So what do we mean exactly by “viral video”? The easiest way to begin is by thinking of its original meaning used in medicine. Viral is something that “spreads and grows.” Viral video is when other people take your created video and willingly share it with others; it spreads out to a larger audience, and when done right, grows in its reach and influence. Viral videos can be a great way for organizations to promote products and services as they are not full of hard sale like traditional commercials. Instead, the biggest priority of viral videos is being fun and entertaining, making the viewing public laugh hard and become willing to share them with others.
The first time I became aware of viral video marketing is by watching an episode of the Celebrity Apprentice 2009. The episode featured a task for both competing teams to create a viral video for the detergent company, ALL, on their new “small and mighty®” detergent brand. The objective was which team could better impress the executives of ALL with their submitted video. Team Athena's video was entitled 'Jesse James Dirty with Midgets'. Here is the video for you to watch-
Actually, both teams thought they should go with midgets in their videos, simply because it was one of the most popular keyword searches for videos on YouTube. “We searched the internet for one of the most-used keywords when searching for viral videos, and ‘midget’ is one of the top 5 words.” Said Melissa Rivers, who was on Team Athena.
It turned out that the executives from ALL hated the video. They complained about the demeaning of the little people, and considered their image to be very “clean” and conservative; not racy or “dirty”. Viral video marketing experts made similar criticism that the video creators made general assumptions about the searched keywords, rather than addressing the specific and unique interest of the target audience/consumers of the product, meaning that they thought moms/housewives wouldn't appreciate watching a video with little people in it.
I think the case touches a very important aspect of viral video production for marketing purposes-
1) Learn the target audience before making a video that you think EVERYONE would find funny. Who is your target audience? What is their demographic? What videos are they watching? What keywords are they searching for? What websites do they frequent? What online communities are they participating in?
2) Learn the expectations of your client before making a video. Are they looking for something edgy with strong appeal to humor, or are they intending to deliver a solemn yet inspiring message?
I'd like to know your thoughts and comments about making/using viral video for marketing.
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I found that videos that have really gone viral have some kind of striking quality in terms of humor, shock or connection with audience.
ReplyDeleteThough viral videos initially were not advertisements for products or corporations, increasingly that's the kind we encounter.
Clients may want to play safe and stick to their traditional image and keep it 'solemn'; perhaps in that case chances of getting the video go viral is lower.
Thanks Paromita. So it's about time to educate the clients. Great point.
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