Although this article was written back in February of this year (a lifetime in the Social Media timeline) I think that many companies/brands interested in Video Marketing, specifically Viral Video Marketing, will find this list helpful. Be sure to check out the video links, these are some of the more successful videos out there that experienced high levels of "virality" due to the content and packaing. Enjoy! - Tyler@MeHype
When Judson Laipply posted his six-minute "Evolution of Dance" video
to YouTube in April of 2006, he didn't advertise it at all. One month
later, someone noticed his frenzied moves and e-mailed it to a friend.
That friend e-mailed to other friends and more than 100 million views
later, the rest is history. "It was all just pure luck" Mr. Laipply
says.
Fast forward three years, and viral video sensations are not so easy
to come by. As the amount of video online has exploded, it's harder
than ever – and it was never easy – to break out. To launch his sequel
dance video last month, Mr. Laipply partnered with PeopleJam Inc. and found a sponsor, Saveology.com LLC, to pony up tens of thousands of dollars for marketing. Even so, after more than six weeks, "Evolution of Dance 2" is hovering at about 4 million viewers so far – a metric that the first video hit within a few days.
Of course, there are still the occasional lightning-strike hits, such as the home video David After Dentist
of a boy recovering from a dentist visit that attracted nearly 10
million views in two weeks with no marketing. But for most videos,
standing out in the crowd is a tricky balance between trying too hard
and not trying enough.
"If you just upload to YouTube, it's like dropping a grain of sand
on the beach," says Ian Schafer, chief executive of New York ad agency Deep Focus.
"But it's weird, you can't just blast these out as a press release.
People need to feel that sense of discovery when they come onto it."
The key is to master the art of subtle marketing. Disingenuous marketing, such as Trident's unsuccessful viral video campaign for a fictitious TV show, are quickly dismissed by Web-savvy audiences.
Experts say that there are three important factors in creating a sense of discovery in a viral video campaign.
Great Content
It goes without saying that content of the video has to be worth
being discovered. Many popular online videos are short – under three
minutes – and have some elements of cognitive dissonance. Excluding
celebrity videos, many popular videos are deliberately bizarre
juxtapositions, such as HotForWords – a woman in a low-cut blouse talking about etymology.
In the fall of 2006, Tom Dickson, founder of Utah blender
manufacturer Blendtec, donned a white lab coat and blended a rotisserie
chicken, a McDonalds Extra Value meal, a bag of marbles and a rake. The
video got picked up by the news aggregator Digg.com, and within a week it had attracted more than 5 million views.
Since then, Mr. Dickson has blended everything from an iPhone to a
TomTom navigational device, and built a following for his regular "Will it Blend?"
segments. "We're not creating advertising," says Blendtec Vice
President George Wright. "We're creating something people want to
watch." He says that Blendtec's videos have been viewed more than 200
million times.
Build a Fan Base
Huge audiences – such as the 15 million who have watched more than 200 people freeze in place at New York City's Grand Central Station – don't often materialize overnight.
Charlie Todd, the founder of Improv Everywhere, which staged the
Grand Central video, began loading his troupe's videos onto YouTube
soon after the site launched in 2005. He has staged more than 80 events
– such as the No Pants Subway Ride 2009 – and posted most of them on YouTube.
"We have a pop-up at the end of the video that says 'Click here to
see all of our other videos and subscribe,'" Mr. Todd says. "That's one
thing that everyone should do on YouTube." As a result, Improv
Everywhere has 105,000 subscribers who receive notifications whenever
he posts a new video.
Mr. Todd also promotes his videos to bloggers, and he spends time
reading blogs to see which ones would likely be interested in a
particular video. But he prefers to do his promotion anonymously,
usually by e-mailing a tip to a general blog address. "I think that's
probably better than tracking down the e-mail address of the person who
runs the blog and will get irritated," he says. "Just send it in and
say check it out."
Search Engine Optimization
It's also important to make sure your video can be easily discovered
through YouTube search. "You have to put in dedication and time," says
Aaron Zamost, spokesman for Google Inc.'s YouTube. "People don't know how much work uploaders put into this stuff."
Mr. Zamost said videos should have clear titles, an accurate
description and appropriate keyword tags so that they can appears
correctly in a YouTube search. He also suggests using YouTube Insight
to figure out which blogs are directing traffic to your video and where
your viewers live – so, for instance, if your video is popular in
Brazil you can add a tag for Brazil so it will pop up in searches
there. "People are using these tools on a daily basis to optimize their
videos," Mr. Zamost says.
It's also part of the YouTube culture for videos to piggy-back on
each other's success. If a video is popular, YouTubers often race to
create 'video responses' that will then appear next to the popular
video. A great example of that is a video highlighting a glitch in an
Electronic Arts' video game that appeared to show a pixelated Tiger Woods walking on water. In response, the gamemaker posted a video that showed the real Tiger Woods literally walking on water – which attracted a far bigger audience than the original video.
Mr. Schafer of the ad agency Deep Focus says he often recommends his
clients take the low-risk piggy-back approach. "We attach ourselves to
content we know will travel," Mr. Schafer says, "instead of creating
something with the hope that it might."
That way he can be sure that his video will be discovered – which is the whole point.
