People can talk about a lot of stuff that affects the bottom line of a business, some more and some less. I believe there are four different topic areas that could and should be considered when trying to create more word of mouth for a brand:

1. The brand values – what the brand believes in and stands for.
2. The offer – the actual product or service offered.
3. The customer care – how the customer is treated in contact with the company after the sale.
4. The advertising – what is portrayed in the brand’s communication.

I believe the first three of them are more important than the fourth. Advertising needs the other ones to be working on a longer term, but the other three can create word of mouth that leads to a prosperous business on a long term all on their own. That said, to create a really strong brand, it needs to help individuals or groups build identity. The brand needs to satisfy higher level needs, so it needs to stand for something, and the brand values should be part of the equation.

And as always, what needs to be achieved for all four is something that is “remarkable” – something worth making a remark about.

This is both brilliant and gross at the same time, with a very close connection to the movie’s theme.

Via Brandflakes for Breakfast.

BlendTec has had some tremendous successes with their viral clips on the theme Will it blend? Among them the iPad, the iPhone and (imitation) Diamonds.

Here is the BlendTec predecessor it seems. And really, this Machine Destroys everything!

This is really, really well made!

Very impressive execution! Very nice integration of other brands, which did it for free in exchange for the free attention.

Of course you can challenge a friend via Facebook or email, or share your results on Facebook or Twitter. Great concept and brilliant execution! According to Dagens Media, the site got 50 000 visitors last night, from all, over, the, world, and they spent on average 8 minutes on the site. The creative was made by Lowe Brindfors, production by B-Reel and sound & music by Plan 8.

Love it!

There are always some SuperBowl-commercials that go viral. This year, my personal favourite is Volkswagens “The Force” featuring a tiny Darth Vader who all of a sudden realizes his powers in front of a new Volkswagen Passat.

A lot of people, from several generations, have seen the Star Wars movies and some kind of memories from them. Everybody recognizes Darth Vader and the music. It is in our collective memories, which gives this clip a kind of a dry forest to start the fire in. The cuteness and the humorous twist is probably the spark that sets it all on fire.

As a smart add-on, they have now also released an equally funny “The making of: The Force” featuring bloopers and deleted scenes.

Volkswagen seems to be on a roll when it comes to creating viral content. Their The Fun Theory (originally Rolighetsteorin, in Swedish) went viral late 2009 and the other recently launched SuperBowl clip, Black Beetle, have also gone viral.

Via: Laughing Squid.

All 2011 SuperBowl Commercials
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P.S. Dont forget to download “Viral Thinking – a “Viral Marketing Toolkit” – my ebook about how to maximize the potential for viral spread. D.S.

It is finally ready! Download by clicking the image or link below.

Viral Thinking – a “Viral Marketing Toolkit” is my ebook about how to maximize the potential for viral spread. Creating something that is viral is sometimes the goal, but it is not easy. In this ebook I have tried to cover the areas you can work with to improve the odds.

You could call it a “viral marketing toolkit”. However, just increasing the spread improves the ROI, even if it doesn’t go viral. So, my hope and belief is that it is helpful for anyone who works within marketing, PR or communications, whether online or offline.

I would like to thank the people who have generously helped me with feedback on this text and made it a lot better.

In alphabetical order: Valerio Franco (doublebblog.it), Anton Johansson (antonjohansson.com), Henrik Johansson (theviralcompany.com), Daniel Mencák (danielmencak.se), Patrick Möller (flavors.me/patrickmoeller), Cédric Rainotte (bwat.be), Niclas Strandh (digitalpr.se) Pere Tufet (tonterias.com) and Emmanuel Vivier (emmanuelvivier.com).

And of course, if you have feedback to give, do not hesitate to send me an email on kristofermencak[at]gmail[dot]com.

I hope you enjoy it!

And feel free to pass it on!

Not all companies can build their business on viral successes like the ones BlendTec has experienced with Will It Blend. Believing you can create something viral is pretty optimistic. However, I do believe there are tools you can use to make it more possible. I do think you can optimize for it, and that’s why I write posts like 12 viral content triggers, Some help with the viral loop and Network effects, game mechanics and stickiness.

But, something that might be even more important is how to use this thinking in the shift that is taking place today, where marketers have to fight for attention in a fragmented media landscape, on the user’s terms. Optimizing for spread becomes more and more important. I agree to what Niclas Strand writes in All marknadskommunikation är viral (in Swedish). Today, whether the goal is to create something viral or not, marketers need to understand a new way to work – and that is to participate and create content that is worthy of conversations. Content needs to involve and engage the consumers. And it must be easy to pass it on.

I believe “viral thinking” is important for any marketing efforts, in an online world as well as offline, through word of mouth. Creating and participating in conversations is fundamental for brands and businesses today. And that is why we need to optimize campaigns and use the same tools we use when trying to create something viral.

To illustrate why, let’s look at some numbers:

Say you manage to reach 100 000 people with a campaign that no one passes on.

What happens if the content actually makes people pass it on? Say someone who receives it passes it on to, on average 0.25 new people – that is, a basic reproductive number of 0.25. If this spread goes on, we multiply the previous number of people in the loop by the basic reproductive number, like so:

100 000 (first paid 100 000 people reached)
100 000 * 0.25 = 25 000
25 000 * 0.25 = 6 500
6 500 * 0.25 = 1 563
1563 * 0.25 = 391
391 * 0.25 = 98
98 * 0.25 = 24
24 * 0.25 = 6
6 * 0.25 = 1.5

As you can see, with every loop, the returns are decreasing. Adding it all up, we end up at 133 333 – a nice increase in effect by 33.3 %!

Performing the same calculation with a basic reproductive number of 0.5, with our example we would reach 200 000 – an extra 100 000. We get an increase in effect by 100 % – doubling the value of our money spent!

And, with a basic reproductive number of 0.75, we reach out to 400 000 people – an increase in effect by 300 %!

Yes, these numbers are hypothetical in the sense that there will be some saturation as the loop goes on.

And as Seth Godin writes:

The more people you reach the more likely it is that you’re reaching the wrong people.

So, there will be some saturation, you will reach some people who might not be interested (although I could argue that the ones who receive it from a friend might be even better targets), and it is not viral. But, looking at these numbers, the money is still much better spent!.That is why it is important to think about what can be done to incentivize people to pass the content on and make it really easy to do so, even if the result is not truly viral.

I noticed this video through Viral Friday. It is Google Mobile showing their new feature My Location. Usually, Google Mobile seems to get between 15 000 and 20 000 views on their videos, but they seem to have gotten something right with this one, since traffic is more than 10 times that.

So, what did they do right and what did they do wrong?
In a traditional sense, it seems they definitely broke some “rules”. The video is very long for being a viral – more than 10 minutes. And almost nothing happens in it. In retrospect however, maybe these “wrongs” turned into a right. You must admit there is a certain humor in it – it is kind of fun. But, it’s not hilarious in any way. Rather, it is a bit strange. Another thing is it is kind of a cliffhanger. Will something else ever happen? And finally, it can be used as a “revenge”. If you got fooled to watch it, you can get back. But, you can’t get back on the one who sent it to you, he/she already knows. Rather, you have to get back on someone else. So, you pass it on.

But, that is not all there is to it at all. What might have made this clip tip could be that it has some easter eggs in it. If you want to discover them yourself, stop reading now. Or, check them out below:

Click on:
The basketball at 0:42
The word “azzip” at 1:23 (yes, the clip is then played backwards)
The fire at 1:47
The weights at 3:29
The word “Florida” at 4:39
The horse at 5:49
The dinosaur at 6:36
Santa at 7:58
The toast at 9:06

Have you ever met an old friend, one you haven’t seen for a while, had a little chat, exchanged your new contact details and promised to meet up and catch up on all the latest? Have you also happily forgotten about it all for weeks until you remember that you actually met by accident and promised to catch up? Why didn’t you catch up? You did call your other, newer friends when you said you should, right?

It’s the power of presence, or in this case, the absence of it. The old friend you meet is simply not present in your mind often enough for you to remember that catch up-meeting. While your new friends are present all the time and you sure do remember to call them if you say you shall. They are top of mind.

If in the old golden era of advertising, top of mind meant advertising enough to be remembered when choosing between brands in the aisle of the supermarket, now it also means to be present in social media. Replying to questions, helping out, sorting out complaints and create a positive experience for both current and potential customers. Then your brand might be top of mind during that moment of truth in the aisle in the supermarket. Then you might even become the preferred choice.

That is the power of presence.

When talking about viral marketing, there is no question about it – content is king. To make videos, games or applications go truly viral, there is no substitute for great content.

However, even if you can have a pretty good idea, you can never know for sure how the content will be received by the audience. So, that’s one reason to do everything possible to optimize the campaign for viral spread. Besides this, there are two more reasons why you should try to optimize your campaign material, no matter what the quality of the content:

1. There is just too much other content out there to compete with, so there is a risk even good content will not be seen enough by the right people to make it go viral.
2. Once content has gotten attention, having it optimized maximizes spread and ROI.

Four questions
To maximize the possibilities for a campaign to go viral, I believe there are four important questions to ask yourself, evaluate the campaign and direct further actions and improvements. All questions are from the users perspective:

1. Why pay attention?
2. Why stay engaged?
3. Why act/interact?
4. Why not act/interact?

Finally, we also have to deal with the fact that there almost always are multiple audiences to a viral campaign. And, you may or may not want to appeal to them all.

Let’s go through each of the questions.

Question 1: Why pay attention?
Attention is the currency of the new media landscape, and to get rewarded with attention, you have to give something in return. That should be your content. But, millions of pieces of content are produced every day and users are only scanning it to decide what to pay attention to. To get their attention, you have to stand out among all other content when users are scanning. The “indicators of good content” have to be right. Otherwise you won’t get attention. Now, here are some bad and some good news – you can’t control all indicators of good content, but you control some of them. What you can’t control is often user-generated, like for example:

• Ratings
• Conversations
• Toplists
• Most viewed

On the positive side, to a certain extent, you can control:

• Features
• Titles
• Descriptions
• Images
• Tags

Once content is out there, it might get better or worse features, it might get new titles and new images. But, when launching the campaign, these should all be optimized.

Features
Features are something you usually have to buy, just like an ad. You can get features without paying, but then it is due to the content itself, when it’s being awarded video of the day or something similar. Paid features are the ones you can control. As always, more exposure, like for example through a feature, the more initial attention you will get, and this will increase possibilities of interaction with your content. Over time, more interaction equals greater possibility to get the content to spread.

Titles
The titles or seeding angles of a video or a game is also something that users scan to get an idea of what is hiding behind it. And, titles can sometimes be almost as important as the content itself. Titles, viral hooks or seeding angles should be appealing, connect to the content, be simple and memorable. Preferably, it should be intuitive, so that if you think of the content, and make a search on the words that come up in your mind, you should find the content. This makes it easy to find, to show to friends, and increases possibilities to be passed on.

Descriptions
While not as important as to create a catchy title, the description gives you yet another possibility to make it easy to find the content through search, and recognize it quickly when found. Descriptions should be accurate and filled with keywords you wish to rank high on.

Images
Images or thumbnails are usually scanned even before titles, and therefore, it is extremely important to optimize them to make it as appealing as possible to engage with the content. Images should be optimized in two ways:

• The first image, the thumbnail, should be optimized to get the user to want to engage with the content.
• The last frame, in for example a video, is often freezed on video sites, and should be optimized to increase potential of pass along.

Make it as appealing as possible, to first get the user to engage, and then at the end to keep the user thinking positively about the content. Using a black screen in the beginning and/or end of a video is the worst you can do. Sometimes video sites auto generate the thumbnail from the first frame and then you get a black thumbnail. Who wants to click on that?

Tags
Tags are also essential in making videos accessible through searches and increase exposure of the content. Tag the content with all relevant words that relate to the campaign material. If you have more than one video for example, tag them with the same words, as long as they are applicable to the video. This will increase potential for additional views of the content, as videos with similar tags will appear in “related videos” on most video sites.

Question 2: Why stay engaged?
With limited time, and the fight for attention, once the user choses to interact with content, you have to give something in return. Normally, a user decides if they will keep engaging with the content within 10 seconds. So, this is the time-frame you have to use as best as you can. Something interesting must happen, something that makes the user stay engaged. In tv-series and other fiction, a “cliffhanger” is often used to keep viewers interested in the next episode.

The same concept can be used in online content, to keep the users engaged. Build “cliffhangers” into the content right from the start. You can even use cliffhangers in the title.

For online games, long load times is a no-no. For videos, the first 10 seconds are essential. Give the users a first payment for investing their attention and time. In general, the shorter the content, the easier it is to keep the users engaged until the call to action. Unless they stay engaged to the end, they have no reason at all to pass it along. Shorter content is usually better.

Usability is also essential. If a user doesn’t understand how to engage with the content, they will stop trying.

Question 3: Why act/interact?
For content to be passed on, there has to be an expected positive experience for the receiver. This means content should be:

• Funny,
• Spectactular,
• Provocative, (but not too much)
• Unexpected,
• Relevant,
• Taboo (but not too much)
• Highly informative,
• Secret (but not too much)
• Controversial
• True? (is it true?)
• New

The one question to ask here is: If I received this clip, would I want pass it on, and if so, why? If you can’t come up with some clear reasons why a user should want to pass it on, they probably won’t either. If someone has deemed the experience worthwhile, there is a chance that they might want to share it. Being  first with the latest creates respect among peers, especially if the content is really good. Passing on information is part of what ties us together with our friends and family, and good content makes the cut. Someone passing good content to their friends will gain in esteem, which is the ultimate reason for viral spread.

But, this will only take place it it is reasonably easy to do so. Which takes us to question number four.

Question 4: Why not act/interact?
The reasons for not interacting with content can be many. Top of the list is of course when there is no real incentive to pass it on – basically, the content isn’t interesting enough and the expected value to the receiver isn’t high enough. We already covered that.

But, even if content is good, there are still many reasons why you might chose to not pass it along. These have to be addressed to maximize the possibilities that a campaign goes viral:

• Is it too commercial relative to the quality of the content? Specifically, think of:
  • logos,
  • urls,
  • the content itself.
• Is there too high an effort to pass it on?
  • Long urls that break
  • Deep-links not possible
• Is there a non user-friendly process?
• Is it too hard to understand?
• Is too much information required to pass it on? Generally, personal info, like:
  • Name
  • Year of birth
  • Phone number
  • City of residence
  • Zip codes
• Are all options to pass it on available and easily accessible?
  • Embed
  • Post to Facebook, twitter etc.
  • Link
  • Download
  • Send to friend

In general, is the effort or investment needed to pass it on bigger than the pay-off? If so, the material has to be re-worked in terms of quality of content, ease of spread, or possibly both.

Multiple audiences
Something to really think about when it comes to launching campaigns on the Internet is that they almost always have multiple audiences. There is of course the target audience of the campaign, often a regular user, who passes good content on. But, there are also the webmasters, bloggers and other power users that can act as “gatekeepers” to the content, often boosting the number of views if they accept the content. These work as springboards and are extremely important to create a successful campaign. Of course, they have to be taken into account when creating campaign material. Some issues they think about are:

The content:

• Quality of the content.
• Technical set-up, like:
  • Plug-ins needed?
  • Software upgrades needed?
  • Java needed?
• Size of game/video in pixels
  • 400-500 pixels maximum width – preferably sizeable
• Difficult to embed games on site?
  • Embed code available?

The user:

• Load times – too long?
• Language of content – does he/she understand?

In general, go for the smallest denominator. The less that is required, the better. Try to make the material flexible, easy to integrate on sites and easy to spread. If a webmaster doesn’t understand the content, either because it is not good enough, it’s too complicated to use or integrate, or language is too complicated, you will loose out on a lot of potential users.

(Yes, this is actually a two year old post I made on my old blog, slightly updated to be more accurate today. Things change fast on the Internet!)