Its the Holy Grail of marketing: a low-budget video promoting a brand gets picked up and goes viral. Buying ad space is unneccesary users upload and share the content themselves, spreading the video across the globe. Maximum exposure, minimum investment.
Or is it? According to research by Harvard Business School, digital content marketers face four main challenges when it comes to viral ads:
1. Prominent branding is a turn-OFF:
2. People get bored right away: such are the laws of the internet. If it isnt interesting, viewers leave.
3. People get bored after a while:
4. People like, but wont share: even though people may enjoy viewing an ad, they do not automatically feel the need to share it. The study shows that whether an ad is shared depends on the personality type of the viewer (extrovert and egocentric people are more likely to share ads, to show their connectedness and maintain their social status). Advertisers should adopt a consumer-centric attitude, asking themselves how a video might serve a viewer, rather than just how it best presents the brand.
Of course, a stroke of luck is always involved in viral videos and thats the fun thing about them. You never know whats going to catch on and what isnt. So with the science in mind, creativity is still the most important characteristic of a good viral ad.
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