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Catching a Marketing Virus
Every once in a while an Internet sensation captivates Web surfers, leading workers everywhere to email a video or URL to their colleagues, creating fodder for the comedians on VH1’s Best Week Ever and E’s The Soup, and giving rise to a new Wikipedia article, among other things.
This is often called “going viral,” and it seems like every week there’s something new (usually a video) that we can all sit around and talk about. It seems like viral videos come out of nowhere, and are often obscure clips that somehow gain traction. For an example click here (warning: contains sound). For more on why an obscure music video relates to viral marketing, read the history of the Internet phenomenon here. This was just a fluke, but is it possible to create a viral video as part of a marketing campaign? To understand if it’s possible to predict what will or won’t catch on, you have to define what it means to “go viral.”
Unfortunately viral is a very subjective term, but there are some well-known cases of videos that fit the description which shed some light on what it means. Take, for example, the “Will it Blend?” videos on YouTube posted by blender maker BlendTec. The product demonstrations were meant for people interested in buying a blender, but many more millions have watched the videos.
Another important thing to understand about going viral is that users are the ones who decide whether to pass it along to friends. An ad campaign alone can’t generate the interest needed to create mass popularity. For a message to go viral, people have to individually pass along the information to friends (sometimes with the help of the media recognizing increased interest). Often the companies involved didn’t even do anything, as was the case when Diet Coke and Mentos videos began appearing on YouTube, which prompted an episode of Mythbusters on the subject, among other things.
Lastly, to earn the term “viral,” a video has to become a hit almost overnight. With YouTube videos like the Star Wars Kid and Chocolate Rain (two of the more popular examples of viral videos), the increase in views grew exponentially. Since those videos became part of pop culture, their views have also decreased exponentially. It’s that peak when people are talking and sending their friends links that viral happens.
To recap, my own definition of a viral Internet sensation has three requirements:
-designed for a small or targeted group that gained mass exposure
-gains popularity through word-of-mouth and people sharing links with friends
-interest peaks and declines quickly, a la the “15 minutes of fame”
What’s your definition of viral as it pertains to online content? Is it possible for a company to create marketing with the intention of having it go viral?
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