use of Hasbara fuelled a movement toward a new nation state and a new national identity".
If you go to Google search, you will find about 188,000 results for "hasbara".

The PR move to promote a new point of view, a novel context of the problem, an original attitude towards something is inventing a new term / buzzword of your own.

HOW TO IMMORTALIZE YOUR PERSONAL NAME?

What is the Google's term "PageRank"? What does it stand for? Does it stand for the word "page" (= a page of an Internet site)? Or for the name of the Google's cofounder Larry Page?
At the end of the day, it makes no difference. You invent a new word pointing both to your personal name and to the technical/scientific/political term.
Another great example is the memorable PR move of Russian tsar Peter the Great. He founded the city of Saint Petersburg in 1703. What's the official explanation? That it was named after Saint Peter the Apostle. Then why not to name it after Saint Paul? Because Peter himself named it.
A fresh Internet example is Craigslist (a centralized network of online classified advertisements) founded in 1995 by Craig Newmark.

When you invent a new term / buzzword, try to think about your own personal name.