Andy Sernovitz interviews Ze Frank about viral

It’s not really new, but I figured it’s worth posting anyway.

Andy Sernovitz, Ze Frank, and Viral Video

I think he touches on a number of things that are important to remember.

“… it has to do with exponential growth… “

Which means that big numbers are really not enough to call it “viral”. Big numbers can come through bought media or just over time. To be truly viral, it has to have a basic reproductive rate above one. Only then do we se exponential growth. And only then is it a true viral.

“… viral is not even a tool, viral just, you know, defines a particular way that traffic builds… “

This touches upon something that I have talked about before, that something that goes viral is really just the end product of a good idea and a well thought through campaign set-up to maximize potential for spread. No one can be sure to “create” a viral campaign, and it shouldn’t really be sold as such. However, I do believe that we today know enough about what might trigger people to pass something on that we really can try to give them something worth talking about, and then give them as many different ways, make it as easy as possible to spread it.

“… if you do have something that does go viral, it’s really great to be able to understand that that’s happening and respond to it in a very, very particular way… “

This is something that might be something of a little gold mine. When companies create an ad that really is well received by the public and actually is passed around, they should monitor it and take action to use the momentum that is already created. Creating a campaign site, with all the content available in different formats. Additional seeding could also be in place. Why not even ride the wave even further and encourage spoofs of the ad, with a competition?