Viral marketing is a kind of epidemic in the world of advertising. Its whole point is to get users to share an advert as much as possible. To evoke a strong emotion, to hook them and make them repost it in a story, to forward it to a friend in messenger, etc. Such adverts are the most difficult to create, and often turn out to be random. In the article we will consider what ideas can be guided.

Nike “What are girls made of”

Advantages of viral advertising:

  1. It is native. That is, the user does not see a direct advert for the product/service there. He just shares a picture or video.
  2. It is always based on emotion. And, of course, it can harm the brand or help it. Even a negative emotion plays a plus sometimes, but don’t play it long term.
  3. Bread and spectacle. A phrase that remains relevant from the times of ancient Rome. It is important that the video was something special, spectacular.
  4. It is shared by people you know, which means that the chances of people watching it to the end and reposting it to someone else are the highest.

Let’s move on to the ideas themselves that will help in the creation:

What do we talk about? People always, with the exception of introverts, love to talk. The point of this idea is to get people talking about some topic that is beneficial to the brand.

This idea would be most suitable for start-ups or new products that no one knows about and the marketing budget has room to grow. Whether this advertising campaign will be successful depends on its first viewers. If they like it, they will start a chain reaction of dominoes.

There are intuitive principles that can get consumers talking about a product: price, better quality, widespread advertising. But they don’t always play a key role. People share information, things that bring them some emotions. Places where they tasted the most delicious burger, and films that they did not like, gossip that itching to share with someone else and the positivity of a beautiful dress bought. When a person sincerely recommends a certain service in the salon, it works much better than the usual advertising of the salon on the banner. Personal recommendation is maximally targeted. Usually, people tell about something, only to those who may be interested in it.

But what can go viral if we’re talking about blenders, for example? Actually, there are no boring topics. It all depends on how to exalt them. In the case of blenders, that’s what was done. Tom Dixon set up Blendtec in 1999, of course no one knew about it at first. He worked on improving the model himself and often tried to grind some things. The first viral video was of Tom grinding glass balls in a blender. In the first week, the video was watched by 6 million people. Then everything went viral, even iPhones. The slogan was “Yes, it blends!”

How to create viral content?

Content – meaning any kind of information. From a message to a video. There are 6 principles, or key STEPPS steps, that influence the infectiousness of content.

  1. Social Currency — Social Currency. The content we create and share influences the opinion of us. Our intelligence, knowledge, shows what we are like. And shapes our social currency. Will we do something that will cause a negative opinion of us?
  2. Triggers. An event that causes people to react in a certain way.
  3. Emotions — Emotions. We’ve already mentioned that emotions are one of the deciding factors that guide people in deciding whether or not to share information.
  4. Public. Our society is built on imitation. It is what shows belonging to a certain class/group.
  5. Practical Value — practical usefulness. To be useful is to have social currency.
  6. Stories — stories. Storytelling has become a new trend. In fact, interesting stories have always fascinated listeners.

People share the content that creates their image.

What then guides people who forward postcards on Viber? 🙂

Closed clubs work on the same principle. Such as the Bilderberg Club, which is as mysterious as it is on everyone’s lips. Create your own social currency that users can use to earn an image for themselves. Do something out of the ordinary, something that could make your consumers special.

To do this, some companies use game mechanics. For example, Monobank gives certain rewards for some monetary transactions. An “Elite” badge for example, for having more than 100 contacts who use Monobank.

How can you make your consumers feel that you are special? This could be the “For Your Own” mechanics, club membership, registering with the help of a friend, or receiving bonuses through a friend of a member, limited time offers, exclusivity.

Use of triggers. Influencers, bloggers and brand ambassadors are now cool with this point. They are perceived as “their own” and their opinion is valued. Therefore, advice is listened to, which has a positive impact on brand awareness and sales.

Interesting fact. What do you think people talk about more, Disneyland or oatmeal? Yes, it would seem how many impressions and emotions there are from Disneyland! But in fact, it is more often talked about oatmeal. And it’s all about the fact that we have the most triggers for remembering oatmeal. For example, words like: “breakfast”, “fruit”, “food”, “morning” – can be associated with oatmeal. Or remind us of them.

Impressive products/services may make us talk about them once, but perfectly simple everyday products do so all the time.

MARS History

In mid-1997, MARS saw its sales skyrocket. Neither the company’s pricing nor sales policies had changed. So why did the sales growth increase? It was all about NASA’s landing module landing on the surface of Mars. This triggered the name of the candy bar as a trigger.

So if social currency makes us share information, it’s the triggers that keep that conversation going.

So, to summarize.

  1. Create a topic of discussion to get your product talked about
  2. People share content that boosts their social image
  3. To continue your conversation with consumers, use triggers
  4. Evoke a strong emotion
  5. People imitate, remember this principle
  6. Make your content so that people feel it is practical for others to know this information
  7. Tell an interesting story

Old Spice (deodorant)

Samura (knife brand)

Blendtec (blenders)

GoPro (action cameras)

Volvo