Viral Videos
What is a viral?
A viral is a short, edgy video which is passed from person to person via the internet in a contagious manner.
From Wikipedia:
The term viral video refers to video clip content which gains widespread popularity through the process of Internet sharing, typically through email or IM messages, blogs and other media sharing websites. Viral videos are often humorous in nature and may range from televised comedy sketches such as Saturday Night Live's Lazy Sunday to unintentionally released amateur video clips like Star Wars kid. While the viral video phenomenon has occurred in a largely unstructured manner, a number of organizations are attempting to find marketing strategies that rely on the distribution of viral video, with mixed results.
Virals as marketing.
Many virals are or claim to advertise a company, product, or service. Some virals are intentionally produced as Internet only peer to peer distributed commercials, others are actual TV commercials that have been released either intentional or otherwise on the Internet.
Banned Commercials, who bans them anyway?
So called banned commercials are spot which were produced for distribution through a traditional mass medium, but where for some reason rejected by the medium. Some TV networks have editorial guidelines for commercials aired during specific hours or at all. The banned commercials are expensive productions that would otherwise have no medium if it were not for the Internet.
Some unscrupulous individual in an advertising agency or marketing department may release commercials that the company may have produced but decided to not distribute. These are usually released through peer to peer networks and eventually end up on web sites offering user generated content.
Virals as a distribution method.
Virals have unique distribution channel. Virals are primarily spread by personal recommendation, or word of mouth. They are loaded on a web server or or shared network drive. Then it is up to users to find (discover) the video and pass it on to their peers through personal recommendation in emails, blogs, or message boards.
The original video may be copied or remain in a single location on the web but it gets seen. Through sending the actual video file or by sending links to the location of the video on a publicly available web server the audience slowly grows.
This distribution method stands in contrast to the more traditional distribution methods used to reach a large audience. Traditional media broadcast the same content to as many people as it can at a singular time and or place. A video commercial produced by a car company may air during the first half of the Super Bowl to reach the maximum TV audience possible at a single given moment. This of course incurs a tremendous cost to the advertiser.
A viral on the other hand has no time or place limitations. As long as the video is live on the Internet for viewing, the audience can grow. Astonishingly the cost per viewer decreases with each new viewer instead of increasing. The production costs have all been paid. But the distribution cost nearly nothing if the file is copied from the original web server and distributed to other networks. If the original web server must host the video for its entire life, there will be server bandwidth costs, but these are minimal when compared to purchasing 60 seconds during prime time network TV programming.
Shock value as legs.
So how do you get people to share with others your video. Well they probably won't forward a video if its boring, is to difficult to understand, or has no intrinsic entertainment value.
The most effective legs for virals has been edgy comedy. Comedy works well on its own, but add a little spice (i.e. sex and violence) and you've really started something.
The Internet provides an open medium for distributing off color and downright perverse content. Viewers are more likely to be alone and willing to view questionable materials. The edgier materials usually can be found posted in anonymous message boars and blogs where users of similar persuasions can gather to share links to videos. Tamer videos can be shared by individuals at work or who might share the video in non-anonymous environments like e-mail.
Realism and virals.
Realism, the appearance of something as true to life as possible adds a degree of value to many virals. This lends to making the viral more shocking (see above) as well as helping disarm the view to the commercial value of the video.
Virals that portray impossible actions or dangerous activities or illegal activities generally gather attention.
Who makes virals.
Anyone can make a viral. Legitimate advertising companies spend tens of thousands of dollars to produce spots for their clients and teenagers with a simple video camera spend 10 minutes in the back yard making them. The key is the distribution method. A video that may normally never made it to the public's awareness is distributed widely enough to achieve viewer ship on the level with traditional media.
History.
Reach.
Longevity.
Credibility, trustworthiness, and the establishment.
Brand recognition.
Links
Sites that distribute virals.
Viral production companies.