Pass It On

800 of every million Internet users worldwide visit a viral site in a typical week. That’s a lot of clicks.

It goes without saying that getting your viral (or virals) noticed should be your top priority. But to get the most from your viral - to ensure your client’s brand gets as full exposure as possible - you’d be best off putting together some sort of marketing strategy.

So, what kind of techniques are used by the top marketing agencies? Here’s an example of a typical campaign:

Stage one: creation

Before you do anything else, decide upon what it is you want to communicate. Who is your core audience? Do your research!

From this, you can work out what format your viral should take: A clip? A short film? A microsite? An online stunt?

For their viral campaign for Jaguar, the agency Cake made it their aim to target a City audience of 25-year-old (moneyed) males. Says digital director, Jez Jowett: “We found that many 25-year-olds in the City are massive golf players. So we produced a viral game which requires you to play urban golf around the streets of London.”

“You’re sitting at your desk and you tee off at Saint Paul’s and you drive the ball up Fleet Street. So, in that instance it was relevant for us to produce a game.”

Stage two: opinion formers & seeding

This involves actively placing your file on a number of carefully selected sites. So, for example, the top viral sites are a good place to start.

Most agencies have a “network” of sites they trust and know will get the viral out to as many people as possible. Again, if you’re targeting a very specific audience, you should think about who is most likely to get your viral to them.

An agency like Cake, who’ve been playing the viral game for a few years now, have their own “File Network” of 50 sites, as well as a roll-call of media and ad world movers and shakers they seed their virals to (from ad agency top dogs to TV presenters).

Says Chris Hassel of digital agency, DS.Emotion: “Opinion formers are a great way to get content out there. It’s all about targeting the correct core audience, then they will pass it on from there. You have to be careful with your seeding. But to be honest, many people blame poor seeding when it’s just the case that they have a crappy idea/viral.”

A good tip for the (probably less-well-connected) amateur viral-makers: “Get in touch with community websites and popular viral sites,” advises Harry Cymbler from Hot Cherry.

“Bore Me has over 1.5m unique visitors a month so that's a lot of exposure. If your viral is good enough, they may add it to the site and it could stay on the net forever.”

Stage three: traditional promotion

For all the hype, viral marketing hasn’t meant the death of the more traditional promotional methods.

As with any product you want your viral message to get into people’s heads – that includes people who don’t even know how to use e-mail (i.e. Your great Uncle Bert.)

Say Hot Cherry: “A good viral should go beyond the medium of the internet into offline media like national newspapers and beyond. If your viral is topical or features celebrities, journalists may want to hear about it so a media strategy will help to get you noticed and make your viral go further.”

So, basically, persuading relevant magazines, websites and papers to run promotions and competitions. Get people thinking there’s something in it for them.

Says DS.Emotion: “One of our most successful virals was Muller Love Child which involved you dragging 2 (out of 16) D-list celebrities together in the middle to create a horrible love-child.”

“People obviously enjoyed it. Oh, and you got a cheap plastic spoon sent to you if you registered – which people also seemed to want!”

Stage four: evaluation and measurement

Finally – and just as important as the preceding three stages - you need to be able to assess the effectiveness of your campaign.

Agencies can do this by finding out how many views a viral has had – aka traffic. While it’s not something that can be completely pinned down with numbers, you’ll be expected to show your client what the overall impact of the campaign has been.

No rules

On a slightly less corporate note, you want to try and make your viral any of the following things:

• Topical
• Original
• Controversial – take risks!
• Inspiring
• Or, if all fails, funny

(See our Germ competition feature for more tips.)

Say creative duo, Lee and Dan: “Some people subscribe to the idea of a ‘viral formula,’ and certainly when you study some of the best viral work such as Ford SportKa, Trojan Condoms, VW Suicide, you’ll see how the unexpected twist is very effective - but NOT necessarily a rule.”

“Some of the best adverts would not be successful as a viral. Remember that a great idea doesn’t necessarily make a great viral.”

Links:

Lee and Dan: www.leeanddan.com
Bore Me: www.boreme.com
DS.Emotion: www.dsemotion.com
Hot Cherry: www.hotcherry.co.uk
Eatmail.TV: www.eatmail.tv