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Marketers aim to get their brand known to a wide audience, and they often do this by trying to make their content go viral. Viral marketing is a technique that marketers intentionally use to spread their message quickly. Much like a biological virus, a viral marketing campaign spreads from person to person, resulting in a large number of views, a substantial amount of social shares, and significant brand awareness.
A viral marketing campaign must be able to take advantage of users' emotions, especially positive ones, such as joy and wonder.
emotions to make content go viral
The fact is that very few people know what a successful viral marketing campaign entails until it starts spreading. However, there are some brands that have understood what makes audiences tick. In fact, there are some consistent elements to these types of campaigns, which brands can follow. Let’s take a trip down memory lane and look at three of the best examples of viral marketing campaigns from the past few years. There is a lot you can potentially learn from them, as they know exactly how to resonate with the target audience.
1. Old Spice Campaign "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like"
Old Spice remains the king of viral marketing with its humorous website development service and offbeat advertising campaigns. It launched its brand character, the Old Spice Man, who appeared in the “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” campaign in 2010. Old Spice Man Isaiah Mustafa created quite a stir with his advertisement, which was created to appeal to the female audience and give a subtle message to men to buy Old Spice. The ad video garnered positive reviews and amazing YouTube views, garnering over 54 million views to date on YouTube.
Youtube video thumbnail
A few months after the ad was launched, advertising agency Wieden + Kennedy ran a series of over 200 short-form ads featuring Isaiah Mustafa, responding to comments and questions posted on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. The campaign resulted in an increase in Twitter followers of over 1,000 % , and over 600,000 people on Facebook liked the ads!
Visible Measures compared the “Old Spice Answers” to viral videos of the time, and the campaign was a clear winner.
popular viral videos of 2013
Key points
Wieden + Kennedy knew very well how to use social media to attract customers. As a business, you too can use social media platforms to attract customers interactively instead of using the same techniques that customers are already exposed to.
Procter & Gamble didn’t offer any discounts or ask shoppers to buy Old Spice, it simply gave a suggestion and managed to capture consumers’ attention through the ad. Shoppers might buy Old Spice body wash without realizing why they did so. The lesson is to be creative. Use the social media channel to build brand loyalty in a whole new way.
The marketing campaign was certainly creative, but the level of integration between various channels such as social media and TV was fantastic ! You can also approach the different marketing channels holistically and use the different platforms in the way that best suits them.
Within 24 hours, the Old Spice man responded to selected Tweets with YouTube videos. The principle of real-time response on Facebook and Twitter can also work for your business, to keep the conversation going.
By using personalization, you can gain the trust of your audience. Back then, people didn’t expect to get their questions answered on social media. This is where Old Spice’s campaign came in. Personalized YouTube videos in response to tweets wowed a global audience!
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