Axiom's resident videographer and special projects coordinator Dave Sniadak weighs in on the reality of creating viral videos. Watch this controversial viral video below and read on...
Viral videos. Everyone wants one. But how do you make one? Is there an easy formulaic process for producing a spot that will set fire to laptops around the world? Simple answer - no. Yet there are people, programs and companies that claim they can provide viral results with little to no investment. Really? That may be true for bloggers with webcams who have millions of followers - one in particular comes to mind, though this person will remain anonymous, since he got more than enough attention for a pointed question aimed at a certain West Coast beauty queen - but what about us regular folks? What makes a good ‘viral video’ and how do you monetize it? Two questions I’ll try to address as quickly as possible.
Defining viral
First of all, let’s define exactly what a ‘viral video’ is. Visiting the Encyclopedia Britannica of our generation - Wikipedia - I found that a viral video is defined as a "video clip that gains widespread popularity through the process of Internet sharing, typically through e-mail or instant messaging, blogs or other media sharing websites." Viral videos usually are topical glimpses into society, covering recent news or entertainment events. But viral videos are also random acts of anything - I particularly found ‘Whack-a-Kitty’ (see above) to be modestly amusing - and are usually produced with nothing more than the camera on your cell phone or webcam.
While you can find just about anything imaginable in video form on sites like YouTube, Facebook, Squidoo.com and even Photobucket.com, how do you turn internet video magic into money in the bank? Ken McCarthy has a great take on this subject. He says that regardless of how great a video you have - on your site, a video hosting site or otherwise - video on the web is like playing the lottery.
“It's foolish to equate sheer volume of communication or that fact that the communication spready quickly or the fact it cost nothing to the original publisher with commercial value,” McCarthy stated in a blog post back in 2006. “The only communication worth anything in business is a focused message sent to a targeted individual that leads to that individual taking a commercially meaningful action (opt-in, inquiry, or purchase).”
I agree with him 103%. While it’s nice to think that your $1 video could result in $1,000,000 worth of views, the reality of the matter is that unless you’ve executed an incredibly compelling message and targeted your exact audience - and that audience is comparable to the Oprah Universe - most of your work will simply take up virtual space in a virtual landscape of forgotten videos. Don’t take it personally, your message probably just wasn’t that good.
Or, here’s a thought, it wasn’t directed to the right people. Just because 124-million people have watched Susan Boyle knock ‘em dead on Britain’s Got Talent, doesn’t mean 124-million people are going to buy DirectTV and request ITV so they can catch all the action this season.
Cashing in on viral
Monetizing viral videos is a slippery slope. JCPenney commissioned UK-based ad agency, Saatchi & Saatchi to help get husbands out of the ‘doghouse’. BusinessWeek lauded the creative team for viral video done right. While this long-form commercial resonated with target consumers, it still had mass appeal and made men around the globe rethink gifts for their significant others. In addition to the video, JCPenney supported the message with a microsite and utilized social media networks through effective new-media strategies. The retailer also cited unanticipated success - servers crashed and incurred unexpected costs to reboot computer support systems - but in the end, “Beware of the Doghouse” is a brilliant case study in how videos, viral or not, can boost brand awareness in a positive way...well, for the intended audience at least. (Writer’s note - I know I’m a lot more conscious of what I buy my wife!)
If you set out with the mentality of making a ‘viral video’ for the sake of winning business, you’re setting yourself up for disaster. Take Agency.com, for example. You all remember this, they set out to produce a viral video in order to win Subway’s lucrative advertising campaign. And as everyone in the Blogosphere learned, made the pitch more about themselves that the clients’ desires. AdRants.com had a great take on the debacle, saying Agency.com attempted to “hipify (themselves) with viral goodness in front of the industry all in the name of cool factor and winning business.” Big mistake.
But who’s to say that producing a video for the sake of having video is a bad thing? If you’re setting out to produce videos that promote your product or service, that’s wonderful. More power to you! Just keep in mind that if you’re expecting a video posted on YouTube to translate into stacks of cash lining the walls of your office, you may want to reevaluate your creative process.
How have you utilized video to promote your business? Had any videos go ‘viral’? Tell us about them - we’d love to hear your viral stories.
