What are Viral Campaigns?
Viral marketing is an approach that involves harnessing the network effect of the internet, delivering a message to a wide spread of people, to create a ‘buzz’. Whether this be the Dove ‘Real Beauty Sketches’ campaign or the ‘GoPro Fireman Saves Kitten’. A viral marketing campaign has a much greater impact than using traditional advertising methods.
The top viral campaigns need to be original, memorable and encourage you to share.
Pilon (2017) lists the top Viral Campaigns of 2016
Apple Music: Drake vs Bench Press
John Lewis #BusterTheBoxer
Ghostbusters: Branded filters on Snapchat
Disney #ShareYourEars Supports Make-A-Wish
L’oreal #WorthSaying
Gregory (2015) suggests how campaigns are most likely to reach consumers who actively seek information, but to also bare in mind that campaigns will not always give you a positive response.. so be ready for the critique!
Why do companies use viral campaigns?
Companies want to increase their traffic and campaigns lead the way. The idea of thousands and millions of viewers watching or being involved in your campaign within a short space of time, is exciting. Exposing your brand to the world and giving them an insight to who you are and what you do, can be incredibly powerful. Some campaigns are absolutely hilarious, others heart-breaking, but all contain triggers which get people talking.
Social Media Marketing Channel
Defined as ‘Monitoring and facilitating customer-customer interaction and participation throughout the web to encourage positive engagement with a company and its brands. Interactions may occur on a company site, social networks and other online sites’.
This channel is highly significant as it encourages customer interaction with the company through various methods. Social media marketing can be used to improve the way a brand is perceived, to promote a product or a service and to learn more about their customers (Chaffey, 2016).
Ledford (2012) refers to the ‘Media Richness Model’ and also ‘Media Control’. The media richness model is used to measure interpersonal communication and media control is used for media strategy in PR. This model allows an analysis to various communication disciplines which can address multiple channels.
Media richness is determined by 4 questions according to Ledford (2012)
- Does the medium offer the receiver the ability to send feedback and how quickly?
- Can the medium communicate multiple cues?
- Does the medium offer language variety and the opportunity for a natural language?
- Does the medium have a focus?
What is an audit?
An audit is described as a systematic review or an assessment. A viral campaign audit provides a review of what works well, what doesn’t work so well, where can we improve and where are our strengths?
Step-by-Step Guide
All it really takes is a clever idea with a well planned execution
- Understanding who your audience is – Relate this to what you know about your consumers already, if you are targeting them specifically, use analytics to help you seek an advantage
- Evoke emotions – You want your viewer to feel something when they see your campaign, ask yourself how do you want your consumer to feel?
- Don’t overcomplicate your idea – You don’t want your message to get lost in the confusion of how your message is portrayed
- Learn from the best – Ask yourself why the top viral campaigns are so successful, what did you think was good about them, what made you want to share the content?
- Easy to share – Include links to social media streams and content sharing features, so the consumer can do it there and then
- Allow feedback – If you want to build your brand then you are going to have to encourage feedback and regular communication
- Determine your tonality – Are you going for comedy, political, sexy, controversial, cool, conservative?
- Distinctiveness – What sets your campaign apart, and how easy is this to see?
- Story – does your story fully engage your customer, is your chosen story going to allow you to achieve he outcome you want?
- Measure the effects of your campaign – Companies such as Webtrends provide software more measuring online campaign performance (Harris & Dennis, 2008)
Pentin (2012) discusses how there is no secret formula for viral success, otherwise we would all be going it and being very successful! But following these ten steps will provide you with guidance on how to successfully use a viral campaign to increase social media presence.
For a beginners guide to social media engagement and how to make the most of your metrics, check out the link below:
Additional Links
Useful blogs in relation to viral marketing campaigns:
https://www.searchlaboratory.com/2017/02/going-viral-the-mathematics-behind-content-and-online-pr/
http://www.thirtyseven.agency/blog/7-viral-campaigns-that-went-wrong-for-all-the-wrong-reasons/
References
Chaffey, D. & Chadwick, F.E. (2016) Digital Marketing Strategy, Implementation and Practice. 6th ed. Pearson: Harlow
Gregory, A. (2015) Planning and Managing Public Relations Campaigns. 4th ed. Kogan Page: London
Harris, L. & Dennis, C. (2008) Marketing the e-business. Routledge: New York
Pentin, R. (2012) Seven Top Tips for Improving Viral Campaign Success. E-Consultancy. Available online: https://econsultancy.com/blog/9497-top-tips-for-improving-viral-success [Accessed 25 Novemebr 2017]
Ledford, C.J.W. (2012) Changing Channels: A Theory-Based Guide to Selecting Traditional, New, and Social Media in Strategic Social Marketing. Social Marketing Quarterly., 09/2012, Volume 18, Issue 3
Pilon, A. (2017) These Were The Best Viral Campaigns of 2016. [Online] Available at: https://smallbiztrends.com/2016/12/best-viral-campaigns-of-2016.html [Accessed 27 November 2017]