All of the most successful viral videos from brands have a strong visual moment but it is also more than the video itself

Many “would-be” viral video marketers have dreamed of getting millions of views for their video in mind. Some of them have got exactly what they wanted but with no idea of the consequences. Others have failed and have no idea why.

This post will use actual viral video marketing examples to illustrate the right steps to take for your video. The key thing to take from this post is that a great viral video is so much more than just views alone!

The social web is visual: What will they see and remember?

All of the most successful viral videos from brands have a strong visual moment that makes them stick.

Every YouTube video needs a strong thumbnail image.

These are the images displayed before people view your video. When your video is sitting in someone’s Timeline, Newsfeed, or email after a friend shares it; they have to see this thumbnail.

Your video needs a climactic moment that people remember.

The video marketing business isn’t very different from every other storytelling medium. You need a beginning that introduces what’s going on, a climax where viewers get the warm tingles (or any other strong emotion), a resolution about what they learned, and perfect optimisation for all channel keywords. For an example of this, I’ll turn to the exceptionally visual viral video from Peugeot’s ‘The Legend Returns’ video.

Yep. A car flipping over a helicopter, while the driver of the car is winking at the pilot of the helicopter, certainly qualifies as a strong visual. I can still see that image in my head after a year of originally viewing it!

For a thumbnail, they went with a mysterious mountain chalet, covered in snow, with the highly contrasting car having left a skid mark behind it. The added text drives home the point: The Legend which is returning is the 208 GTi.

Now when viral influencers share the post, those who see it will get this great visual which quickly introduces them to the ride they’re about to take!

Plan for one clear message

Just as you need to create a strong visual image, you need to create a strong message as well. When people finish watching your video, they need to have learned something about your brand.

This message should tie in with your larger brand voice. There’s no point in creating a highly viewable video that is completely out of left field in terms of your tone and previous content.

Also Read: The smart entrepreneur’s guide to crafting viral content

When Nike started its successful ‘Risk Everything’ campaign, they didn’t just do it halfway.

They named the video ‘Risk Everything.’ They created the hashtag ‘Risk Everything.’ They filmed the stars of their Nike FC world performing unconventional soccer moves, this being the most viewed.

You can’t help but walk away from a video like that with a clear message in mind: Risk everything, take chances and push yourself. It’s an exciting message, and it’s an unmistakable one.

This didn’t happen by accident. Nike Football’s team sat down and established that as what you would learn from this campaign. The entire campaign has nearly 2 billion views. How do you think they did?

Once you have that one message, do not add more on top. Remember the age-old phrase of ‘keep it simple, stupid’? That applies here. Too many messages result in nothing being learned, and your goals going over people’s heads.

Nike was also smart to incorporate that message into a hashtag. This is a key aspect of making your YouTube and Twitter marketing work together as one online marketing tool.

Your audience needs to feel something emotionally

This was discussed in the visuals and the message. To single out this aspect of a viral video, I’d like to look at this video from the Rainforest Alliance:

Now, when you read the name of the brand, you may have thought it was going to be a sad ‘the Earth is dying! HELP!’ type of video. While that is a strong emotion that you can get people to feel, it isn’t as shareable as a video that’s as positive as this one.

The reason this video was viewed over 5 million times is everyone who watched it and had a laugh wanted their friends to have that same experience of joy. So they shared it and shared and shared it, and it went viral.

The secret to all video marketing is that its emotions which go viral, the video is just the medium, the emotional triggers are presented in.

Have a plan for sustainable growth

Ok, at this point you should have an idea for a pretty successful viral video. Good. Great.

The question remains though: What’s after this? Will your channel have grown with more subscribers? Will people have watched other videos? Will you have made any sales at all?

This is the hardest, and most crucial, part of any video marketing campaign. Having people on your YouTube channel once who watch a video and leave isn’t going to do much for you in the long-term. All the shares in the world will only do so much for building brand recognition. The clearest of messages can be forgotten by the next day.

Here’s how it works with sustainable growth:

1. Pepsi connected this video to other videos on their channel. This drove engagement across their entire video marketing campaign.

2. They added a ‘Click here to subscribe’ YouTube Annotation at the 3:30 mark. This isn’t an arbitrary time. It’s right when the climax of the video is happening during maximum ‘eyes on-screen’ time.

Also Read: This startup breeds a new culture of internet virality in India

3. They used a hashtag to grow sustainably on social media.

The importance of points one and two cannot be emphasised enough. If you’re not driving subscriptions and pushing people to other content to build your YouTube channel, you’re wasting your time.

You’re wasting the real opportunity presented by your viral video.

Viral marketing videos do not happen by accident

The only videos that go viral by accident star children coming back from the dentist and amusing cats. Every marketer out there with a hit viral in their hands has put in considerable planning.

Your planning will ultimately determine how successful your video is. The points you’ll want to build on are:

1. Have a vision for one stirring visual both in the video and in the thumbnail for the video before it’s viewed.

2. Create a clear message for viewers to take away from your video. A 5-minute viral video only has time to teach the average viewer one thing, hammer it home.

3. You need your viewer to have an emotional reaction that makes them say ‘I want my friend to feel this too.’ Positive, or funny, reactions are shared the easiest.

4. Plan to keep viewers around by either pushing them to watch other videos of yours, or to subscribe to your channel. Failing those, push them to your website’s landing pages or email subscription pages. Anything that will keep them around longer than the ending!

Can you pick out the main message? Comment below, and let’s discuss viral video marketing in general!

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Image Credit: Jakob Owens

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