On February 7, Puma placed this video on YouTube  and their micro-site questioning what you would do if Valentine’s day fell on a soccer match day in both English and Italian. The site also offered the ability to send as an e-card or as a Facebook update with customizable text. While I will not begin to claim that I understand the game of soccer or Italian, this was a curious ad that I am sure appealed to the masses in both of the soccer-crazed countries.

From a viral standpoint the video was a hit with the following stats in just 10 days:

• Views 765,745; 76,574.5 views/day
• UK – 580,776; 58,077.6 views/day
• Italy – 184,969; 1,8496.9 views/day
• 840 Tweets about Hardchorus alone

What can we learn from this?

Viral videos are one of those things that need a catchy premise, a story and a little luck or you could just hire guns like these guys. So without tapping into how to make a video spread like wildfire, let’s take a look at what worked for Puma.

Catchy tune - If there is a person who doesn’t know the words to this Savage Garden song, please let me know. I would like to shake their hand. So off the bat it has a leg up on being sticky, because there is a good chance the tune will be stuck in the viewer’s head.

Passion – Much like the song being pretty well known, it is safe to say that folks around the world can put one and one together to know that both England and Italy are crazy about soccer or football as they like to call it. So the promotion also pulls at the heart strings of these fans. Do you spend Valentine’s day with your first love or the love you share your bed with? Depending on who you ask it might be a tough question.

Real – This could also fall under passion, but the hooligans in the commercial could easily be real fans sitting in the bar. Before you say Are you kidding me, think back to a Friday night when Journey comes on at the bar close to last call. So it is plausible.

Big brand, big buzz – While I couldn’t find budget details on the campaign, I am sure that this was a multi-channeled campaign that hit a number of channels to maximize the initial buzz. This could have also been as simple as an email blast that sent traffic to the site. This pre-population of buzz is similar to viral agencies that promise 100,000 YouTube views.

So how can you incorporate this into your marketing or social media mix? The first could be to find something that fits, takes you out of your comfort zone or could be seen as holding mass appeal. Read that not just cool to you but to kids and adults while making them want to connect with your brand. Fall down, get dirty, rinse and repeat until you strike gold.

What do you think of the campaign? Hokey? Brilliant? Love to hear your thoughts.

Late last year, I wrote on the annual rite of passing for the holiday season – Elf Yourself. The viral phenomenon has invaded inboxes, status updates and blogs for each of the past three years. This year, a troupe of elf yourself dancers took over Union Square in New York.

This real-life adaptation of the viral hit was posted in November and has since generated over 334,000 views on YouTube. While I am late to the viewing party it not only raises awareness to the Elf Yourself brand, but also adds juice to the OfficeMax brand as fun, whimsical and relevant to an audience outside of the traditional office-superstore shopper.

Do you think this video adds to the Elf Yourself experience or does it help make it more annoying?

Earlier today, I came across this article in Social Media Today that dubbed VW’s Swedish Piano Stairs video the most ever with over 7M views along with a giant number of Tweets and blog posts on it. Click here to see the full breakdown of the statistics.

Earlier this year, my coworkers and I were tasked at creating a video for our company’s holiday card line. We took the approach along the lines that no one really likes the holiday cards they receive. We also wanted to have fun with the getting rid of the cards as well.

The cat actually used the litter box right after the card was added to his box.

Viral video may be one of the most over-used and over-hyped buzz words when it comes to social media marketing. Granted, there are some formulas that can help you plot out the key components of a “viral” video, its viral nature depends on actual people viewing it. YouTube may make it easier with their sponsored videos to almost force the issue, people, not money are what turns the cogs.

Perhaps the best viral videos in this respect have come when companies didn’t want any thing to do with them – Think Coke with the Mentos video. A similar violent eruption was evident in Sony’s new campaign promoting their TV in Australia.

By not hiding the fact that they are behind the video, Sony gains some initial street cred by hawking two of their products that compliment each other, while not in the intended method of using it.  The campaign also plugs the fact that Sony will be giving away 25,000 PS3’s to folks who purchase the TV – brilliant mixed marketing. Just think how good the TV looked getting destroyed, wouldn’t it look better playing the latest version of Madden?

What do you think, could this thunder from down under be the month’s big viral hit?