Something that particularly interests us at OVG is viral marketing. It isn’t just a buzzword, it’s a genuine marketing technique that can be used to propel a business’s brand into public consciousness, and hopefully the history books. There’s just so many ways a good viral marketing campaign can be carried out, and it’s something more businesses should get excited about.
In a previous blog I addressed the important aspects that make a good viral marketing campaign, but I didn’t give many examples. This blog will showcase some of the best examples which everybody could take notes from.
Doritos: Crash the Super Bowl
Starting in 2006, Doritos have created a marketing campaign like no other. Every year they invite members of the public to create an advert for the Super Bowl, with cash prizes ranging anywhere between $400,000 and $1,000,000 (£245,053.00 and £612,632.49).
Only one person can win, but that doesn’t stop thousands of people sending in entries every year. It always goes viral, and that’s thanks to people uploading their clips to YouTube for everyone to see. You also find that a lot of videos end up getting banned due to their controversial nature, and although they are removed from the competition, they still get thousands, if not millions of views.
For Doritos this is a brilliant marketing campaign. YouTube videos that are uploaded near to the competition always have “Doritos” in the title, helping to increase brand recognition. That’s without even mentioning the amount of Doritos used in the adverts being made, just take a look at these examples:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d8ZDSyFS2g
Paramount: Paranormal Activity
If you don’t know what Paranormal Activity is, it’s a supernatural horror film that broke records with the first movie of the series. The film reinvented the found footage format that had previously been overdone. Paranormal Activity revolves around a couple that are filming spooky events throughout their daily lives.
Although the film’s success resulted in the production of generic sequels which didn’t do so well at the box office, it was a unique at the time, taking the best halloween film crown off the Saw franchise. However, one of the things that ensured the first Paranormal Activity film did so well at the box office was the viral marketing they utilised.
Instead of just simply doing a world wide release like most normal films do, they had screenings of the film in thirteen different college towns spread across America. Reactions from the audience was recorded and showcased on a website. On this website you were able to demand that the film was shown at your local cinema.
The more Paranormal Activity was demanded for a particular cinema, the more likely it would be screened there. It was the very first time a major picture studio had used a service like this to virally market a film, and it’s clear that it did well. Out of the thirty-three venues that won this “demand” styled competition, twenty cinemas were completely sold out.
It wasn’t until the month after the film had been demanded that Paramount announced the film would finally have a full release after the demand website had seen well over one million requests. People that had not yet seen the film were in full hype mode, and in the box office it made $193,355,800 (£118,531,564.56).
This unique form of viral marketing ensured the film saw unprecedented success, creating a hype and demand that very few films have received. What’s amazing is that they didn’t actually do anything special, simply giving the audience more of a sway where the films would be shown.
Dumb ways to die
I purposely haven’t stated who created this viral marketing yet, because that’d ruin the surprise. First give the video a watch here:
If you stayed all the way to the end you’ll realise it’s a Public Service Announcement from Metro Trains Melbourne. When most people think of PSA’s, they instantly think of another boring announcement from the government. However, Metro Trains Melbourne challenged this preconception in an entirely new way.
What Dumb Ways to Die does is something completely original. Without ramming the message of being safe around trains, you are greeted with a catchy and humorous music video that’s actually enjoyable to watch. It isn’t until the end of the video that you actually realise it’s about trains and whereas the other deaths were comedic, these are more realistic.
It’s every aspect of this video which makes it so successful. The cute characters and ridiculous situations they find themselves in makes it hilarious. The song is well written, and it wouldn’t sound out of place on a Spotify playlist.
This is one of the best videos that explains why how viral videos should be made. It uses emotional marketing, action sequences, and an element of surprise to engage with the audience. As of writing of this blog, Dumb Ways to Die has 88,492,375 views and this is always increasing day by day, reaching new audiences regularly.
Viral marketing, something everyone can learn from
These are just three good examples of viral marketing, but there’s just so many examples to check out. Don’t fall into the trap of creating the same old marketing campaigns that everybody has seen before; it’s all about being unique.
If you spend the time and effort in creating a marketing campaign, you’ll be surprised at how well they can take off. One of the things that makes viral marketing work is how it gets shared from person to person until you have views in the thousands. There are very few restrictions on what you can do for a viral marketing campaign, so let your imagination run wild and see what you end up creating.
What did you think of this blog? Do you know of any other viral marketing campaigns that were successful? Join the conversation on Twitter: @theukseo.