Epidemic Marketing was a short-lived dot-com company headquartered in Denver, Colorado that operated in the viral marketing sector. Before it closed its doors in June 2000, it employed approximately 60 people.[1] Its website was located at www.epidemic.com.
Epidemic attempted to generate marketing revenue by paying customers to attach links to internet businesses in their outgoing mail.[1] Presumably, after seeing their websites jump in popularity, clients would pay Epidemic a greater amount than was paid to customers.
Although Epidemic considered its efforts as viral marketing, it operated in a very similar fashion to spam and bot nets, albeit with willing end-users who were receiving paid compensation.
The company was launched in September 1999.[1] It raised $7.6 million in venture capital in its first round of financing.[1]
The company spent $1.6 million[1] to secure a 30-second ad during Super Bowl XXXIV. According to national account manager James Wallen, the ad drew "little response from consumers but helped to attract important business partners."[1]
Business plans apparently failed and the company attempted to merge with a California-based firm.[1] When this failed, the company shuttered in June 2000.
As of April 2018, there exists an unrelated Denver-based search engine optimization company also named Epidemic Marketing.[2]
