Viral
add: Taboola: The internet firm at the forefront of ‘click-bait’
As part of a content marketing strategy, a goal of a content producer may be to create content that goes “viral”. We examine this idea with a case study, and then identify some key attributes of viral content. How can we create content that is shared through earned media, the Free Marketing space.
Obama Girl
- My box in a box (2006), spoof of Saturday Night Live Sketch.
- Doing video of what people are talking about online
- Fascination with creation of news memes and popular culture, online
- Obama Girl
- People were obsessed with Obama, unlike what had been seen before
- Goal, to make a YouTube hit. Post video, use it to launch a broader comedy channel
- Hire talent, meet in Starbucks. Paid for day, but committed to subsequent videos, interviews
- Post video online within 2 weeks
- Deliberate contact with bloggers, Huffington Post, Drudge Report, MySpace, 50k views in first day
- Next day, on all traditional media, few million views
- Saturday Night Live etc.
- Launched under new brand “Barely Political”
- Approximately 60 Obama Girl Videos
- Character created, Obama Girl, takes on life of her own
- Other media parody Obama Girl (McCain Girl). Lack of control
- YouTube Channel, Barely Political: 2 videos a week, 1.5 billion views. Brand beyond “Obama Girl”
- 2008, 5 million views a month
- From Political comedy, to popular culture, transitioning channel (Obama Girl Team Retools for Tech Satire)
- Key of Awesome, and other shows created
- Top 5 comedy channel on YouTube
- 20th most subscribed channel on YouTube
- About 500 million views per year
- Hits drive channel numbers
- Subscribers versus views
- Business model: YouTube revenue sharing, branded content via iTunes
Viral Marketing
- Pre-Social Media: HotMale: great idea, networked economy, 1995
How Hotmail Became A Viral Hit Once - Word of mouth more influential than paid media, persuasive and targeted
- Messenger impacts speed of virality, not if something will go viral
- good content may go viral, bad content will never go viral, regardless of messenger
- virality is not born, it is made: Will It Blend? – iPhone
- Seed selection — bloggers, influencers, own channels
- Cascade effect, more people in your network that have adopted the content, the more likely you will (tipping point)
- Mainstream media cross-over
- Copy cats
- Clickable / sharability: within the context of other content to click “Obama Girl” (importance of headlines)
- Triggers: is the content contexually relevant: Oreo Cookie, Obama Girl: Joint Effort: Why Ben & Jerry’s Won Social Media Last Week
- Social currency: does it make the sender look good within her networks, Sharable
- Emotion: high arousal (awe, excitement, humor, anger) versus low arousal (sadness, contentment) (These Scientists Studied Why Internet Stories Go Viral. You Won’t Believe What They Found)
- Practical value: does the content have value
(Barbaro updates) - Stories: does the content tell a story, part of a story.
- Is the brand integral to the story being told, examples:
- Blentec: Will It Blend? iPhone 5S and 5C
- Dove: Dove Real Beauty Sketches
- Chipotle: The Scarecrow
- DollarShaveClub.com
- Budweiser: Global Be(er) Responsible Day | “Friends Are Waiting” | Budweiser
Tactics include flashmobs: Som Sabadell flashmob – BANCO SABADELL
Did Beyonce break the rules ? Beyoncé’s Surprise Album Was the Year’s Most Brilliant Release
- No deliberate seeding
- Great content
- Shock, social currency
- Cascade effect
Media companies created within the viral platform, versus media companies adapting to the viral platform: Upworthy — What Happens When a Growth Hacker Launches a Media Company
Importance of Shares, versus Views, you can buy Views: Viral 2.0
The Curiosity Gap Is Closing, Says Upworthy
8 Simple Scientifically Proven Ways to Improve Your Writing
Buzzfeed: deliberate efforts to write titles for sharability
Publishing as a Product, Pageviews as Users, and What It All Means
The Psychology Of Online Sharing – The 5 Primary
Motivations & The 6 Online Sharing Personas