Hey it’s Colter,

We’ve created this blog post to analyze and research viral video produciton and how companies have used it to market thier brands. This can be used both as examples of possible viral videos and help with strategy and implementation.

An important note: with each of these videos, we did a quick assessment of how many views it had received on YouTube. Being that there are over 20 main social video sites and almost 200 including social sharing sites, these could be spread across 100′s of domains. I believe you can take the below YouTube numbers and comfortably times them by 10.

Key to Viral Success

– Make it short: 15-30 seconds is ideal; break down long stories into bite-sized clips
– Don’t make an outright ad: if a video feels like an ad, viewers won’t share it unless it’s really amazing.
– Make it shocking: give a viewer no choice but to investigate further. Ex: “UFO Haiti”
– Use fake headlines: make the viewer say, “Holy shit, did that actually happen?!” Ex: “Stolen Nascar”
– Appeal to sex: if all else fails, hire the most attractive women available to be in the video. Ex: “Yoga 4 Dudes”
– Optimize the thumbnails, this is the single best strategy for getting clicks. Youtube provides three choices, edit your video or modify it to optimize these three choices.
– Comments, everyone loves a good heated discussion so get one started.
– Measure the effectiveness, make adjustments
– Push it out there like crazy! You only have so much time, get a team working on making that thing go completely viral.

The Wild West days of Lonely Girl and Ask A Ninja are over. You simply can’t expect to post great videos on YouTube and have them go viral on their own, even if you think you have the best videos ever. These days, achieving true virality takes serious creativity, some luck, and a lot of hard work. So, my advice: get someone that knows what they’re doing!

The most important aspect of virial videos is promotion. A video has 48 hours in which it will go viral. If it doesn’t happen in that time, it will only see limited success. It has to be shared on all of the major sites, be viewable and searchable pretty much anywhere be featured on some of the

Without futher delay:

Example 1: Herding Cats

Views:

3.2 Million

Concept:

A unique idea, a crazy concept with something everyone loves: cats. Fluffy, adorable and humourous cats roaming around Ikea. Halairity was guaranteed to ensue.

And what a great idea to just do something random and fun anyway. Thinking of something outside the box, random and executing it.

Payoff:

A massive commercial, 4 mins long that would’ve cost millions to broadcast. Brand exposure, brand awareness and increased sales all just for the cost of the video.

Example 2: Volkswagen “Fast Lane” Campaign

Views:

3 million

Concept:

VW releases a range of videos including building a slide in a public space, fast elevators, shopping carts etc.

Payoff:

Another physical project where people actually do something crazy and interesting. It’s intriguing, fun and isn’t a blatent advertisement. Incredible brand exposure and worldwide marketing ensued. Viral videos have become a perminant part of the VW marketing strategy.

Example 3: Dove Evolution

Views:

Over 20 million

Concept:

The dramatic changes to a woman from normal to poster board.

Payoff:

A true “Epipheo”. Before watching this video, you have a certain idea of the world. After watching this video, you see things in a different way. This kind of “switch” that takes place makes sharing a video absolutely irresistable. Especially when it has excellent production value like this video.

Example 4: Phil Collins “Gorilla Drummer” Cadbury Ad

Views:

Over 10 Million

Concept:

Humour, realism, intrigue.

Payoff:

Incredible brand exposure, getting Cadbury out to thousands in a tight, fun and action packed package. How could you not love this piece. Concept is everything.

Example 5: Quicksilver Dynamite Surfing

Views:

Many millions, seems to have been taken down by quicksilver

Concept:

An edgy, dark video that has the feeling of being real. Some surfers throw a stick of dynamite into a local lake and ride the wave.

Payoff:

Extreme sports used again to sell products. Quicksilver has combined it’s image directly with extreme sports. The brand is marketed at a younger demographic that finds extreme sports to be trendy. The video is controversial as to whether it’s real or not. I would definitely say it isn’t real.

Example 6: Evian Roller Babies

Views:

Over 60 million

Concept:

Well CG’d babies on roller blades. Working with computer animation and funny concept.

Payoff:

Tons of views and brand exposure. The only thing people love more than cats is babies, this is an untra sharable, fun and interesting piece that guaranteed a lot of views.

Example 7: Will it Blend

Views:

10 million per video (they probably have 50 videos)

Concept:

Using the strength and resilience of their product to put together an interesting product demo. Each episode they blend something different.

Payoff:

Blendtec is now synonymous with strength and a quality product.

Example 8: Microsoft X-Box Champagne

Views:

Seems to have been removed but in the millions.

Concept:

Great special effects, interesting idea, engaging, slightly disturbing and very sharable.

Payoff:

This really sparks something, both visually (for having incredible CG effects) and emotionally (For being completely true)

Example 9: Still Free – Tagging AirForce One

Views:

Over 100k across several channels

Concept:

Using spray paint to tag AirForce One

Payoff:

This video was so realistic that the United States Air Force did a public investigation into whether or not the group who shot the clip did, in fact, breach security at Andrews AFDB

Example 10: Hellmans “Eat Local”

Views:

Many millions

Concept:

Create an extremely engaging animated video with great stats. Provides helpful information and creates an epiphany effect.

Payoff:

A tight video that is helpful and delivers good information but at the end of the day, it’s a viral video for Hellman’s (who may or may not be considered ‘health consious’). They connect thier brand and image with healthy living, helping their fellow Canadian with real information.

Here’s a fun video with behind the scenes action of Video in Vancouver and RestorFX. If you haven’t seen the original video, check it out here! RestorFX Corporate Video

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So, after a few weeks or months of shooting your video, your contracted video production company now has several rolls of digital film and some audio recordings in their hands. If you think the hard part is over, think again: they’ll now have to deal with the video post production, something you’ll (thankfully) not have to deal with. Let’s just say that what they currently have are merely the raw materials, which still have to be edited to produce the finished video for distribution. Post production can be seen as a set of processes that will help to create the final, distributable version of your video.

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You’re a busy person. And I don’t feel like wasting your time.

Here are some action points about corporate video, why companies are using corporate videos and some industry tricks that will dramatically increase the value of your production.

First, the bottom Line.

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Okay first off…

I want to get something off my chest. You know when you’re really working hard on a video (or any project for that matter). And all you can see is the details? You’re worried about the lighting and the hair and all of the little details.

I’ve seen it on set too. An entire set is haulted for 15 mins while an actor’s hairs are put into perfect alignment.

Here’s a entertaining clip demonstrating a valuable lesson in what is really important in a video.

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It is no longer enough just to have a website. Websites that are cold, static, boring, uninformative and don’t invite engagement, are obstacles, not help, to lawyers.

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