Video ads + strategies to go viral = Engagement is the key
TV spots have always been the must in terms of visibility and reputation. The reason to that is company willing to generate a huge image had just to pay for it. There was (and finally still is) only one major communication channel to reach consumers, the TV, and the way to create engagement was/ is to leverage public personalities images. Look at famous TV spots for Pepsi, Nike, L’Oreal, and other brand of the Fortune 500. And now there’s the Internet brands assume they can use that new communication channel to improve their visibility and reputation by creating and spreading video ads so that they become artificially viral. They’re right, they can achieve that goal. But not the way Christine Beardsell, Vice President, creative director of Digitas’s brand content group, The Third Act, explains it in a Clickz Article.
In her column entitled “Startegies for making video ads go viral”, Christine highlighted different points that make the video ad goes viral: organic plus paid seeding of the video and syndication. Organic seeding is about “about finding which communities fit best with your brand, then uploading the video across these multiple networks” and paid seeding is about “paid placement plans each video network site offers” and hiring “an expert” agency. Syndication being interesting when company does a series of videos.
Reading that content I was a bit confused by the quality of the strategy suggested by a VP, creative director for a Digitas group company. Is that the point there are two different things, one being making the video ad, and the other marketing it? In that case, I do think it’s doing wrong. Seeding start a way before you do start to draw any ruff of the video ad or think about a “viral idea” or concept (meanwhile, what does that means a viral idea?!). If turning a video ad into a viral video was as simple as “hiring an expert” for paid seeding and organic seeding, we would have great videos everywhere. Which not the case. Most of them are lame.
The major point in creating a strategy to turn a video ad into a fast spreading video isn’t in seeding, which is one item of the work but not the fundamental one, but in the way you would engage with the community you’re targeting and how you collaborate with them to generate a content that would make them spread it over the Internet. After having thought about that, think about how you would make them proud of the video: ask them to be part of the writing, to play in the video, to find ideas, send feedbacks. Anything that flatters their egos and make your video more accurate (for your objective).
The best example of the way you come up with a strategy to turn a video ad into a “viral video” is actually a video clip for Weezer’s song “Pork and beens“. They’ve created their video clip with the best “viral videos” running over the web, and asking web culture new icons to join them to create that video. Which has been a hit since its release, generating 12 millions of views, 54 000 comments, in less than 3 months and only for the official video.
That example shows the key in making a video viral isn’t the seeding, but the way you engage with people and involve them as part of your creation process, so that they become your ambassadors and spread your video.
Photo Credit: tootdood
