Growing up would you think that something named viral could be something good? I sure as heck didn’t. Over the past month, I have been researching videos that catch wildfire and spread virally and how a company can leverage a video for success.
YouTube is filled with millions of videos from everyone from middle school kids to cartoons to backyard wrestling
Image courtesy of WiiRally.com
and MMA. Hell even my grandmother made an appearance on YouTube (a 79 year old dancing with a fratboy is always good for some laughs). After watching thousands of videos during December, I broke down the videos that get a ton of traction into four groups without touching on kids committing acts of violence with an eye to applying the findings to my company:
- Commercials with celebrities
- Comedy & Humor (sometimes associated with companies)
- Charity related
- Stupid people tricks
Commercials with celebrities
This category was filled with a number of videos that gained instant traction due to their credibility with the celebrity featured in the commercial and were typically with a large brand. This category also held a video that came with the most controversy on if it was fact or fiction. In Nike’s ad to promote Kobe Bryant’s new sneaker, the Laker star jumps over a speeding Aston Martin. With a national audience surrounding the NBA Kobe’s response to a reporter’s question over if he had done this, he replied “It’s Hollywood baby!,” which spurned many knockoff videos and exposure flicks on how the video was faked.
This category also featured a brilliant video from EA Sports that addressed a video of a user who exposed a glitch in Tiger Woods Golf where Tiger can walk on water. The video then goes on to have Tiger address the video and take a shot after walking on water.
Keeping in line with the video game them, Guitar Hero’s video of Heidi Klum drew the ire of network television for being too racy. The slimmed down and less scandalous commercial still drew critical acclaim with papers and television stations, even landing in the middle of a rant from Bill O’Reilly.
The group also has a pseudo-celebrity in the group, Mr. Fong, from IBM. The videos were featured in B@B and asked users to help Mr. Fong reunite with his crew. While the viewership was not a true viral case study, it was watched by the core customer base of the computer giant.
On the lighter side
This group was headlined by videos for Ray Ban and Levis. Using a soft sell, the videos feature the products through some zany antics. In the case of Ray Ban, two guys are seen catching sunglasses thrown at them on thier face everywhere from a couch to a speeding car. The Levis commercial has a group of twenty-something guys jumping into a pair of 501’s that climaxes with a backflip off a seesaw into the jeans.
Charity related
This category is dominated by Starbucks, two of the more popular ones were for their voting campaign and their red cup campaign.
Stupid people tricks
This is my favorite viral group. Without using violence these videos portrayed some skits that were both funny and thought invoking. Perhaps the most famous was the Mentos & Diet Coke video. The mad scientists do a variety of experiments with Mentos and Diet Coke to get some explosive reactions. Not only did this video succeed in having a number of spin offs made on YouTube, but it also was turned into a special on MythBusters. One video in this category that I could not fathom, but it got a lot of views was trampoline skateboarding. I must be getting old, but this has zero appeal to me. Do you get it?
While my report may have hit on some key areas of viral videos, I am sure I missed out on some key ones. Let me know what you think, or share your favorite videos with me. I will share my company’s video when we get around to it. So without further adieu, I offer to you my favorite viral video of all time
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JMOh-cul6M]