What makes viral video marketing successful?
Viral marketing campaigns technology presents opportunities for relationship building, not only peer to peer but also between marketers and their customers (Harridge-March and Quinton 2009:171) viral videos could be the best chance to express the company products from the unknown brand to a very popular one. According to the Social Media Marketing report (2018), a video is the second most popular form of social content online.
Videos are intuitively attractive, touching and highly shareable – which is ideal for anyone wishing to make an infectious contact. Now 80% of web traffic is projected to be video-based, by the end of next year, more customers are seeking out video than ever before. (Baker, 2018)
The visual elements of videos could capture the audience attention by increasing their senses. Viral videos could spread through all the media channels like the virus.
Viral contact should include: 1-Emotional 2- Practical 3-Readable 4-Powerful 5-Trustworthy (Karter,2017)
Biggest viral video campaigns include:
A Sense of Humor: most of the videos out there are funny; some of them had the most ‘likes’ because of an embarrassing act.
Topicality: keeping the target ‘current’ with viral videos is crucial.
Provocation: As 65% of audiences are visual learners, they could feel the videos further influence their understanding of a topic.
Success stories:
It is more successful when we know what the consumers are talking about and are interested in. To take advantage of this trend, travel company Expedia created the ‘#ThrowMeBack’ campaign, which offered customers a chance to win a holiday by posting one of their old travel photos under the hashtag. (Baker,2018)
The campaign was successful and the brand was able to measure this through these three elements.
- Audience: engaging with a wide range of consumer demographics, gaining an expansive potential new customer base.
- Expression: receiving different types of feedback/comments.
- Participation: Audience engages with brands through an online social action, which includes embedding an online video in the website, downloading content, emailing it to others, and sharing videos on a social media platform.
- https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/en-gb/blog/5-secrets-super-successful-video-marketing
Another successes video was “Dollar Shave Club”
This well-known video produced in 2012 is still being viewed today, and currently has over 25 million views.
The founder, Michael Dubin, does a fantastic job of bringing humor to the video, making it entertaining while at the same time presenting his brand’s personality in a very vivid way. (Lodolce, 2018)
How to use videos for viral marketing?
- Audience mind goal set. By creating a persona to find out what your buyer cares about? What video do they already watch more? What new topics might grab their attention?
- Pick the right style of video
- Choose a platform for your performance
- Correct right level/length in relation to optimizing engagement. Shorts and straight to the point. One fifth of your viewers
- Emotional connection
- Promote. It is so important to promote the video often; the video couldn’t go viral if audiences don’t know where to find them.
- However, this viral marketing video proves that your videos don’t need to focus too much on your own business in order to see success. ( Lodolce,2018)
Are there any risks/disadvantages?
As much as viral videos gain an increase in audience engagement, elements could be risky and conclusively unsuccessful. There area few reasons, which could make an advert, fail. (Redmond,2017)
- Wrong audience target; it’s important to make sure targeting related audience due to the age, gender, interest etc. otherwise whole plan might go wrong.
- Ethical consideration, an online privacy issue
- Hard to measured,
- Negative buzz, sometimes instead of receiving positive feedback on the viral advert everything might go wrong and receive the opposite; this would negatively influence the targeted business.
References:
Baker, W 2018 Your guide to viral video marketing: An entertainment epidemic [Online] available at http://fabrikbrands.com/your-guide-to-viral-video-marketing/ [Accessed Feb 2019]
Bampo, M., Ewing, M.T., Mather, D.R., Stewart, D. and Wallace, M., 2008. The effects of the social structure of digital networks on viral marketing performance. Information systems research, 19(3), pp.273-290.
Carter, R 2017, How to make content go viral: Tips for truly contagious viral content
[Online] available at http://fabrikbrands.com/viral-content-and-how-to-make-content-go-viral/ [Accessed Feb 2019]
Lodolce, A, 2018 Viral video Marketing: Definition, Benefits & strategies for 2018[Online] Available at https://viewership.com/viral-video-marketing/ [Accessed Feb 2019]
Harridge March, Sally, and Quinton, Sarah, (2009), “Virtual snakes and ladders: social networks and the relationship marketing loyalty ladder,” The marketing review, vol. 9, no. 2, 171-181.
Hinz, O., Skiera, B., Barrot, C. and Becker, J.U., 2011. Seeding strategies for viral marketing: An empirical comparison. Journal of Marketing, 75(6), pp.55-71.
Redmond, J 2018 Disadvantage of viral marketing [ Online] Available at https://business.lovetoknow.com/business-marketing-business-owner/disadvantages-viral-marketing [Accessed Feb2019]
Trusov, M., Bucklin, R.E., and Pauwels, K., 2009. Effects of word-of-mouth versus traditional marketing: findings from an internet social networking site. Journal of marketing, 73(5), pp.90-102.