Creating (and claiming !) a viral video is the graal for any web agency in the place. However, this product is more complex than it seems. For customers and big companies, it seems like the viral video is a magic object, easy to make by those geeks working (and apparently living) in agencies, and even more easily shared by internet users. On the contrary, viral videos are a very professional product which must contains some key ingredients…
Many panels at SXSW 2012 discussed this issue, and the Harvard Business Review did publish an interesting study about it this month. Prerna Gupta, CEO and founder of Khush, the start-up who made Songify and Ladida, two music apps, explained a large audience what were her key ingredients. The starting point is easy : it’s very hard to be famous in an over-crowded Appstore. With her vids, Prerna was able to gather more than 180M viewers, which in turn converted into 11M buyers of its apps.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiBVTzQdsUE]
Where to start with ? Here’s Prerna’s « viral blocks » one have to think about to make it popular.
- Surprise : to catch the attention of the audience from start
- Music : to have a background link that will help viewers to keep watching the video and not just quit it after 10seconds as 25% of them do
- Cuteness : yes, everybody loves kittens, babies and smiles. this will make your vid not an American one, but a potential global success
- Big boobs : you don’t really need an explanation. Just remember it attracts the glance of guys and girls indifferently
- Humor : to soften your audience and make it more receptive to your message
- Celebrities : depending on your network, will make your vid grow in fan communities
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN5PoW7_kdA]
In my opinion, Prerna misses two important points in her presentation :
- First, her videos took advantage of existing buzzs, such as the Annoying Orange or the singing husky dog. Virality here is built on a previous success, and could be described as a product placement.
- Second, Khush apps have this « magic in the product » that really helps them be viral. You can’t think of the same virality for the finance industry, say.
Stay tuned for a second and more technical post about SXSW viral videos !
Martin Pasquier