Curious, like you guys, we wonder what makes a viral ad…viral.
Like all other successes, whether an ad gets viral depends heavily on both luck and skill.
We can’t control luck, but we can definitely increase our chances of riding the viral wave through better video ad creatives. Through observation and analysis, we have come up with a list of factors that influence viral success.
The 10 Factors
1. Keep it short: Web video viewers have short attention span. Most viral ads are mostly kept to a minute. If you have to extend your video beyond that minute, make sure it is catchy enough to keep your audience to the end.
2. Catchy title & description: Like a news headline, your video ad requires an attractive video title to capture viewers’ interest. A detailed description would also improve your video search visibility.
3. Use humor: Funny videos work best because we all love to share something that brightens our day. Ikea uses humor extensively, and has received favorable returns.
4. Use stunts: If you can’t create humor, stunts would work pretty well too. BMW, for example, has recently promoted its high-speed superbike through a tablecloth stunt. Words wouldn’t do justice to the stunt ad. Catch the video here.
5. Use adorableness: Babies never fail to command attention. Evian claims that its Roller Babies Ad has over 100 million views, earning it top recognition from TIME. Through animations, the video featured babies performing roller stunts; making it one of the best viral ad case studies so far. Likewise, animals win hearts too. Communicating your marketing message through babies and animals makes ads so much more digestible and sharable.
6. Use animation: If all else fails, animation could also produce a phenomenal effect. The newly released Foursquare introductory video provides an example of how animated characters are used. If your company doesn’t have the capacity to create one, outsourcing is a viable alternative.
7. Creating parodies: Specsavers created a great parody of the Axe Deodorant spray ad, accumulating more the 600,000 views on YouTube.
8. YouTube is a must: Most viral ads are hosted via YouTube, simply because it is the world’s fourth most visited website.
9. One message only: An ad is usually short, but it has to create maximum impact. To achieve that, only one message should be communicated.
10. Stir emotions: The last point basically sums up everything. All successful movies and advertisements usually stir viewers’ emotions. It keeps the message not only in viewers’ mind, but hearts as well. Unfortunately, it’s easier said than done.
Conclusion
This list is by no means exhaustive. But it should provide an advertiser with basic pointers towards making a viral ad. Whichever style (through babies, animals, parody etc) you have chosen, it is essential to maintain consistency across your brand, and individual marketing messages.
Have an idea to contribute? Add them via comments.
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