I recently read an interesting article about what makes some advertisements or videos go viral. The result seems a little more common sense now that I am reflecting on it. “Viral emotions” were what the article attributed the success of the videos to.

The three key differences in a successful viral video that drives its audience members to share the video with their network and a non-viral video are:

1. The use of contrasting emotions – The use of contrasting emotions keeps the audience engaged emotionally. It is possible to gain many views and shares eliciting only positive or negative emotions, however using a mixture of both delivers the best results.
2. The use of multiplier emotions – Multiplier emotions are emotions that amplify an individual’s emotional response to content. Examples of multiplier emotions would be surprise, amusement or empathy.
3. Lastly, the use of surprise – A few common methods of adding the element of surprise to a video include: exaggeration, distortion, reversal and wishful thinking. It essentially includes bringing to light something the audience takes for granted or doesn’t notice right away. It does not have to be a grand element of surprise. It mainly takes creative thinking by using readily available information and portraying it in a different light.

After reading this article, I reflected on my favourite advertisements that went viral and the one that came to mind immediately was the Coca-Cola ad from the 2012 Super Bowl. This ad did a good job at capturing all three elements listed above, which is why I still remember it 3 years later.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sngjAw3TRPk

Creating an emotionally driven video can be difficult and risky, but results show it is well worth the effort.

Link to the original article:

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/251030