VIRAL VIDEO

On Wikipedia.org viral video has been defined as a "video clip content which gains widespread popularity through the process of Internet sharing, typically through email or IM messages, blogs and other media sharing websites." With the success of youtube.com, it is believed that 100 million videos are viewed daily. Therefore, the question is, can businesses also take advantage of this new medium to market and/or advertise their product or service?

Viral video just like many other mediums has its advantages. For one, it has the ability to reach a very large audience. Just like a virus, the video can spread exponentially from viewer to viewers. Therefore, not only will the message have the potential to spreading to a huge audience, but has the ability of spreading very quickly. Very similarly to viral marketing, the ones spreading your message are people who are passing on your video to their friends. This is important because they are actually acting as an indirect reference that their friends can trust, similarly to the effect of word of mouth.

So what does this mean to you as a business? Viral video can act as a device that can be used to create and distribute a message about your business. It can exemplify how your organization is a leader and an expert in a particular discipline. It can help distinguish yourselves from your competitors. It can help demonstrate some of your non primary services and products.

But the other very important aspect of a viral video campaign is that it can be very cheap in which any person can even take a regular consumer camcorder and create a video that is only several seconds long. By having such a low cost to produce such a tool, it results in less risk. Even if the campaign was unable to reach as many viewers as intended or if the campaign itself did not result in increased direct sales or revenue, the low production cost can allow you to learn on what improvements can be made to the production and campaign. One can think of it as an inexpensive research and development method towards marketing and advertising.

Video

Palm's Viral Video Experiment
Palm shot a series of satirical interviews on the streets of Manhattan with just a handheld camcorder in what would be an experiment in viral video. They gave us their footage in which we touched it up and added our own comedic stroke.

Part 2 of Palm's Viral Video Experiment
This was another series of satirical interviews made by palm in which we edited and added a little bit of silliness.

The advantages may be clear, but how attainable and realistic are they? In an article on http://blog.mindvalleylabs.com titled "How I Made A Dollar From Everyone Who Watched My YouTube Video" it talks about an author on meditation named Burt Goldman. A video clip of one of his lectures was then uploaded to Youtube.com. A list of people was then sent a link to the video on Youtube in which 500 people on that list viewed the clip. As the popularity of the video increased so did its ranking on the site. After the video was viewed several thousand times it became one of the top watched "How To" videos of the day resulting in even more viewers viewing the clip. On the video clip contained the address to Burt Goldman's website in which people could actually purchase copies of his lectures on video. Out of 4500 viewers, 300 visited his site resulting in 17 purchases of his video at $200 each totaling $3400. This may not appear to be anything extraordinary at first. But when considering the fact that there was very little work or effort in achieving such traffic, the return on investment (ROI) was tremendous.

In August 2006 an experiment was done by Marketing Experiments in which 28 different amateur and comedic style video clips were produced and posted onto Youtube.com and Google Video. Each video ended with a short 3 to 5 second promotion as well as a link back to marketingexperiments.com on the page hosting the video. At the end of August the 28 videos received over 88,000 views which led to 732 hits back to marketingexperiments.com. In the following September, the hit total for the month increased to over 235,000 views with 3,430 clicks back to marketingexperiments.com. Therefore, the number of views did not double but tripled.

To put this in perspective, how much would 4100 clicks cost if marketingexperiments.com would have used the traditional pay-per-click method. Let's say on average each click cost $0.30 per click. That would total to $1230 for the cost of this campaign. But since Google Video and Youtube.com allow users to post the video for free the cost is $0.

This phenomenon is not only an opportunity for small businesses or companies with limited marketing budgets and resources. Large corporations realize that it would unwise not to take advantage of such an opportunity. For example, Dove produced a video called Evolution which was basically like a 1 minute commercial ad. However, instead of having the ad broadcasted on regular TV and Cable networks, they had the only video available exclusively via the internet. As of February 2007, the video has been viewed over 2.3 million times. The cost again to air the video was $0. Most likely, if Dove chose to air the commercial on regular TV they would have received more viewers but it would have been obviously been at a heftier cost. Not to mention, people who viewed the video, did so willingly without the ad interrupting a program they were viewing.

Viral video also does not constrain itself to one particular style or format. Meaning, companies do not necessarily have to limit themselves in just creating a commercial or ad for their viral video. For example, Netflix, the online video rental store, pushed its own viral video campaign by creating a promotion that allowed consumers to post videos of themselves quoting memorable movies lines from Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, The Godfather, A Few Good Men and Jerry Maguire. The first 500 people would receive a free month subscription to the website.

Pirelli tires took the concept of viral video further in which they created a short film starring actual Hollywood celebrities such as Naomi Campbel and John Malcovich. The film garnered extraordinary success in which it was viewed over 5 million times throughout 216 countries. This sensation resulted in Pirelli creating a second short film this time starring box office star Uma Thurman. The film itself may not have been a direct advertisement that would instantly result in tire sales. However, in achieved its ultimate goal to those who viewed the film: branding.

Keep in mind that just because one has the ability to create a video does not necessarily mean it will translate to success or instant sales. But Adept Eye Studios can help assure that you achieve the desired results from your video. We understand that your goal is not to create an interesting viral video. That’s just the means to an end. And that end that you wish to attain is branding and awareness leading to increased sales and revenue. We can help in maximizing your viral video effectiveness by not only helping to produce a high quality video but also sharing some of our knowledge and expertise. For example, there are several things to keep in mind when producing a video in order to achieve success. Keep your video clips short and under 5 minutes. Most people browse through a number of videos when visiting sites like YouTube and Google Video, and may be unwilling to give any one video too much of their time. Ensure that your video is entertaining and engaging which will help encourage them in sharing your video with their friends and social networks.

Adept Eye can help you realize and achieve your desired goals by helping you produce your viral video. Contact us today!