Tag Archives: Viral

Failed facebook campaigns

Posted on by
Reply

Sometimes if something spreads like wildfire it’s considered a success. But it’s not always so, as the recent facebook campaing for breast cancer awareness proved. Many of us noticed that our friends, girlfriends and co-workers had posted a facebook status like “I like it on the couch” or “I like it on the kitchen table” thinking there’s something sexual about it – and maybe a “hint hint” kinda thing.

Sure there might be a corelation between handbags and breast cancer (if there actually is) but how drunk would we have to be to understand it? The guys instead of encouraging their women to do a checkup will only scratch their heads in disbelief, and the women themselves are spreading the viral meme without really thinking about what it means (if anything). So it’s an idea that got out of hand and became something that it wasn’t supposed to be. Sadly.

Creative youtube campaign for Tipp-Ex

Posted on by
1

This must’ve been a lot of dollars pumped into google’s account by Tipp-Ex but the production quality and the viral potential are one of the biggest youtube can give you. Mainly because it uses one big flash made by the advertiser to just play some videos inside it. This is I think the first time youtube went in that direction and even though there’s a bottom line here that it’s still just a clever commercial, it’s worth checking out.

And you can do that here

There were campaigns similar to that one before of course, but not on that level of complication. For example the show “Dexter” had a campaign in which every youtube clip had hot spots on it to click, and there was a crowd moving within which you had to spot the main character and click on him. If you did you were redirected to another movie and so on. But that was done using just the typical youtube API so it probably wasn’t as popular as this new thing will be.

The main reason for success here is being surprised – when the hunter reaches outside of the movie you know you’ve been tricked but still you want to go forward. (that’s not much of a spoiler so don’t get upset about it ;p) There’s still plenty of room for innovation in online advertising and thankfully every once in a while we see that someone has come up with a fresh idea. Sure this one can’t be done with just a few bucks in your pocket like the “Jumping into jeans” or “Coke and Mentos” memes but it has more of that “I’m gonna send it to all my friends” action attached to it. And that’s precisely how a good viral works.

Know any other good examples of creative (meaning different than just a video) youtube campaigns ?

Viral video timeline

Posted on by
3

viral-timeline

I’ve been thinking about the steps of the viral video before it reaches the final one of being viral and here’s what I came up with. This list is based on the observation I had with a few of my own videos that went viral and after making a few viral websites too.

1. Content

As usual it all starts with the content. It has to have a viral hook, which is something like a hook in a song – a catchy part that will get people “hooked”. So if you’re planning to go viral with a video it has to have at least one moment that others will want to share. It can be a funny moment, a scary one or just plain out of the ordinary. Take note that if you’re making a video about for example skateboarding, it’s rarely enough to be just good at it. If you’re good you will only reach a small niche. So there has to be something else for other people to want to watch your video. In such a case – a not-so-nice conversation with a cop, running away from cops, falling down, whatever. But remember it has to be addictive. It needs to be interesting enough not only for the viewer to send it out but also for the viewer to want to watch it again. Oh and as said before it’s best if it was around a minute in length.

Continue reading →

Virals WITHOUT registration are the best

Posted on by
Reply

viralsxxx
And here’s an example. I made a site a while ago where every user can create a virtual “wall” and others can post post-it notes all over it with messages. The idea was pretty new at that time (3 years ago +) but I noticed that after advertising the idea on some forums, the site didn’t get many views. It was a week after launch and the user base was still below 50. So I decided that since the site doesn’t share any personal information (it’s only the nickname, no names etc) to drop the email and overall limit the registration to just nickname, password and the register button. So the process of making a wall takes 4 clicks (password repeat being the 3rd).
What happened then ? Well the charts skyrocketed! After another week there was way over a 1000 unique registered users and they were growing fast. After a month the site reached 100,000 unique visitors a day and the registrations were somewhat around 80,000 users. Just because in most cases people DON’T want to confirm anything, or take STEPS to register anywhere. The simpler it is the better, and you can still get the emails by adding them AFTER they register and have a fair amount of time on site already. They’re more likely to add their email (in case they forget the password for example) at that point, than with the registration.
The emails were still about 1 for every 4 people, so 25%, but imagine what would happen if the email verification and a full registration weren’t removed. Sure it’d be 100% emails instead of 25%, but with A LOT less people registered the numbers are still bigger with the 25%. So keep that in mind – the simpler the user input the more successful the viral!

Is this the time to make money with Viral advertising?

Posted on by
Reply

viral2
Since a good portion of nowadays virals online (especially holiday related but not necessarily) are spread mostly by people with families and what’s most important – jobs – maybe now it finally pays off to guide them to a product itself, not just a hype or a company logo. If so we might get yet another boost in internet sales which are going up constantly anyway with various new ways. E-book virals anyone? That might be a hit of the future and I’m sure to try it as soon as ebooks will be decent (or when apple releases it’s take on the subject – january 26?)

Stupid virals directed to younger audience can also sell a product but it creates at least a two-person chain from wanting something to buying something. Without the middlemen the buying urge can be direct and more successful.
We’ll see what happens next. Aside from the holidays there are also the “office virals” since half the time in the office we spend fooling around online. What better way to waste time than with a funny video or a wacky flash animation with your boss’ face on it. Or you can even shoot your boss out of a catapult in a clever flash game and compare your score with other happy co-workers. The ad is of course for a job agency, and I bet they had a raise in pageviews after. So is holiday-office related viral a thing of the future that we should focus on the most? Probably.
Because all I don’t want for christmas is a PSP ;)
Happy new year! I hope we will see some more creative approaches and no more dancing elves or santas in 2010!

Season greetings from the viral!

Posted on by
Reply

virals

So how long can we be drawn brainlessly by “funny videos” that after a while are a common-wealth – seen by nearly everybody we know.
Are they gonna surprise us with billboards saying “In 2010 everything you know will change”? Do we really anticipate the knowledge of what will happen then? Or did we simply stop caring about it. Do we even discuss out-of-the-internet examples with anyone? Don’t think so.
Human imagination is pretty vast, so I bet there’s still a couple of good ideas undiscovered, but all in all we’ll be bound by funnier and funnier seasonal virals that we post even with the knowledge that it does more good to the maker, than to the sender. Yes, it has started. From dancing Santa with your face on him, through the last-year-hype dancing elves (elfyourself.com) up to whatever else we can come up with. Maybe a present that blows up when you open it? Smurfs-viral fun with a christmas twist? Why not. The notion that fuelled the first seasonal campaigns a couple of years back is now gone. They don’t try to impress us by the idea, just the packaging.
Dancing characters with your face on them were done before a couple of times, and this time the whole packaging made it look “fresh” and “oh so funny” to many, many adults.
But hey! Are the older parts of the internet currently more into viral than the younger?
That’s the interesting part – seasonal “fun stuff” is usually sent around by people with jobs, families, often children etc. Not by kids with too much time on their hands.
Maybe the next generation virals should be directed at the respected parents instead?
I’ve seen a catapult-a-santa viral where you could upload your face, and a good % of the faces were someone’s little babies.
So maybe there’s still hope to surprise, just by looking elsewhere?
To be continued…