How To Make A Viral Video

By Jenny Fisher


There are some video marketing campaigns I really admire. In fact, there are the ones that everyone loves, the Christmas Coca-cola or John Lewis advert are, I suppose, an indicator that it's time to buy a turkey. That is, if you had forgotten. It's those two very specific adverts that have the capability completely change the way that the audience is feeling, even the most miserable of people can't help but feel a little festive. "It's definitely Christmas time, the coca-cola advert is on!" is a phrase I've heard far too many times as though Christmas isn't a fixed annual agenda that will happen regardless if we see Father Christmas jollily sipping a coke on the TV.

More recently I admired Three's Twitter phenomenon #DancePonyDance, which corresponded with their advertisement where a pony dances to Fleetwood Mac. If you're yet to see this fantastic video, then I suggest you take a look.

The most intelligent and engaging part of the advert was its online interactive features, you not only get to witness a pony dance like Michael Jackson, but you were able to give the video a Bollywood or a Mexican theme, amongst others,in the "pony mixer". The online world went completely mad.

However, you could argue that these videos are all produced by massive international companies, who hasn't heard of John Lewis? These people can't sneeze without the world knowing. What I find exceptional is when a lesser known company or individual create something that's equally, if not more, a success. And there are hundreds of them, a firm favourite is still the 'End of Ze World' animation.

The question that everyone is asking is how these videos can so readily and easily rise in the YouTube ranks. How exactly can we produce a viral video? Of course there has to be certain amount of quality in the video, but the bigger question is how it generates views in the first place. It's easy to see how Three can generate an internationally successful video quite simply, but their audience is already right at their fingertips, they've had years to build themselves a colossal internet database of viewers, all they have to do is upload something. But for someone to come out of nowhere, with no ready-made market, and send the internet berserk is quite the achievement.

What I'd like to know is how much is thanks to the content and how much is just sheer chance? While contemplating and YouTubing how exactly I could formulate my own viral video, and through this, international success, I came across this video blog from Lambda Films, who are an online marketing company based in Norwich.

Okay, so it doesn't give me an exact method into producing my viral video but it gave me a better idea of how I could go about instigating it. It seems it is true that viral videos are essentially down to good or entertaining content. Producing that content, is perhaps the most difficult aspect. You might be lucky, you might just happen to film one of the most hilarious scenes to grace the web completely by chance, but it's not everyday you see a sneezing panda.




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