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Can You Really Make a Video "Go Viral?"
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(Click on video window)
"Help Save Our Waters,"
Walleye and the Fish Band |
I received some doubtful comments last month when I announced that the video we produced for our client, Diversity Marketing and Communications (and their client, USDA-APHIS,) was going to "go viral."
People said things like: "You can't MAKE a video go viral. A viral is just that - it goes wild." "You simply can't PLAN to go viral; it happens by chance, rarely by design. It's all about LUCK."
These comments and many like it came to my inbox during the month of June. And I just waited - waited to see if the viral we produced would in fact spread and multiply AS WE INTENDED IT TO.
And it did: from 250 hits the first day, our video achieved 10,000 hits in the first month. A modest start compared to Dancing Babies and such, but a start none-the-less.
So I disagree with the nay-sayers. You can PLAN it. In fact you HAVE to plan it.
Our agency client came to us and asked us to create an awareness video, branded only by the end tag, with the goal of reaching as many viewers (particularly anglers and boaters) in the Great Lakes region as possible.
Our first responsibility was to DESIGN an entertaining piece conveying the details of the message that our client wanted to communicate. Our thought was, if it's FUN, CATCHY, COLORFUL and APPROPRIATE FOR ALL AGES, it's going to find an audience. So we decided on an animated music video with singing fish. Something that WE would want to watch.
Our next responsibility was to write and produce it in keeping with the modest budget that we had, yet pull out all the stops when it came to CREATIVITY.
But our efforts did not stop there. The final responsibility lay with PROMOTION for the video AND its associated website, sponsored by USDA-APHIS http://FocusOnFishHealth.org. Promotion is NOT about twisting your fellow employees' arms to "like" your video, as one critic said.
Our client, a marketing and communications agency that also functions as an advertising agency, was adept at relatively inexpensive and free positioning, and we helped. Banner and Pay-Per-Click advertising was designed and bought on Google, AdMob, and Facebook, driving people to the YouTube video and the website. A 30 second movie trailer version of the video played in theaters in the Great Lakes area, with media time purchased for 260 screens through Screenvision. Print ads, containing a QR code directing people to the website, were also designed and placed in fishing and boating publications. Links to the video were placed on social media sites, particularly user groups for the fishing industry. And our team continues to look for radio and TV talk shows that might be interested in the subject.
You see, it was not left to chance. And so far, so good. We had over 10,000 hits within the first month. And we're not done yet! Since I started writing and editing this article last week, we added another 3,000.
The question remains: "When is a viral considered successful? 1000 hits, 10,000 hits, 100,000?" This is a question that was recently asked by Feed Company, (a company that " seeds" videos on the web for major brand advertisers.) In a survey of 40 executives at top U.S. creative ad agencies and media buying firms, almost 28% considered it a success if a viral video got more than 1 million views, followed closely by about 22% each evenly saying it was successful if it was viewed 100,000, 250,000, or 500,000 times. That's a lot of success.
If it takes a million hits to be considered successful, then we're obviously not there yet, but we're on our way. All I know is that 13,000 more people know about the issue of the fish dying from VHS disease in the Great Lakes than they did a month ago. And with a little "luck" next month, hopefully it will be 30,000!
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