Organizations approach us wanting an online video presence, and typically choose the path of Client Testimonials, Product Demos, or something similar. Those are great choices, but the road less taken to brand loyalty is the Viral Video.

WHY VIRAL VIDEOS?

1. Youth is still the magic demographic for marketers, and news flash, this generation of young people watch way less television than generations before. Millenials are too busy watching videos on YouTube. They typically don’t care who made those videos, or if they have an agenda, as long as the video is entertaining. If your company wants to boost its coolness factor while making a great first impression, then it is hard to ignore the viral video format.

2. They are cheap to produce. At least compared to other formats of online video or television. Weigh the cost of making a slick TV commercial with actors, a set, props, a big crew, and the ad time needed to air it versus twenty-five or so viral videos. Out of that large group of videos maybe you decide six will have a holiday shopping season theme, three a St. Patrick’s Day theme, and so on. This means you make a viral video whenever you want, which leads to the next point.

3. Saturday Night Live, the late night gang (Letterman, Kimmel, Stewart, etc.), The Soup, and South Park are trendsetting shows because their sense of humor is smart, edgy, and most importantly – relevant. They all address topics in today’s news cycle. The typical sitcom or commercial is in the can months prior to airing. That is why Tina Fey’s impersonation of Sarah Palin is buzz worthy and even perception altering, and the plot of Two and a Half Men is not. Your company should harness the same trendsetting power using viral videos.

4. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert discuss complicated issues using a variety of short format videos. Jimmy Kimmel and Joel McHale depend on short format videos in their shows. Why do they rely so heavily on this format? Because sophisticated ideas are easier to digest in video format than in text. Luckily, as you’ll see in the Getting Noticed section, viral video works best in short format.

5. Expanding on point four, it is much easier to create an emotional response with a viral video than text. Unless crafted by a truly gifted writer, text doesn’t make people dance, sing, cry, or laugh the same way a good viral video does.

The Green Buzz Agency Blog provides insight for Marketing Decision Makers and other fun people   We are the leader in corporate, web, and online video productionservices in Washington DC, Boston, Philadelphia, and NYC!

6. A viral videos is easier on social media eyes than a traditional corporate video. As people relax and look at photos of their friends on Facebook, they aren’t interested in watching serious stuff. They want a short funny viral video that fits in line with their current thought process & attention span. Case in point, NBC has really embraced viral videos. To gain new viewers for one of the best sitcoms on TV, The Office, they create viral videos with its characters in situations that don’t air on the show. New late night host Jimmy Fallon even gears all his segments to play like viral videos, hoping they catch on the following day with an audience that was unable to stay up late enough to see his show.

7. The distribution of viral videos is changing rapidly. You can now watch YouTube from your Tivo. And don’t forget about cell phones. A couple years ago people use to only call each other, take pictures, or listen to music. But, with larger high resolution screens and an easy to install YouTube application, cell phones have evolved into a viral video friendly platform.

8. Corporate product videos have grown because companies can showcase their product without the aide of salespeople. Corporate viral videos should be growing because they can showcase a company’s personality just as easily and quickly.

9. A good viral video is everlasting. If the video is clever and funny today, odds are good it will still be clever and funny 5 or even 25 years from now. Furthermore, your potential audience is huge, and viewers can be watching it half way across the world while your firm’s employees are asleep.

10. If you build a position by making multiple everlasting videos, you become a part of people’s daily routine. For example, the “Will It Blend” series by Blendtec keep its audience coming back regularly to see which object will get get demolished next.

GETTING NOTICED (Non-SEO)

So you are a believer, but aren’t sure what will work. Producing material your audience wants to see is paramount. There is so much competition, boring material will quickly get lost forever. Corporate viral videos need the right mix of great content, execution, and promotion to get noticed. But be careful, you don’t want to shove the video down people’s throats. A major component of a viral video is the feeling people get when they stumble across something unique. They love sharing the feeling from watching that unique video with their friends. So what common factors can be found in the viral videos people share?

Content Rules

1.    Funny is king in the world of viral. Lorne Michaels realized the power of the viral video, and let Andy Samberg go crazy with SNL digital shorts.  That decision paid off in a big way with hits like “Dick in a Box.”

2.    Music (Jonah Rocks), Dancing (Evolution of Dance) and Inspirational (Susan Boyle) are other popular themes.

3.    E*Trade provides a good example of unusual juxtaposition: a baby talking and trading stocks. Another example, a cat playing the piano.

4.    Which segues into our next rule. Babies & Animals are both great characters for viral videos. The cuter the better. There is a reason Super Bowl commercials are saturated with chimps, babies/young kids, and clydesdales. Commercials and viral videos share a lot in common.

5.    People like the anticipation of being scared. Think about the buzz The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity received. Those are two of Hollywood’s biggest rags to riches stories due in large part to the buzz generated prior to release. The thrill of being scared works in viral videos as well. Remember the reaction to UFO’s flying over Haiti?

6.    If all else fails, sex sells in any medium. Even boring godaddy.com commercials.

7.    If all else still fails, parody a successful video. Long before there was Jersey Shore, there was “My new hair cut.”  This video spawned tons of parody videos that back drafted off the original’s success. Many of the parodies themselves got over a million views, including one that has almost 5 million hits!

Execution Rules

8.    Short is usually best. TV is very passive and the Internet is not. Viral videos need to capture audience attention immediately. The longer the video runs, the harder it is to keep viewers engaged. Dramatic Chipmunk is only 5 seconds long! This short simple viral video was the core concept in this year’s Carmax Super Bowl ads.

9.    You want fans of the video to have the ability to use your material to create their own remix versions. The song that made Tay Zonday an Internet phenom with “Chocolate Rain” was remixed for a new product launch of Cherry Chocolate Dr. Pepper.

10.    I’ve used a lot of examples from TV Commercials primarily because the Super Bowl commercials are fresh in everyone’s head, but remember this is not a flashy TV commercial. You don’t need to make it look like one. Make it look like a gem in the rough. TV Commercials have a lot of edits, transitions, and graphics. Viral videos are sometimes done in one shot on a consumer camera, or at least made to look that way.

11.    Hollywood studios overdub or subtitle movies to release around the world. If you have a successful viral video that has universal appeal, translate or subtitle it to increase the size of your online audience.

EXERCISE: Mix and match these 11 rules to get the creative juices flowing: Lets say you are a gum company with a big budget for a viral video. Use rules 1,3, 4, 6 to create a viral video concept with a supermodel chewing gum while balancing an elephant on her pinkie finger in outer space. Oh, and the elephant is chewing gum too of course. Not a cheap viral video, and it doesn’t follow rule 10, but it would certainly generate buzz.

GETTING NOTICED (SEO)

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is critical. The goal is for your video/content to spread like wildfire to new audiences. Setting up proper SEO gives you the best chance for those new audiences to find your video quickly and easily.

Video SEO is similar to website SEO and the rules listed below apply to all online videos, including viral. If you’re not all that familiar with SEO, check out this article for an overview. Some of these tips are for large organizations, others for small business, and some fit both.

1.    Use Clear Titles – Picking the right title gives you an enormous advantage getting noticed, but don’t use misleading phrases like “leaked video” to generate excitement and clicks. It can backfire when your audience feels tricked.

2.    Provide an Accurate Description - Include a call to action directing viewers back to your website or possibly to a contest you are throwing in conjunction with your viral video.

3.    Choose the Right Keyword Tags – Use Google Adwords for help compiling a complete list.

4.    Generate Back Links

a.     Email bloggers that relate to your viral video.

b.    Submit video to social bookmarking sites. TubeMogul can really help to make this step quick and easy.

The eight most popular social bookmarking websites online: 1. Twitter, 2. Digg, 3. Yahoo Buzz                  4. TweetMeme 5. StumleUpon 6. Reddit 7. Technorati, 8. del.icio.us

c.     Submit a Press Release. Some good free places to submit Press Releases include: 1888PressReleases, ClickPress, 24-7PressRelease, PRLeap

d.    Post the video using your company’s social media presence, like on your company’s Facebook Fan page. Certain social media platforms carry more weight than others. Here is the length of time people watch videos from different sources according to Tubemogul: Twitter 1:58, Facebook 1:14 , and Digg :58.

Highlights from top eight back linked online videos of all time: 1. Susan Boyle Performs on Britain’s Got Talent 2. Rick Astley’s Rick Roll 3. Judson Laipply’s Evolution of Dance 6. Free Hugs Campaign 7. Ok Go Treadmill 8. Michael Jackson’s Thriller

5.   Generate Views

a.     Do what you can the old fashioned way by emailing friends and family a link to the video. Ask them to help by sending it to their friends or posting it to their Facebook page. You could also include a link to the video in your email signature.

b.    If you need more help with views, a paid method might be the right option. Just make sure you know what you’re buying and you’re setting yourself up for a good ROI. YouTube Promoted Videos provides one approach for getting your video in front of more eyes. uSocial can also deliver views, but buyer beware, they may not be the views you want!

Three Viral Videos that had an effect on the 2008 Presidential Election: 1. Will.i.am and Friends’ tribute to Obama “Yes, We Can”  2. The powerful “Dear Mr. Obama” from Joe Cook and team on the war in Iraq  3. “I Got a Crush….On Obama” by, of course, Obama Girl

YOUTUBE SEO

YouTube SEO has similar characteristics to regular video SEO. A proper title, keyword tags, description, and back links are all still important. However there are other factors that contribute to a high ranking in the YouTube search results.

1.    The most obvious factor in YouTube SEO is the video’s number of views.  But don’t be fooled, the factors below are not far behind in importance.

2.    Number of ratings the video has received. The higher the rating, and the more ratings a video receives boost YouTube SEO juice.

3.    The number of comments, good or bad. The more lively the discussion under the video is, the more likely people will keep coming back to see if others have posted a comment.

4.    How recently the video was submitted. YouTube’s complex algorithms favor new videos in their search results. Take advantage of a new upload, because unless your content is a runaway hit, it’ll get harder and harder to rank high on the list over time.

5.    Now we are getting into the areas that are truly overlooked. Is the video uploaded from a YouTube Channel? If so, how many views does the channel itself have? For example, Green Buzz Agency has a channel. If our current viral video with Julia Dales has a lot of hits, then it will increase the SEO for all the other videos in the Green Buzz Agency channel.

6.    The number of subscribers to the channel. This indicates that the channel continually posts worthy content and is rewarded by people who have bookmarked the Channel. It is similar to a website’s SEO increasing when its fans bookmark the site in del.icio.us.

7.    How active is the owner of the YouTube Channel? YouTube rewards active owners, the more you manage and maintain your channel, the better.

8.    How all the other videos in the channel perform in the areas listed above.

GBA is using our current Viral Video featuring Julia Dales to maximize our website & YouTube SEO. Check back in a couple months for a case study on what worked best for us!

BUILDING A LONG-TERM POSITION

The ultimate goal of any company venturing into the world of Viral Video should be to build a long-term position for your brand. Sure, the buzz you generate with a one-hit video is great. But once you’ve invested the time, money and effort into building an audience, you should continue to utilize it. After a couple well-conceived, well-executed videos, your audience will start seeking out your content. Viral Video is no different than any other marketing tactic – the goal is brand loyalty.

There are many other tricks of the trade. If you liked this primer, be sure to come back next month when Green Buzz Agency will have a complete and downloadable guide to Viral Videos featuring more tips, strategies and facts. In the mean time, check in weekly for more Marketing & Video blog posts, and of course new viral videos from Green Buzz Agency!

Tod Plotkin is Principal at Green Buzz Agency. Despite moving to Washington, DC in 1999, he still misses following the Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox on a daily basis. His passion for video production is equaled by his love of peanut butter and jelly. Connect with Tod on Linkedin or follow him on Twitter @GreenBuzzAgency.

The marketing mavens at GoDaddy.com had their work cut out for them.  It’s getting harder and harder to achieve the real Super Bowl prize: having the network reject your ad.

But CBS handed them their touchdown this year, rejecting Lola. In a press release quickly posted on their website, GoDaddy CEO and Founder Bob Parsons said, “Of the five commercial concepts we submitted for approval this year, this never would’ve been my pick for the one that would not be approved.  This is about a guy who starts an online business and hits the jackpot. I just don’t think ‘Lola’ is offensive, in fact we didn’t see this one coming –were absolutely blindsided!”

Here’s some insight: national marketers do not produce five commercials in the hopes that the network will approve one of them.  They shoot five commercials hoping the network will REJECT one of them.

GoDaddy became the second Super Bowl ad declined this year, and the third to stir public debate.

Mancrunch, a dating site catering to gay men, was also rejected.  Evidently, the CBS sales department additionally questioned  the company’s ability to pay for the ad time, calling into question whether it was ever considered a viable option to air, or if the folks at ManCrunch were hoping for the wave of publicity that accompanies rejection, and the viral activity that follows.  Rejection-pioneer PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) enjoyed a viral bonanza when their 2009 spot, Veggie Love, was given a pass by NBC.  Other rejects from the class of 2009 included Airborn’s entry, featuring a gratuitous shot of Mickey Rooney’s butt,  and a particularly repugnant effort from AshleyMadison.com, a website aimed at promoting extramarital affairs.

This year, many observers were stunned when Focus on the Family, a conservative religious organization that opposes abortion – as well as homosexuality, gambling (including church bingo) and premarital sex – got a green light from CBS for their Super Bowl ad entry, featuring Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow.  The spot reportedly tells the story of Tebow’s mother, Pam, whose doctors recommended that she have an abortion while serving as a missionary in the Philippines.  Experts have questioned the veracity of the story, pointing to the fact that physicians and midwives who perform abortions in the Philippines face six years in prison, and may have their licenses suspended or revoked, and that women who receive abortions – no matter the reason – may be punished with imprisonment for two to six years.  A coalition of more than 30 women’s and advocacy groups have called on CBS to pull the ad.

The Green Buzz Agency Blog provides insight for Marketing Decision Makers and other fun people  Contact us if you have marketing insight to share,  and we may feature you as a Guest GBA Blogger. GBA is headquartered in Washington D.C. and specializes in strategic video production! Let us know how we can help your company stand out from the pack!

Why all the hoopla about commercials in the big game?  It may be because the commercials are bigger than the game.

According to recent research from Nielsen on trends and effectiveness of paid Super Bowl advertising, more than half of those who tune in are watching for the commercials, not the game itself.  Add in those who are watching primarily for the on-field action, but admit to an interest in the commercials as well, and you’ve got the attention of a significant percentage of the nearly 100 million Super Bowl viewers.

And with Super Bowl ads, viewership translates directly to consumer action. Super Bowl ads can boost the web traffic of the companies that run them, especially in the short term. Among all Super Bowl XLIII advertisers in 2009, overnight web traffic as measured by unique audience grew an average of 63%. Growth in unique audience from January to February 2009 grew an average of 6%.

It’s ironic, though, that the ads that are deemed the most offensive are the ones that generate the most buzz and drive the most web traffic.  These are the spots that do the best job of demeaning, insulting, stereotyping and shocking.  These are the spots you don’t want your kids to see.

The “Catch-22” for the networks is that by rejecting the ads (and foregoing the $2.5–3 million revenue that each spot generates), they contribute to the viral value.  Online news articles and blogs that link to rejected ads generate unparalleled click-through.

The proof point?  How many ads did you watch here?  I know…me too.

Kim Hennig is an award-winning consumer marketing veteran of well-known brands, including McDonald’s, 1-800-Flowers and Subway.  She also conducts social media seminars and facilitates social media workshops for corporations and ad agencies. Kim can be reached at kim@kimhennig.com or @KimHennig on Twitter.

In the early days of television, people basically watched long commercials that led to what we know today as sitcoms.

The same thing is about to happen to the Web, thanks to FedEx (FDX 64.98 ↑1.15%)’s new campaign that uses short, entertaining Web videos as ads. The “1-2-3 Succeed!” videos (starring Fred Willard as host of infomercials) are a strong step in the evolution of entertainment from TV to the Web.

It’s yet another indication that someone, somewhere, is busy building a media empire based off this new frontier.

That makes these FedEx videos harbingers of things to come is that they’re not just ads. I mean, they technically are, but their created as a form of entertainment, brought to you by FedEx. Just like the early days of television, when Americans were entertained while being relentlessly marketed to.

Except the FedEx videos were made for the Web. And they come on the heel of FedEx raising eyebrows by not advertising in the Super Bowl. As the New York Times’ article linked to above discusses, FedEx tends to be at the forefront of new endeavors in advertising. If the company opts not to advertise during the largest television event of the year, instead putting its resources to creating made-for-the-Web videos, what does that say?

It says we will see more companies generating entertainment for the Web that can double as ads. Even if FedEx’s videos aren’t viewed as successful (meaning views and FedEx revenue are low), I suspect other companies will give it a shot. The Web is too lucrative a platform to not try capitalizing off of it, and online video is gaining immensely in popularity.

That these Web-specific videos will do is increase the public’s comfort with shorter, scripted, produced videos. Right now the most popular video content on the Web is that which is less than a minute and amateur produced (YouTube) or that which existed offline first (Hulu).

The videos FedEx has created are hybrids. They combine the shorter, punchier aspects of YouTube-like videos, with the polished, acted made-for-TV content found on Hulu.

Is these hybrid videos grow in number on the Web, and they will, viewers will grow accustomed to this type of content. This will provide the right person, or media company, with a welcoming audience for these hybrid videos.

The launch of FedEx’s “1-2-3 Succeed!” videos is no small thing. It’s another step toward turning the Web into an entertainment platform from which tomorrow’s media giants can make money, and build an empire.

- Nick Barron, Green Buzz Agency Social Media Consultant