I hear it all too often and, to be honest, I’ve been guilty of it as well: “Let’s create a viral video to drive buzz, raise awareness, etc., etc.” Sounds like a great strategy, but the truth is you can’t really create a viral video. In reality, all you can do is create the video and it either goes viral, or it doesn’t. Whether a video goes viral isn’t your choice, your company’s choice or your client’s choice – rather, it’s the audience who decides.
I recently came across an eye-opening Fast Company articled written by Scott Stratten titled, “Why No One Will Watch Your Crappy Corporate ‘Viral Video, And How To Fix It.’” The author hit the nail on the head. While you can’t just decide to create a viral video, there’s one critical step you can take to compel your audience to broadly share your video: Evoke strong emotion.
Think about this for a second. What makes you share a video or news story and immediately hit the “like button” and/or tweet about it? It’s typically something that makes you laugh or cry. Or something that completely inspires you or even upsets you to the point that you feel compelled to spread the word.
Take for example, P&G’s ad for the 2012 summer Olympics, which currently has more than 5.7 million views. The video evokes a strong emotion that millions of people can relate to. Almost as important is the fact that there’s no branding for P&G until the very end when the company thanks moms and highlights that it’s a proud sponsor of moms and the 2012 Olympic games. As Stratten notes in his article, people don’t typically share commercials, they share emotions. If P&G opened its ad with a logo and plastered it throughout, would it have been as successful? Likely not. It would’ve diluted both the message and the emotion associated with the message.
Stratten also highlights the difference between videos that go viral artificially versus organically. When companies push out content, they often encourage their social media followers, friends, peers, etc., to spread the word. Some companies incent people to share content such as promising a giveaway once they reach 1,000 Facebook likes on their video. While this may help get more eyeballs on your content and encourage some folks to share, it can also decrease authenticity and won’t likely spark meaningful conversations, particularly if the content isn’t compelling. Additionally, if people constantly plead with others to share content, cast a vote, or “like” something, you’ll quickly find yourself tuned out and blocked from news feeds.
In the secret sauce of viral videos and just about anything related to effective communications, content is king. You must create content that evokes strong emotion and that’s easily relatable to a wide audience. After watching P&G’s Olympic ad, I immediately shared it with close friends, who further shared it with their own networks.
Have you had success in creating a video that went viral? Do you have other examples of compelling viral videos? Please share!