Now Share This: PR and Social Media

No matter what any PR or Advertising agency tells you, there is no such thing as a guarantee when it comes to creating a viral video for your brand or business. The one above is from the summer of 2007 and was made for a screen printing company in Omaha, Nebraska, that caters to high school clubs and teams. I love it because the guy in it reminds me of Will Ferrell, and I think it’s a clever attempt done at the beginning of the viral video era. (In interest of full disclosure, my brother-in-law owns this company, called Image Market.)

In search of creating the next big thing for my current employer, I recently read the YouTube Report, a detailed study of several thousand YouTube users and their habits, and was reminded of what combination makes for the most popular and “viral” videos on the site.

Almost all viral videos have three key components:

1. Humor.

2. Music.

3. Length (usually 3-5 minutes long)

Think about your favorite viral videos – JK Wedding Dance, Chocolate Rain, etc. – and you’ll realize they hit these 3 things spot on. I’ll also add a couple of my own points:

1. “Pass-along” factor. Would you share this video with friends? Which ones? Why or why not?

2. Authenticity. Is there a sense of truth and transparency to the video, or is it trying too hard to be cool/funny/etc.?

Every business on the planet would kill to have a viral hit, but very few have. Will it Blend? is one example of a company that has made it. There are others, of course, but many end up getting lost among the billions of videos available on YouTube at any given moment.

I think it’s easy for brands and businesses to forget this key caveat: Making the viral video is the easy part. Promoting it is where the real work comes in. (More on that in another post.)

What do you think? What are your favorite viral video examples and why? What else do you think goes into a great viral video? How would you promote the t-shirt screen printing video above if my brother-in-law’s company hired you right now for a Social Media campaign?