Let's share some viral

I started thinking about viral videos after I read a blog  from my friend Bas Reaching maximum by minimum

What is a viral video? Quite simply, it is a video (media?) that becomes popular (social?) through sharing on video sharing websites, such as YouTube, through email and through multiple social media sites such as Facebook, blogs etc

So how does a video about a talking dog (Ultimate dog tease) become viewed by more than 100 million people?

And, what do 35 million people see in a Double Rainbow?

Well the answer to the questions above are not easy. For a start, I propose that they do not begin as 'Viral videos'.  In fact, by the very nature of viral, it is impossible. To be viral something must be spread from person to person. 

For the video to be spread it must have content that is relevant for its audience, whomever that might be. After a trawl through popular viral videos I believe the most common way to be relevant to the masses, is to be entertaining.  

So, how can marketers use these viral phenomena? Well if we consider the two examples above, I think the common choice is to treat them as popular media and pay for advertising on their video. I see this as old school lazy advertising trying shoehorn itself into new world media. I don't think anyone wins from this. The social media site ie YouTube irritates its users and the users skip or ignore the ads anyway, so advertisers waste their money.

I think a much better way for marketers to use this media is to create the content themselves. If you can apply the same principles of success, ie entertaining and relevant content, then you could have some great branded content being viewed by millions of people. The best part is, unlike advertising in traditional media, people are choosing to watch the content ....brilliant! Of course it isn't that easy though. How do you get the content out there, viewed & shared when there are millions of hours of content on the web? Rather than provide an answer to this very complex question, I'd like to share a few examples of brands that have achieved it.

Unless you've been living under a rock, Old spice needs no introduction... 

  

In this example, AMC decided to protest DISH's decision to remove the AMC channel from their network and jeopardise the upcoming launch of season 3 of The Walking Dead. This is how AMC petitioned against it. It is an apt and exceptionally creative idea. Oh, and I love The Walking Dead...

Do you have some favourite viral video adverts? I'd love it if you could share them in this post.

How do you think Marketers can use viral videos? Do you think it is worth creating them?