If you have decent presence on social media these days, I am sure you would have come across at least 1 or 2 viral videos. Your friends might have shared these videos or you might have read about these videos on the media. These videos normally catch your attention and try to strongly send a message. It is not unusual for such videos to have millions of views on various video sharing platforms. How did this phenomenon come into existence? What is the impact of such videos on businesses and their marketing strategy?

Wikipedia defines viral videos as below:

A viral video is a video that becomes popular through the process of (most often) Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites, social media and email.

Humans are social animals. We like to share things we find interesting with our family and friends. Before the advent of social media, this behavior was tough to practice. Social media made it easy for us to reach all of our friends on a click of a button and share our ideas and thoughts. Viral videos exploit the human tendency of sharing interesting things on the social media. Some of popular viral videos of the decade are below:

http://mashable.com/2013/12/27/viral-videos-2013/

There have been numerous analysis to understand about the viral videos and their characteristics. Most common characteristics identified are below:

1) Title length – Viral videos tend to have shorter title. Normally 1 to 3 words in the title.

2) Run time – Viral videos have shorter videos of about 2 – 5 mins. Shorter the video length, better are the prospects.

3) Laughter – The videos should have sense of comedy.

4) Element of surprise – Most of viral video have an element of surprise, which keeps viewers on their toes.

5) Element of irony – Viral videos with a strong message tend to have an element of irony and create a long lasting impact on the minds of the viewers.

6) Minority presence – Minority presence in the videos to gain sympathy of the viewers.

7) Music quality – Videos have high quality music that is peppy and catchy.

8) Youth presence – Some viral videos may require presence of youth.

9) Talent – Some viral videos showcase an unique talent that catches the imagination of the viewers.

Below are some of characteristics of a viral video.

1) Viral videos have a lifespan. Viral videos reach peak in terms of number of views per day and gradually have decreasing number of hits.

2) The time required to reach the peak in terms of views has reduced from 28 days from 2010 to 9 days in 2010.

3) The video makers tend to have content directed to middle aged men and women.

4) The content of the videos are creative and kind of stuff that makes people care about the message of the video.

5) The viral videos sometimes provide a point of action for the viewers. For example: Kony 2012 video asked people to donate to fight african mafia. Ice bucket challenge videos asked viewers to donate to ALS association.

6) Other forms of spreading messages are memes, emails etc.

Companies need a way to connect to its customers. Creating brand loyalty and engage its customers are critical for long term survival of a company. Viral videos provide a way to achieve both of these goals. Marketing departments of the companies are increasingly using this method to create a positive brand experience. They are finding innovative ways to differentiate their companies in the marketplace.

Some of recent Canadian examples are

1) Westjet – Westjet made a video about surprisings its passengers with gifts they wished for. This video went viral garnering millions of views from all over the world.

2) TD bank – TD bank surprised its account holders by delivering gifts through a ATM kiosk.

3) Telus – Telus rewarded its loyal customers by helping their dreams.

These videos had the element of surprise and created positive brand experience on its viewers.

Risks\limitations of a Viral video.

1) As discussed above, viral videos need to delight it customers. There is chance that video may not have the desired impact on the viewers. If some of the ingredients of the video are not right, they may actually have a bad brand experience.

2) Viral videos cannot be created on regular basis. Viral videos are good once in a while, having regular viral videos reduces the interest of the customers in the brand.

 

Reference

1 https://sites.google.com/site/cmuviralvideos/characteristics

2 http://www.fastcompany.com/3032401/a-scientific-approach-to-creating-insanely-viral-videos

3 https://blog.kissmetrics.com/science-of-virality/