Every Internet marketer has successes and failures, but the true goal of any campaign placed on the Internet is to get it to go viral. Viral means that viewers get so inspired, excited, or passionate about your marketing piece that they enthusiastically recommend it to anyone they know who will listen. Over the past few years several hosting companies have launched campaigns that they hoped would go viral. For example, there is the absolutely brilliant campaign concieved by Aaron Phillips – formerly of FastServers – where he sent video cameras to clients and asked for testimonials. Check out the Tom Green video on the page. Go Daddy tries every year to create a viral stir with its unreleased Super Bowl ads. Then there is a recently launched campaign from UK hosting company, 34SP.com. The Pub Mashup Contest is a micro site looking for coders to contribute a mashup that has to do with, er, pubs.
So how then do we get an Internet marketing campaign to go viral? One source of inspiration may be to analyze the current top viral ads and look for common threads. But where to get such a list of top video ads?
Fortunately for online marketers there is an online service at Visible Measures which rates the top viral video ads each week. Below are the top ads for this week – along with my analysis of why the video has gone viral. Fair warning – watching all the ads will take up about half an hour of your time. These ideas may inspire your next online marketing venture. Enjoy!
Number 10 – Extreme Sheep LED Art – Combines real life activity (sheepherding) with animation to create a “NO WAY!” experience for the viewer. The viral hook is the unusual nature of the activity plus the obvious impossibility of the results.
Number 9 – Cadbury Eyebrows – Although this video has been around for a while it continues to grow in momentum. As above it uses very slick and subtle animation to give a very “real life” feel to something that is animated (eyebrow movements). The movements themselves aren’t really that interesting – but ad hip-hop music and the balloon noises. It’s just over the top funny! This one proves once again – we like humor.
Number 8 – BONTRUST Money Love – WARNING Adult Themed – This great animation uses humor once again plus the personification of money doing what’s necessary to multiply.
Number 7 – Coca Cola Open Happiness – Clever and truly different. This video uses what I call the “cute factor” to sell. There’s also an element of curiosity as you wonder what’s going to happen.
Number 6 – YouTube HD Camera Trick Challenge (Revealed) – Samsung keeps up the momentum here with a double impact: a very clever visual trick which showcases the video quality of their camera and a “How did we do it?” element which led to a big build up for the reveal.
Number 5 – Sing-a-long in Trafalgar Square for T-Mobile – This just seems to me to be a simple matter of taking one of the best Beatles songs of all time and using it in an ad. Can’t fail.
Number 4 - T-Mobile Dance – Similar to above but dancing instead of singing. I guess its sort of interesting to see a bunch of people dancing all at once in a train station.
Number 3 – Frito Lay Woman’s World – This video is one of a series that was produced by Frito Lay for women in mid-life. The writing and the jokes (humor once again) are spot on for the demographic, and the continuity of the series keeps one engaged.
Number 2 – Nike Most Valuable Puppets – Take an NBA icon, turn him into a puppet, then have him stomp around getting pumped up for the playoffs. Oh yeah, also add some (you guessed it) humor. Stir well.
And the Number 1 Viral Video Ad this week is – Vodafone Make the Most of Now – Another series featuring a cartoonish character who just seems to bring on trouble. Humor – but dark humor plays a big role here.
I hope that these videos give you some marketing inspiration. As noted, humor is the dominant theme this week in our viral videos. Look for another crop of viral videos coming soon.
