shape

How to make a viral video – a 5-step guide

1. select a product that is a low consideration product (e.g. a song) whose primary missing link is awareness

2. create a funny and entertaining video that features that product or a key attribute of the product

3. [ contact us for the "secret sauce" of step 3 ]

4. continue to build the momentum and build further social amplification by real people (won’t happen if the content is not funny, entertaining, useful, or unexpected)

5. use analytics to determine how to further optimize the content itself to match what characteristics actually went viral (based on how people talked about it when they passed it along)

Examples of videos whose viral effects were successfully manufactured over time. Obama Girl; Lonelygirl15 Brea Olson; Notice the shape of the stats curve of the more recent lonelygirl15 video from 2008. It is much flatter, which is a characteristic of non-viral videos. This is after they revealed that the original lonelygirl15 was a fake; now they have to support the view count through traditional paid media and continuous PR to accumulate the views.

obama-girl-viral-video

lonelygirl15-brea-viral-video

lonelygirl15-recent-non-viral-video

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Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 SEO, search, social networks 2 Comments

Non-viral videos of funny wedding dances.

Notice the shape of the youtube stats curve – each of these has 8+ million views, but notice the straight line of views that were accumulated over almost a 2 year period.  Notice they each also got a bump in view count recently due to being listed as related videos on the #JKWeddingDance video.

non-viral-video-wedding-dance-1

non-viral-video-wedding-dance-2

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Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 Uncategorized No Comments

AdAge Top Viral Videos: all take 3 – 6 months to reach full viral effect

Samsung Sheep Viral Video – 2 months

samsung-sheep-viral-video

T-Mobile Dance viral video – 5 months

t-mobile-dance-viral-video

Cadbury Dancing Eyebrows Viral Video – 4 months

cadbury-eyebrows-viral-video

Geico Numa Numa Guy viral video – 3 months

numa-numa-guy-geico-viral-video

McDonalds Filet-o-Fish Viral Video – 5 months

mcdonalds-filet-o-fish-viral-video

etrade baby took 4 months to reach full viral

etrade-baby-viral-video

Super cameleon viral video took 3 months to reach full viral

super-chameleon-viral-video

Durex bunnies viral video took 3 months to reach full viral

durex-bunnies-viral-video

Dennys banana pancake viral video took 4 months to reach full viral

dennys-banana-pancake-viral-video

Lewist Hamilton Grand Prix took 2 months to reach viral

lewis-hamilton-grandprix-viral-video

the shape of the views curve is different for a NON-viral video — it just accumulates views over the years.

shape-of-a-non-viral-video-curve

link back to the original article showing 12 points that demonstrate why I think the JK Wedding video has a manufactured viral effect.

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Friday, July 31st, 2009 Uncategorized 1 Comment

What viral videos look like; what non-viral videos look like — by the stats

The first 2 are viral videos – notice the shape of the “total views curve” (quick rise and approaches the max asymptotically). The last 2 videos are not viral, and supported by paid advertising and promotion. It is a straight line that grows steadily over time. The 2 examples of non-viral videos were chosen simply to have similar view counts as the first and second examples.

Viral video examples – notice the asymptotic curve towards the max on the total views chart.

Frozen Grand Central ImprovEverywhere viral video – 18 million views – added on Jan 31, 2009.  ”Other/viral” gave it its first big boost and embedded views gave it another big push.
frozen-grand-central-improveverywhere-viral

No Pants Subway Ride ImprovEverywhere viral video – 9 million views – uploaded January 13, 2009; got onto YouTube homepage and got a major boost from it.

no-pants-subway-ride-improveverywhere-viral

NON-viral video examples – notice the straight line of the total views chart.

corbin-bleu-non-viral-video

ashley-tisdale-non-viral-video

Perfect example of NON-viral video that had help with paid media – in this case, GoDaddy supported these videos with costly Superbowl ads — which led to nice bumps-up in total views.

godaddy-viral-non-viral-videos

In the case of Smirnoff’s Tea Partay, it was not supported by paid media so it took longer to grow and the shape of the curve is a nice blend between the straight line of a non-viral video and the asymptotic line of a viral video.

tea-partay-partially-viral-video

Finally, blatant ads don’t go viral – Sony’s grand central product demo stunt. And even if they are discussed in dozens of blogs it is not enough to get past the first tipping point.

sony-grand-central-stunt-video

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Friday, July 31st, 2009 Uncategorized No Comments