As the latest video epidemic hits the web going viral with over 2,271,865 hits in 24 hours of it’s release, what else would I be writing my blog about. I couldn’t help but grin for the 4 minute duration of the new flight safety video from New Zealand Airways. A light hearted spin on the traditional, and lets face it rather boring flight introduction video that celebrates the upcoming The Hobbit cinema release that has followed every trick in the ‘Viral Success Bible’. I found myself laughing and marvelling in the perfect production that was always going to be an online success due to it’s amazing sharable content.
Let’s face it who actually pays full attention to the usual videos? Anyone familiar with flying – whether you’re a business person who spends more time in the air than on land or jet away once a year to Benidorm – you will know that the exits are “here, here and here” and will go into ‘auto pilot’ during the showing and thoughts will drift to what episode of The Simpsons will be on during the flight. In recent years most major airlines have tried to adapt a different spin on the video with Thomsons trying their hand with a video featuring children as cabin crew and passengers, this was a fabulous attempt and I will say I personally watched and made “awww” sounds at the cute factor, but I didn’t tweet it. New Zealand Airways just went that step further and added the few vital ingredients for viral that set the video aside from other attempts.
To begin I must point out that their timing is perfect – the content being so close to a subject already in people’s minds with the release of the highly anticipated Hobbit movie makes it sharable amongst Middle Earth enthusiasts. Having a current theme for content that links to a broader event or public trend will always elevate your chances of viral success.
The second point is that the video, although still informative and containing the same script as the usual takes a humorous tone with plugs to the Lord of The Rings trilogy characters. Hobbits and elves taking their seats as passengers and Gandalf captaining the voyage – if you don’t find this comedy genius then you are either way to cool or have lived under a rock for the past 10 years. The videos nature appeals to that human want to be amused.
Finally, and this is a point I haven’t touched on in my other discussions but one sure way of making a video go viral is by including a celebrity or well known public figure. Feature them doing something funny and you have nailed it. In this piece we see Peter Jackson disappear as he puts on the precious ring and Gollum (a celebrity in his own right) crawling down the illuminated aisle. Genius, just pure marketing genius.
Overall the content is unexpected, relevant to current affairs, features celebrities doing generally funny stuff and made me and everyone in my mailing list laugh for a good four minutes this Friday morning. What more can I say other than New Zealand Airways are flying high above the rest in the viral steaks. The only thing I can say is well done and I most certainly want to fly with you.