You just need one viral video…

I’ve heard bloggers – and even marketing directors at meetings – say “We just need one viral video and we’ve got it made.” But is it really that simple to get one viral video? Is it not more about dumb luck, some chance capture of the temporal zeitgeist that propels us into the sky? Or is there a formula that we can follow to achieve this status of overnight celebrity?

I can’t tell you there’s an easy answer to that. The Captain Obvious in me wants to say that it’s a combination of the two: an adherence to quality elements is a large factor, but then also there’s a great dose of just plain luck. That’s like anything in life. And so on the one hand, you can get carefully crafted marketing campaigns like Old Spice or Red Bull go viral, or you can get some guy boxing a kangaroo also go viral.

And with so many viral kangaroo videos, one wonders: Can anyone just box a kangaroo and become famous?

To do a study of how to be viral incorporates both genres. What makes a guy boxing a kangaroo so successful? How can you tap into that? What makes the Old Spice commercials and Red Bull campaigns so successful? How can you tap into that? We shouldn’t get too hung up on the first class though, since often those don’t stick with us. We want those that are both viral AND sticky, ones where we remember a brand years after seeing the video.

What is a viral video?

Simply put: A video that becomes an Internet sensation overnight, and is frequently and unstoppably shared by viewers. Coming, of course, from the term “virus”, which as we know through years of lockdowns, is a highly contagious thing. Marketeers love the idea of viral videos because if successful, a viral video makes for an insane amount of free advertising.

Viral videos as marketing can have some blowback, when audiences feel they’ve been “gamed”. Rebecca Black’s “Friday” video, for instance, was too bad to be true. The guys behind it, Art Music Factory, rode the success of the famously atrocious song. But when people found out it was shared and pushed on purpose, they were never able to repeat that success.

That isn’t to say you can’t design something to be viral, you just can’t do it dishonestly. When Art Music Factory released “Friday”, it was released as though it were a good song, even though they knew otherwise.

You might be able to fool your audience once, but not twice. Keep that in mind as you push for viral success.

Key ingredients of viral videos

In 2020, Think with Google released a list and analysis of why people watch videos. Combing through this list and observing some commonalities in viral videos that I’ve found, I’ve come across these top tips for you to produce potentially viral content. I don’t think all of them must be followed, but if you can hit at least three, then you’ve greatly increased your chances.

1. Content over quality: Though quality does matter, it ranks 10 on Google’s list (link above) regarding what people are looking to watch. And this list is probably affected by what people intend to watch rather than what they do, so quality can be ranked even lower. This means, if you don’t know how to use the more complicated video editors, don’t sweat it. Use an easy entry level one like Filmora. If you can’t write your own music, you can use easily customizable music like through Smartsound Cloud.This doesn’t mean you should ignore quality, as it will give you an enormous bump (keep in mind, it’s still number 10). If your content is solid without the video skills, though, you can still break through. This isn’t true for long term sustainability – once you’re successful, you’ll want to invest in the tech to make your channel watchable.

2. Help people relax: Create content that helps people relax and unwind. This is what people want the most. This is what companies like Red Bull and GoPro really tap into. They show entertaining, extreme content that you can sit back comfortably to watch. There’s no need for analysis or even to follow a story. It’s just well-filmed video of someone on a mountain bike going down a challenging trail. Most of the blooper reels get widespread fame for this reason too, as did Mark Rober’s weird experiment with squirrels trying to eat his birdseed.

3. Be funny: This naturally slots with helping people relax. The funnier the item, the more people will share it. It can be as stupid as kangaroos boxing humans, or sillier and more refined like Terry Crews banging drums with his muscles in an Old Spice commercial.

4. Go niche: People want something that relates to their passions. Something that speaks a lot to a few – and gets them engaged – can boost your chances of going viral far more than something that speaks a little to a lot of people. Back when the Leeroy Jenkins video got splattered all over the internets, the game video genre was niche – a relatable niche, true, but still niche.

Interestingly I can’t find the original video, just that repost which itself has millions of views, but I did find a Family Guy reference to it.

5. Be original: The pop-lock crew and the pirate chanties worked… until they didn’t. It’s best to be first on a wave, or at least the very beginning. Similarly, when Mark Rober did a second squirrel obstacle course, it got only about half the amount of views of the first (which is still nearly 60 million). Other people have tried to copy Rober’s success with paltry results.

Of course, it’s impossible to tell what’s going to be the next trend, so just keep trying to come up with new things until it sticks.

6. Be authentic: The way videos go viral that aren’t marketing is how they seem completely unplanned (and often are). Even marketing videos have a way of not looking gamed. Take the pop lock video above. That video had completely accidental virality. And there’s probably no way that Old Spice could have known how successful their ads would become.
7. Celebrity/influencer collabs: The idea of getting a celebrity or influencer to show up on your video is that they bring their own audience with them. Multiply their audience by your audience, and your chances of viral success go through the roof. The influencer needs to be popular in the same niche, or adjacent niche for it to work, with real followers. Spreading your info among people who aren’t in your target group can quickly lead to nowhere. Stick an influencer in a creative video and you’re sure to have some success. Imagine if PewDiePie were hanging out with Squirrel Guy Mark Rober, and they probably would have broken the internet.

Here we have Moxy Hotel’s campaign, where they hired an influencer, Oli White, to interview other influencers. Instant success, as not only White’s crowd came along for the views, but also the interviewees.

8. Set a narrative: Create a story. People don’t want to just see a random thing, they want to know some background to it, some context. It doesn’t even necessarily have to be in the video itself, but in the description. That’s why with Instagram influencers, you’ll always see a story underneath their photos and videos. They’re pulling the audience into their world, making them feel a part of it all. Which brings us to…
9. Be interactive: Bring your audience into the performance. This level of interactivity makes TikTok so absurdly successful, and can have some success with YouTube and others. There are challenges, which encourages other people and influencers to follow the trend (think of the Water Bucket challenge that brought attention to LDS), and then there are just silly fun things like a pirate chanty that people joined in on.

When the Terry Crews muscle drum video (above) first came out, it came with an interactive version, where you could control Crews’s muscles. It was that interactivity, combined with Crews new celebrity success and the complete oddball goofiness that sent it through the roof.

Does viral even matter?

And I’m going to conclude this list of tips by saying it doesn’t really matter if you succeed at creating a viral campaign. What matters is consistent, quality content in building your brand. There are no shortcuts or easy ways about it. You’ve got to put in the hard work to get the pay off. If you follow these tips, you’ll not only increase your chances of a campaign going viral though, you’ll also build a solid channel and loyal audience base.

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