Everyone loves a good viral video, or in other words, a video that people heavily share and talk about. Hardly a week goes by that you aren’t shown a viral video from a friend, or showing one to a friend yourself.
- But why do businesses make them?
- What are the solid, measurable business objectives that can be achieved by making one?
- How dependable of a strategy is it?
Sharing has recently started to become a valued and premium metric, one very difficult to drive, because it’s completely voluntary, the decision of an individual to share content can’t be bought. Other than a purchase, there is no more intimate and influential metric than a social share.
Here are the 10 elements to be most commonly present in viral videos:
- Relatable
- Shocking
- Contrasts things that don’t belong together
- Looks like it took a lot time and resources to make
- Captures reactions out of unsuspecting strangers
- Challenges a cultural tension in a controversial way
- Is outright strange and meme-oriented
- Uses technology in an unexpected way
- Features a current viral trend or figure
- Is a wish-fulfillment or fakes something that we wish was real
The businesses currently doing it know how to tailor it to their overall business objectives, have the people, budget and data to pull it off, and they know how to sell it through politically across their teams and superiors as a valid, measurable, and predictable strategy.
Video marketing is often seen as an expensive, luxury form of marketing, reserved only for big brands with equally big marketing budgets.
When it comes to getting (and keeping) consumer attention, there’s little doubt video does the job. Video marketing is bigger than ever, with online video accounting for a staggering 50% of mobile web traffic. We just can’t get enough of those cat videos it seems.