Why not? It’s cheap. Easy. You can put it on YouTube and not have to pay for any media. Wishful thinking. The fact is, you don’t determine what becomes viral. The consumer does.
Creators, marketers, even YouTube itself are often surprised at what goes viral and what doesn’t. There’s no real formula or blueprint, and certainly no guarantee. Nevertheless, there are three things you can do to increase your chances. We recently applied two of them to our Boston Bruins videos, which managed to generate 300,000 views on the first morning they hit the web, and over a million views during the next week of playoffs.
1. Make it as funny and entertaining as possible.
Why? There are two fundamental reasons. For starters, in the opt-in world of YouTube, Vimeo or other similar sites, no one watches anything they don’t want to watch. Furthermore, no one’s going to pass something on unless they think it’s so good that it will earn them credit from friends and family for being the one who sent it. Given that the next interesting video is but a click away, no one has any patience. So capture their attention and capture it fast. Being outrageous, unexpected, provocative or hysterical are always good places to start.
2. Have a distribution plan.
If you think viral happens by itself, think again. The best efforts – from Elf Yourself to Cadbury’s gorilla – had smart, well thought out plans for how to seed the idea. In the case of our Boston Bruins film it started by finding people with lots of followers to post the spots on YouTube, Break.com and eBaum’s World. We targeted influencers – bloggers, Twitterati and online media – who could generate lots of attention. Deadspin.com, the reigning king of sports blogs, Barstoolsports.com, and Hubhockey.com all jumped on the opportunity to turn their readers onto the campaign. The next thing we knew, word was out and spreading like wildfire.
3. Build in a meme
OK, we admit, we didn’t do this. But we should have. A meme is simply a way by which the consumer can add to, customize, or incorporate him or herself into a modified version of the original concept and pass it on. No matter how successful your viral video might be, if you leave room for the consumer to co-create with you, it becomes even more effective. Our next online version of Bruins spots will no doubt benefit from user participation.
What’s the best example of viral video you’ve seen recently? Did it take advantage of all three of these tactics?
Excellent advice, especially about how you engineered a distribution plan.
Great video, too!
Hal,
Glad you like. If you want more good stuff on viral, to to EVB’s website, or search GoViral, two othere companies that have it figured out.