When in 2011 VisitFinland, tourism center of Finland published a video about the northern lights in Finnish Lapland, they had no idea that the video would become a viral hit that would exceed all their expectations.

So what happened?

The video received 200 000 clicks in just a few days, mainly due to active sharing of the link in Facebook. Within a few days, the video had received huge publicity all over the world, leading to changed perceptions of Finland as the land of the Northern Lights. The video did start a race amongst the neighboring countries, as they begun to worry about their tourism industry which hugely benefits from the Northern Lights tourism.

Over two years later, the video still lives its own life in social media and has so far been viewed over 2 million times in Youtube. The tourism center of Finland has greatly benefited from the success of the video as Finland has attracted more tourists and it has become one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations for seeing Northern Lights.

So What makes a video a viral hit?

It’s not always and easy question to answer, as the reactions in social media are always hard to predict. However, it’s good to question if the video is able to bring something new to the ongoing conversations or if it generally has combination triggers, meaning it’s unexpected, or entertaining – or have some educational value for the viewers.

So was this the reason behind the video of the Northern lights? Maybe. At least it included the following: captured some amazing Aurea Borealis content into this short clip, it was educational, unexpected and most importantly entertaining. Most importantly, it was a first to harness a conversation around the beauty of Northern Lights which is still ongoing and – which everyday, drive traffic to VisitFinland’s website.

Yes, I would call that a viral hit!

Check out the beautiful video here:

http://www.visitfinland.com/article/the-northern-lights-sparked-by-the-fox/