The elusive quest to create a truly viral ad campaign is always top of mind for marketers. If an ad or marketing campaign really resonates with the masses, a brand can go from zero to hero in as little as a week. There’s a highly honed craft to creating a viral ad campaign, not the least of which includes insane creativity and total marketing expertise.
There are, however, some tried and true viral tricks of the trade that, if practiced with intention and finesse, can help improve your viral odds. For assistance in compiling this list of expert tips, I consulted Alexander Debelov, the CEO of Virool.com.
Step 1: Learn from Past Successes
The most savvy way to decipher how to make a video splash is to first study what has worked for other brands. Below is a list of the most popular ads of the past two years. Studying these meticulously will help you understand what resonates with the web.
- Evian’s Baby & Me – 90 million views
- Dove’s Real Beauty Sketches – 63 million views
- Dollar Shave Club’s Our Blades are F**cking Great – 14 million views
- Turkish Airlines Kobe vs. Messi – 137 million views
Step 2: Enhance Viewer Engagement
Debelov, the marketing guru behind the viral success of Kobe vs Messi (which is the single most viral brand video of 2013), reminds marketers to heavily study viewer engagement with their ads. “Show the video to a smaller sample of viewers,” states the Virool CEO, “and optimize it using analytic tools such as a heat map of mouse movements and clicks” .
Relying on your own instincts regarding how your audience will react can result in a totally missed opportunity. Commit to taking the time to test your content, and tweak according to feedback, and you have a much higher likelihood to hitting a slam dunk at launch.
Step 3: Time Your Release
Choosing when to release your ad is as critical as it is for movie execs plotting the release of a film. There are two main rules around choosing the right launch time:
- Study the latest YouTube stats and choose a day and time to release your ad that requires the least amount of views to hit the top of the leaderboards.
- Discover when competitors in your industry are releasing new ad campaigns (via press releases and other media), and ensure you aren’t overlapping.
Step 4: Seed Your Initial Views
Debelov also recommends that you have a plan in place to get the first round of views amassed for your video straight out of the gate. “Before a video can be shared, a core group needs to see it first. Use a platform like Virool.com — or reach out to others on your mailing list — to get these initial views.”
This is a huge mistake that many marketers make with video campaigns; they send the release out to their list before there are any seed views. Often folks will see low viewing numbers and assume the content isn’t worthy, without making note of the new release. This can automatically turn off new viewers without ever getting a chance to win them over with your clever content.
Step 5: Accelerate the First 24 Hours
By far the most critical time period for your media release, if viralness is indeed your goal, lies in the first 24 hours. Once you have your seed views, it’s time to alert the masses that your ad is waiting. The responsibility is now on the marketing team to go all-out in order to ensure a strong initial showing.
You’ll want to create as many marketing spikes as possible in this first day of release. This doesn’t just include views, but also likes and comments too. React to your viewers’ comments in real-time. Spread the video across all your social channels and web sites. Do everything possible to get eyeballs and engagement totally in action around your video release, and as fast as humanly possible. Gaining momentum on day 1 is truly the most important factor to an overall viral campaign.
Step 6: Keep up the Momentum
Once your initial marketing spikes wear off, it’s essential to keep fanning your viral flames. How? Debelov suggests that “when you see the pace of video views starting to slow, use more paid ad views and reach out to your biggest fans with new incentives for social sharing.” The key here is incentivizing sharing – by offering your loyal viewers rewards for assistance in making the ad viral, you are essentially expanding your marketing team exponentially.
The underlining theme for viral ads is twofold:
- Careful planning and research prior to launch
- Persistence in marketing strategies post-launch
It goes without saying that your video must be appealing to your audience, and have that certain je ne sais quoi that makes viewers click “share”. Whether you choose a heart-string tugging route or go all-out on humor, quality cannot be over-emphasized. Once you have that gem of an ad, the marketing team must carefully assemble an iron clad release plan in order to have any hope at viral success.
http://advancedfreeweb.com/blog/viral-marketing-the-secret-to-creating-ads-that-spread-like-wild-fire/
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