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Originally published at Internet.com
Having your company's video go viral is the best marketing around: rather than trying to entice people to watch your video, viewers are mailing it around to their friends. But getting that kind of reaction takes careful planning and smart production.
To find out the most important rules for creating a viral success, we spoke with Joe Matsushima, Minister of Propaganda at The Viral Factory, an advertising studio that specializes in viral marketing. 1. Make it Entertaining
First and foremost, it has to be fun to watch. "People are searching for entertainment. With ads on TV, viewers are already watching something engaging, so they're forced to watch the commercials," Matsushima says. "But online, they don't need to sit though something that isn't entertaining."
Just because something is entertaining, however, doesn't mean it's viral. That leads to the second pointÂ… 2. Create Something People Want to Pass Around
To become something that viewers want to pass around, it has to push boundaries in some way, like being extremely humorous or extremely offensive. "It doesn't need to be funny," Matsushima says, "It needs to be compelling. People need to be compelled to pass it to their friends."
Compelling could mean anything from humorous to horrific to inspirational. Look to YouTube to see what today's viral successes are. While all viral ad campaigns so far have relied on humor, non-commercial viral videos succeed in other ways, and Matsushima thinks there's room for viral marketing to follow their examples.
On television, content coexists with ads, it doesn't compete. But online, advertising videos compete with non-commercial videos. So going viral means creating videos that can compete with pure entertainment content. Don't be afraid to be edgy. As Matsushima says, "Companies need to ask, 'Is this something people will want to pass on?'" 3. Break People's Expectations
Include a twist in your videos that surprises viewers, so that the video doesn't end the way viewers expect. Matsushima uses a video The Viral Factory's recently did for Axe as an example. At the beginning of the video, it looks like an intimate private message, but the screen quickly fills with lots of attractive women all vying for the camera. 4. Be Topical
A lot of viral videos play of items in the news, so try making your videos topical. Matsushima says that The Viral Factory made a clip for the Sci-Fi channel that plays off the conspiracy theory that the moon landing was faked. 5. Be Racy
"It's all about getting views," says Matsushima, so give your viewers a little motivation to pass the clip along. Obviously this wouldn't work for every brand-Johnson & Johnson isn't going to be making racy videos anytime soon-but for others is makes sense. The Viral Factory recently made a line of Trojan Games videos for Trojan condoms, and an outrageous spot about a celebrity hair stylist who works below the belt for Remington hair trimmers.
The idea is to be tongue-in-cheek, but not offensive. Only put racy videos on sites that have the same kind of content. Even if you go too far, though, the power of viral videos will work in your favor. As Matsushima notes, with viral, if nobody likes the ad, nobody sees the ad. So if you mess up, you probably won't need to worry about the backlash you might get with a TV spot.
Author: Troy Dreier
Read article at Internet.com site