Cheers

There are a few things you need to know to manage your own expectations when dabbling in video production for a digital release.

The first is that if you are making a video for a brand you are instantly faced with barriers that aren’t present for a common content producers.  People are inherently turned off by ads so digital advertiser have to craft their branded content to be mass entertaining (Old Spice) or use entertaining content as a vehicle to discretely display your product (JC Penney).

The barrier of adding a brand into content plays with the expectations of those paying for that content.  Someone telling you they can create a viral video could be trying to tell you they will sell you a winning lottery ticket if you aren’t clear on expectations.  Watch the Ad Age Viral Video Chart and notice to number of views.  Compare that with the most watched videos of the week on YouTube.  In the brand world viral operates at a lower level in terms of views.   I am not saying ad content can’t be considered truly viral.  Simply that the majority of ad content is mis represented as truly viral and should be only be considered viral within the ad world.

The fault falls on no one here, but the word viral has been diluted to describe the top performing brand content on the web.  Ads also get to their Ad Age status with a hefty spend in online ad buys for mast heads and Facebook ads.

So be warned, an ad’s viral measure is not the same as common content.  Common content is where the viral views show their true power.   A recent catastrophe like the Japan Tsunami,  a celebrity breakdown or posting your 5 year old singing ‘born this way’ the day after it’s release all fall into a category of content that is not restricted by an agenda and give the term viral its original meaning.

Cheers

The leading video was uploaded to amybethhale’s channel on Oct. 21st 2008 and sat quietly for months with minor incremental views.  We first saw it in an email early that fall as the virus had not yet taken hold but was clearly spreading as the email was addressed to this sneezer’s entire contact list.

Source: Amybeth's YouTube Insights

The beginning of 2009 marked a steady increase for this particular video increasing daily all the way through February as well.  Finally, its daily views peaked in March reaching up to about 70k a day.  This comes from Amybeth Hale’s YouTube insights as she held the channel with the leading video accounting for 4.5 million of the total views.  Her insights also tell us that this increase in views was predominantly because the United States finally picked up the contagious piece of media.     

From the post Understanding Viral Videos: Production Vs Distribution the description of a sleeper viral can be explained and mapped out via the increase in popularity as it spread through various audiences and delivery systems.

The research and assembly that was done by Karl Fisch, Scott McLeod, and Jeff Brenman to create this video provides a clear glimpse at what exceptional content can do by itself. 

Cheers!

Source: About Viral 2009

In order to completely grasp the above model a few terms have been defined below. It is not logical to consider all virals equal. Therefore, identifying the patterns, similarities and content categories will aid anyone addressing the subject of viral production to view it in a more holistic manner.

The Grid – Y Axis

The grid is split between whether a viral video becomes popular from the production or distribution side. Production often relies heavily on quality content. Quality is not specific to resolution or whether the clip was well shot but also its likability. The homemade baby laughing virals are a testament to heavy production based content.

Distribution heavy virals can be movie trailers where heavy promotion makes them available to a wider audience based on monetary compensation for sharing. YouTube Partners, who have built up a large list of subscribers, are also distribution heavy as they have carved out a niche audience around their channel. (AV subscribes to most YouTube Partners)

The Grid – Bull’s-Eye
Levels of Mainstream Interest

The bull’s-eye represents the increased interest and similarly the audience present. The outer circles (5 & 4) show a more niche type audience whereby a select few people are interested in the viral’s subject matter. Subjects could be certain sports or a specific genre of film.

As the circle gets smaller (3, 2 & 1) the content becomes increasingly more mainstream and the audience grows in size. Virals that are found close to the center will generally have greater mass appeal and will be composed of more elements of popularity i.e Sports combined with a Shock and Awe component. These videos can often be listed in multiple categories.

Optimal Content Balance

The bull’s-eye represents the optimal balance within content. A video can’t please everyone so this position at best is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Flu Virals

Flu virals rarely reach the highest interest level. They are often sports highlights or date specific events that lose their appeal as time goes on. A streaker at a home opener ball game peaks early as the game is fresh on the audience’s mind resulting in most traffic coming in the days immidiately after the game.  But, more games will be played and inevitably more streakers will jump the fence and make a hopeless dash for freedom. Let’s be honest, when was the last time you saw someone putting their clothes back on outside the arena without any bruises?

Seeded Virals

Seeded virals are often within the realm of flu virals as companies enlist the services of web influencers to push a video into an audience’s view whether they know about the hidden agenda or not.

Sleeper Virals

Sleeper virals are content that lean hard to the production side of the model. These clips are generally uploaded from relatively unknown users and sit amongst the sea of videos uploaded each day. After an extended period of time moving around personal networks and within organic conversation a couple blogs or social influencers catch on and spread the clips increasing their popularity exponentially.

Addictive Epidemics

Music is an example of content that causes addictive epidemics. It’s the type of content that a wide audience can enjoy, put in a playlist and share with their friends easily. The content promotes remixes and multiple plays which is why, on our last check, music dominates the Top 100 Videos of All Times. If you look at the number one all time song on YouTube and match it to the pattern within the model you will see that initially RCA Records would have pushed the song in the market and then allowed the content to take over and run it to all time viral position it is in today.

Simple Viral Threshold

Human nature for sharing can be extremely complex or extremely simple. A simple way of looking at it is looking at any one individual having three broad options seen in the image here. The goal of any viral would be to consistently hit the third stage of any online media consumer.

Integrated Media Campaigns

An integrated media campaign takes the distribution side of the grid and blankets anyone with eyes and ears via promotion over multiple outlets. Levis jeans uses integrated tactics when they release web videos of a monkey doing Hollywood, someone doing a backflip into a pair of jeans and then additionally setting up a website to send crotch gifts to each other.

Organic Web Catalysts

Organic web catalysts are little gems for viral videos. They immediately show up as statistic blips as one or more online networks, online influencers or an event occurs launching a video into the spotlight. Some of these catalysts include Digg.com, a YouTube feature (regional and then worldwide), increased comments and ratings placing a video on page one of “what’s popular” or “rising videos”, multiple blog posts to gain recognition on The Viral Video Chart or a spot on The Best of YouTube.

Wrapping it Up

Each video that generates a certain level of success will be able to be plotted on the above grid. The more statistical data available from the release of the video to its climax the more accurate one can place the video into a given pattern.

The model helps to identify the what and why surrounding certain videos and ultimately creates a better understanding of the digital media landscape and the overall concept of Viralism.

Cheers!

Viral Videos have added a new weapon to the marketers arsonal.  Agencies and production companies alike boast their portfolios of online content.  But how can an organization say they specialize in Viral Video production?  Arguably there isn’t an ironclad formula for making videos that, for a host of reasons, ends up breaking a million views.  It might even be considered arrogant to say you or your company can make Viral Videos.  Many videos high at the top of the charts aren’t business related at all (hahaha for example).  

In the attempt to map out the dimensions of these media gems the Viral Catalog has been broken into categories.  Flushing out these categories should help find similar patterns of success.  So next time you come across a video that’s destined for greatness see where it fits in and submit it.  

Real

The Real category contains videos that gained their popularity because the attractive features of the content come from deep within the subject(s) on camera.  The people live their lives the way the video portrays them. 

Slapstick

Think Charlie Chaplin – Three Stooges 
or visit Wikipedia.

Animal

If you are reading this blog and you don’t know
what the animal category might consist of…/Pity 

Kids

/Pity 2x

Uniquely Creative

This category shows off videos that truly stand out.  
The producers of these clips need sheer determination or they have invested a lot of time, maybe both.  Many of these videos are clever showing something common from a different perspective.     

Shock & Awe

Videos belonging to this group will leave the majority of viewers with big eyes and hanging jaws. 

Commercial

Anything to promote a product or service.  

Music & Dance

Music and Dance needs to be considered in a league of their own because they dominate the online world. This category has a higher bar of entry and has an increasingly large gray area as more mash ups go viral.