Viral Marketing
The video-sharing website YouTube is swamped with popular videos of kittens snuggling together or people doing funny things, but your goal is much more complicated than just getting video views. You also want to inform people about your service and, ideally, get them to buy your goods. You don’t want to just provide entertainment, but edutainment.
 | DEFINITION |
Edutainment is informative content built into a fun concept. With the best edutainment you don’t even know that you’re being taught something.
Edutainment is entertaining learning. Here’s what you need your edutainment video to do:
• Interest people to get and keep their attention.
• Inform them of your product or service.
• Entertain them enough for them to want to pass it along to their friends.
Let’s delve deeper into these three keys to creating an edutaining video.
The first thing your video needs to do is get people interested. The very nature of viral marketing is that your customer’s friends—not your business—is the group telling him to watch it. Your one and only job is to get that first person to watch it and share it with his friends.
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The first people to share cool content are usually highly trusted individuals called influencers. Want to learn more about what makes influencers tick? We talk about them a lot more in Chapter 20.
The best way to get someone’s attention is to make your video appealing. Any of the following elements can appeal to viewers:
• Humor
• Shock
• Romance
• Counterintuitiveness
• Boldness
• Parody
• Music
Like other aspects of your marketing efforts, the type of content really depends on your audience. A raunchy commercial won’t work for a conservative political candidate, while a wholesome ad wouldn’t work if you’re trying to appeal to alternative youth culture.
Inform People
Your main job is to get the video into people’s computers and have them pass it on, but your ultimate goal has to be informing them about your business, product, or service. Both John and Damon have seen dozens of commercials that are fun and memorable, but have absolutely nothing to do with the product—and we’re sure you have, too. You don’t want people to remember the commercial but forget the brand.
Here are some tips for creating good videos:
• Show your logo during the ad.
• Tell a story around your brand, product, or service.
• Use characters or situations relatable to your desired audience.
• Don’t lecture.
A great example is Volkswagen’s 2010 Super Bowl commercial “The Force.” The 60-second clip shows a child dressed up like Darth Vader from Star Wars. He spends the afternoon going through the house trying to use “the force” to pull objects toward him—all while his parents look at him like he’s crazy. Finally, he goes outside and begins trying to use the force on his parents’ Volkswagen Passat. The dad pulls out the key and uses the remote start feature on the car, and the kid actually believes he turned on the car.
Check out the ad on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=R55e-uHQna0. As of summer 2011, it has racked up more than 40 million views. Now that’s what going viral is all about.
The commercial manages to get your attention while still telling you about the new product. Here are some things the ad got right:
• It’s a funny and endearing look at childhood.
• It shows one of the unique features in the Passat.
• It features the car as one of the stars of the commercial.
• It is short and memorable.
• It ends with the Volkswagen logo.
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Volkswagen actually released the ad officially through YouTube—and did so shortly before the actual Super Bowl aired. The risky move created even more buzz for the commercial. Viewers who were familiar with the ad recognized it and could turn to their family and say “Watch this ad! It’s hilarious!”
More importantly, marketers are learning that sites like YouTube and Facebook enable people to share content quickly. The Super Bowl may attract a billion viewers, but those viewers can’t share an ad they just saw. You need Facebook and other social networks for that.
Finally, your video has to entertain people enough so that they want to share it with their social circles. Here are some ways to help make sure this happens:
• Use a format that’s easily sharable.
• Make sure it relates to your audience.
• Keep it short.
First of all, you need to make the video easy to share. Of course, Facebook really shines when it comes to passing along media to your friends, family, and colleagues. The main thing you need to decide is if it’s better to share it on your company’s page, on a customer’s Wall, or in a message sent out to your Facebook Group. We talk more about that a little later in the chapter.
Second, you need to make sure it’s meaningful to most, if not all, of your target audience. John might find your newest ad pretty funny, but he’s not going to share it if he believes that his social circle won’t be able to relate to it.
Third, keep it short. When it comes to TV-style commercials, the ones with the biggest impact are a minute or less. Brief videos were initially an economical choice because TV time is so expensive, but now companies are making shorter videos because of our short attention spans.
Remember two very important things when it comes to keeping it short. First, there is such a thing as too short. However, a 10-second commercial could work as long as you were able to interest, inform, and entertain within that period of time.
Second, short is relative. If you’re making a video aimed at college professors, a five-minute video may be considered too short, while for high school students a minute is probably pushing the limits of their attention span. It all goes back to remembering, considering, and respecting your audience.
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You don’t need a full production studio to create an amazing viral video. In fact, some of the best efforts are simple and cheap.
Recording video can be as simple as turning on your webcam, but a professional, well-done video takes time, effort, and equipment. Depending on your goals, you may decide to outsource the video development to a small ad agency or media marketing firm.
• When an ad goes viral, it means that it is compelling enough that the customers share it with their social circle.
• Good viral marketing videos interest, inform, and entertain.
• Make your videos easy to share, make sure they relate to your desired audience, and keep them as short as possible.
• You can put Facebook videos on your Facebook page, your customer’s Wall, or send them as email through Group pages.
• Read the Facebook terms of service before you begin posting videos.