I was ask the question the other day how do I make my online video viral? It’s a question that can’t really be answered generically but there are factors that need to be considered for all videos, or should I say of advertisement videos.

Any funny or clever video could go viral but we are talking here about marketing orientated videos that are going to benefit your business.

To begin with we need to understand the principles of advertising. Although YouTube and other video hosting sites are a fantastic way to distribute your video, the old school advertising methods still need to be understand when creating the video, plus some extra considerations to make it go viral.

The most important factor of any advertisement is that it needs to grab peoples’ attention. This became more and more difficult as more television channels were created but now you have the millions of videos on the net to compete with this can be a massive task.

So to do this we need to look at peoples’ needs and desires, we need to look at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

What is your product? What emotion can it play on?

Can we use a character from your target markets youth that they will relate to?

The Drench video is a perfect example. Much like the Gorilla ad from Cadbury last year, it captures your attention through the use of a character. In this case Brains, a character that has an emotional relevance to a huge target market (age 20 - 60). This leads to the target market’s attention being drawn to the advert through the character, achieving the first stage of the advertising process.

Next we have to get them interested. Again by using a character we can keep the interest in the video, we could use humour, education, music, language the options are vast and without being specific to your particular product/service, industry, target market, unique selling point and brand image I couldn’t guess which option could work for you, (if you want to comment on this post I could give you a better understanding of your business)

So you’re playing on a particular emotion within the video, you have gained their attention and have kept them interested. That is really all there is too it. Obviously distribution has a massive impact as people need to see the video to share it but once you have got them emotionally attached they will want to show their friends, as it will probably have the same impact on them. This is why a viral video shown on TV tends to be the most talked about, they see it on TV then share it with their friends through the internet.

The BBC recently had an article on the Drench video.
The comments made by some of the people are really interesting, particular the ones that don’t agree with it. The fact that they are talking about the advert clearly shows that the agency brief has been met, whether they agree with it or not. They have seen the advert, they have remembered the advert and they are talking about the advert.

Hope this gives you all a better idea of how to make a good viral video. Keep in mind that viral isn’t guaranteed but by keeping the above advice in mind it will certainly help, and remember marketing should be creative, the more creative you video the more people will want to watch it and more importantly, remember it.