But, that’s all beginning to change. We’re seeing large companies creating more edgy video advertising through YouTube, commercials, etc. Yet, smaller companies, local businesses, and even start-ups are sticking to conservative, bland, and uninteresting content.
Why? What do you have to lose? Let’s take a look at Dollar Shave Club:
Dollar Shave Club was a start-up selling a monthly razor blade subscription service. They released a video (above) that went viral and accumulated over 13.5 million views to date. Do you think they would have had the same exposure with a basic video describing their new service?
The founders asked “what do we have to lose,” and developed an edgy video which engaged the customer’s emotions and related to them on a personal level.
How Else Can a Video go Viral:
Most recently, the “First Kiss” video went viral amassing over 60 million views! It was actually an ad for a clothing company called WREN.
[vimeo 88671403 w=500 h=281]
This is wonderful, but what’s more important is what companies were doing after the fact. Days after the WREN video went viral, a small Mid-Michigan based marketing agency name Aberro Creative Agency released a “First Kiss Parody.” (Keep in mind this business is less than a year old.)
Aberro Creative had no previous followers on YouTube and has a relatively small customer base. They asked, “why not?”
This video went semi-viral over the course of two days and collected over 75,000 views to date. Aberro’s video also earned them 38 new subscribers on the company’s YouTube channel. You can say that they collected the fallout of the original “First Kiss” video’s popularity.
How to Engage Potential Customers:
A restaurant/bar in Ferndale, Michigan called Dino’s Lounge developed their own YouTube channel and is devoted to releasing video content on a regular basis. The content is almost always humorous, but everyone in the city enjoys following and sharing these videos. Although none have went “viral,” it’s still an effective way to engage customers on a regular basis. Here’s why:
– It’s local! Everyone has pride for their hometown and by releasing videos featuring a particular city, more people are willing to share them with friends and family.
– They’re funny and relevant! Businesses need to loosen up and realize that people are attracted to fun. To deliver your messages in a humorous way while sharing information on your business is an ideal mode to keep customers engaged in your content.
– They build relationships! You tend to feel more connected to a business when you constantly view and share their videos. The owner himself, Dino, is featured in nearly every video they release. It’s usually a challenge to meet or connect with most business owners by phone or e-mail, let alone watch a video of them dressed in a leprechaun outfit parading through the city!
Conclusion
These are only two ways that a business could have a video go viral over the internet. It’s a low cost method to introduce your company to potentially hundreds of thousands of customers at a very low cost. You simply need to be creative, humorous, or witty. Realistically, anything that can capture one of the many emotions a person has could send your advertising video spreading over the internet like a wildfire.
Just make sure you put enough thought into the content…