We have reached a time where it seems that everything is "going viral." It is as simple is uploading YouTube videos. Record, post, and watch it take off. I do not know how many times I heard someone laughing about a video, email, or commercial they saw and immediately went to my computer to check it out and see what all the hype was about. My first example? This kid:
By just posting himself lip syncing to popular songs he is a perfect example of going viral. To date, his most popular video on YouTube has over 46 million hits! He is now famous and has appeared in commercials and has performed on Americas Got Talent.
So how can a person's [blank] go viral? It may be anything from a lip syncing video on YouTube to a commercial for Coca Cola. They might be completely unrelated, but they both require the same steps.
Ideally, with viral marketing your audience spreads the message for you. Why pour thousands of dollars into a campaign when your audience can spread the word for in some cases, no money at all?
A slideshow on SlideShare.net shared the key ingredients for the success stories in viral marketing:
- Huge fun factor, new factor, intriguing factor, sexy factor
- Creative copy writing and visuals
- You should look cool when forwarding to friend
- Easy to forward
- Praise should go to you as forwarder for finding it!
- Cool and easy to summarize story
- Energy and drive of posters is crucial
- Selected and motivated underground posters working day and night
- Credible look and feel (professional amateurism)
- Rumour should be believable; people are credible, corporations not
The slideshow also says that in order to spread "like a virus," the ad (or other medium) must appeal to any or all of the following human motivators:
- Entertainment
- Fun, humour, games, quizzes, videos, songs...anything to pass the time not working.
- Greed
- Sweeps entries and other free offers.
- "Limited free stock" vs. rest of catalogue for sale.
- Charity (and/or fear)
- You can help save the world. Ask all your friends to sign this online petition/buy this item/visit this Web page daily...etc.
I think that in a way, viral marketing is or can be classified as guerrilla marketing. The point of both is to stand out from all the clutter. The video posted below really caught my attention. The ad is promoting Evian. I watched it twice in a row. I thought it was a very creative and humorously disturbing.
I mean, who doesn't love a posse of rollerskating infants? This commercial, also on YouTube, has 47 million hits since posted in 2009.
My last example of an ad going viral, is the Smartwater Campaign, launched in March of this year. Jennifer Aniston, spokesperson for the company, made sales skyrocket through print ads and commercials. In one print ad, Aniston posed topless with a bottle of Smartwater. What is interesting, though, is that from the start of the campaign the audience was made aware of the techniques used to make these ads go viral. The company does a great job of showing this in the commercial below.
Did you see a familiar face? Yep, that's right, lip syncing kid has not only appeared on America's Got Talent, but is now in commercials!
So Jennifer Aniston starts by saying, "Hi, I'm Jen Aniston and I'm here to talk to you about Smartwater. But in this day and age apparently I can't just do that, can I? ...I have to make a video apparently, that turns into a virus...right, sorry, viral."
As you just saw, the video parodies several videos that have gone viral in the past, such as the dancing babies and the very popular Double Rainbow. It also uses other techniques that catch peoples attention: animals, mild violence and sex appeal. This advertisement is unique because it is honest about what it's goal is from start to finish, and to really make a point, when Aniston asks what to call the video at the end, the "internet boys" say, "Jen Aniston Sex Tape?" And Aniston replies, "I love it."
Guess what? "Jen Aniston Sex Tape" went viral overnight. Goal achieved.
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