There are times when suddenly a video or meme makes you gaze in awe and you’re left with your jaw dropped! The very next thing you do is – quickly forward it to your folks to knock them down with feather.
It keeps spreading and this is how things go viral.
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Viral marketing is believed to be one of the most powerful ways to make a business stand out from the crowd. Businesses are experimenting every now and then, from funny to thrilling and from bitter to horror, to come up with something new and innovative that audience would love and share with each other.
So, here’s the burning question of all time – Is there any one key for successful marketing? Well, what I’ve experienced and observed till now is that if one thing works for you, then it might or might not work for someone else. In other words, if going viral for a restaurant means to offer free burgers, then this might not work for a business of selling deodorants.
While I was looking out for ways to create a buzz in the market, I found some interesting advertising stunts done by renowned businesses from around the globe. Let’s take a look over them to know how and why they left a mark, plus, what we can learn from them? Here we go!
Advertize in the real world
When talking about bringing a business marketing to the realm of the practical world, it becomes hard not to mention the famous and super hilarious American television network TNT’s “Push to add drama” button campaign. What they did was that they installed a drama button somewhere on a quiet Belgium street. Whosoever pushed that button was given an intense dramatic surprize.
The campaign received tremendous applause because people could see themselves reacting to those situations. Even if you watch the video now, which has over 53 million views till date, I guarantee you’ll never be tired of it.
Later, the television network also made a sequel to this video with the title “A dramatic surprise on an ice cold day” in Netherlands which had over 15 million views at the time I was writing this post.
Steal This:
Give your audience something real to experience and they’ll never let you slip from their memory.
Let your audience star in your campaign
It was a simple idea, yet made a groundbreaking success. By simply uploading the pictures of their own, folks or loved ones, users could watch them dancing as Christmas elves. Easy and funny, isn’t it! At the time when it was launched in the year 2006, the idea of such an interactive e-card was a bit less popular but completely awesome. Six years and over half a billion shares later, it almost became a Christmas cult for the people.
On a similar note, Burger King, launched a campaign with the tagline – “Chicken the way you like it”. A website was created where users were able to create a man with a chicken suit and could make him dance and perform other funny moves. It was easy yet so interactive. The campaign remained remarkably popular for almost 4 years, i.e. from 2004 to 2007.
Steal This:
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Create opportunities for your viewers to star in your marketing campaign
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Create an annual tradition (that gets better every year!).
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Make it wicked, easy to participate, and just as easy to “share.”
Leverage the power of social media
Do you know early in the year 2007, Barack Obama was a name with less than 10% of brand recognition – the name of this one term senator was often considered to sound funny. However, within a short span of eighteen months, he landed to the title of 44th president of the U.S.A. How did he get there?
It was because rather than following the cow’s path, like his competitors, he took advantage of the social media channels by reaching out to people through Facebook and Youtube. In fact, he was the first U.S. president to have social media presence, with more than 2.5 million Facebook followers and over 20 million views on Youtube.
He broke down traditional barriers with in-action photographs, videos, and issue-oriented calls-to-action upon its visitors daily — and ultimately, rode that online popularity all the way to the White House.
Steal This:
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If the freakin’ president of the USA can be a past master at social media, then why can’t you.
Mystery grabs attention
Mystery generates curiosity! Based on this concept was the Blair Witch Project – a horror movie relating to the story of three students who disappeared while hiking through the Black Hills near Maryland making a documentary of a local legend known as Blair Witch. To the viewers, it was showcased that these students were not heard again. In a consequential debate over its authenticity, the movie looted tremendous popularity.
Also, there’s this another scary movie, Cloverfield, where mystery was created through its untitled trailers. This fueled the media speculation about the film’s plot and led to a huge hype, ultimately driving colossal traffic to its website as viewers were seeking more information about it.
Steal This:
Add a mystery factor to your marketing campaign, users will certainly get curious.
Now think for a second. With such simple yet unique efforts these businesses exploded their message to hundreds, to thousands, to millions and so on… Same can happen to your business if you can offer something extraordinary to your audience.
