Your friend and mine, Julian Cole, said the key to going viral is friendship. Which is nonsense. Even if Jules and I are friends (which we are).
The key to going viral is having something interesting to share, and finding it interesting or amusing regardless of whether you're somehow attached to it or not. And as we all find different stuff amusing and/or interesting, that is harder than it would seem.
For instance, if you had told me yesterday I was going to blog about sheep with LED lights strapped to their backs, I would have assured you you were quite mistaken.
And there you have it.
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Ahhh the ongoing viral dialogue.....but that is a cracking video! Well worth spending 2mins and 44 seconds of my life laughing at the talents of those remarkable sheep. When discussing viral i think we need to separate branded viral from non-branded viral. Examples successful branded and non-branded include, grand central station stand still (non-branded), mini & Vinnie Jones (branded). Two very different yet successful pieces of communication. To often when we debate the success strategies of viral we refer to branded content and what is required, perhaps we should adopt some strategies from our ATL friends and trust pop culture a little more. That said the sheep rock!
ReplyDeleteI think when the notion of brand enters viral, it gets burdened with needing to have a point, as opposed to just being entertaining. This doesn't necessarily stop the spread of good work (witness the T-Mobile dance at Liverpool station, lovingly dissected over at CrackUnit). I guess my question on the above would be, if the Grand Central piece had no point other than being entertaining, is its success then measured only in video views as it had nothing further to communicate? How does having a tangible ROI affect the success of a campaign, for example is people felt good baout T-Mobile but stayed with Vodafone, is it a complete waste of time for them?
ReplyDeleteAnd trust the ATL folk more? Never! :)