Even if it’s made to be viral, it’s not viral until it goes viral.
February 23rd, 2007
It will never cease to amaze me what videos get picked up and go viral and what doesn’t. I’m not a viral expert, but I don’t think that there is any magic bullet for creating a viral video. For example, VeeDub’s post last Friday. It’s been picked up and is doing the worldwide blog tour. Did I think it would? Not really. But it’s getting a lot of attention.
And then I received an email from a PR firm last week about Nokia’s new effort, which they already called a “viral video” in the email. (Side note, the boys and girls at the PR firm did a nice job of communicating their objectives for contacting us in a very transparent way – kudos.)
But even if it’s made to be viral, it’s not viral until it goes viral. Got it?
I’m sure the guys at CoBrandit can weigh in on this one. They know more about this kind of thing than I do.
Other posts by Spike.
Christy says:
We had the term “maximum virality” thrown at us in a presentation from a vendor. They showed us some charts that attempted to look scientific…
“Viral” pieces are very much like Discordianism: Once you call them “viral,” they lose their impact.
Your last few posts have been spot-on, hitting nerves with me almost every day. Nice work!
February 23rd, 2007 at 1:50 pmSpike says:
Maximum virality. Classic. I’ll have to remember that one.
Thanks for the kind words and joining the conversation, Christy.
February 23rd, 2007 at 2:44 pmJake McKee says:
This reminds me of the marketing group on The Simpsons when they were creating Poochie… one of the marketing execs stated: “I feel we should rastafy him by … ten percent or so.”
February 23rd, 2007 at 8:45 pmLee says:
It would of course help Nokia’s case if the product links in the bottom right of that site actually led anywhere
I just get a 404: “The page or file could not be found. The address or link may be invalid or outdated.”
February 24th, 2007 at 3:11 amaspac-law.com blog » Blog Archive » Viral Marketing 101 says:
[...] Brains on Fire writes that it’s not really viral until it goes viral. True. [...]
February 24th, 2007 at 5:25 amLonelyBloggers says:
The term “viral video” is not properly used appropriately in all cases, especially as you mentioned when the video in question is not being passed around…
I see sites like youtube.com being more of a distribution channel for your branded content, over just the viral aspects of it.
February 24th, 2007 at 6:06 pmowen says:
i think concepts of viral are a bit outdated. how many views is required to be “viral”? in this particular example (nokia) maybe they don’t need 2 gazillion views to meet their objectives…whatever they are. do they want dance lovers to know nokia makes a phone for..dancing? or human beatboxing? (is that a word?) i still don’t know what this phone is about. music, i guess? there are some pretty nice features to the site, though it seems a bit overproduced to me. the two characters are real–with links to thier personal sites and myspace pages. that’s cool. i like the map, and the little chart showing that the beatbox guy (dj effex) is ahead. so kudos to nokia for supporting real stuff. however, the video of pjotro on russian TV is the one that should be going viral. holy s**t!
February 25th, 2007 at 7:38 pmhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIkoiihxj5s
Vince Cardillo - Web Developer, Designer and Enthusiast says:
[...] There’s also this nifty flash game on Fox’s site official site, whose URL just happens to be http://www.foxinternational.com/28weekslater/viral/. Huh, that’s funny. Huh, that’s funny. I’m reminded of a post from the Brains on Fire blog which asserts that “it’s not viral until it goes viral.” I’d agree with that. And I think that URL is pretty goofy, actually. Why not /game? (Oh and P.S., if you play through the simple game, you get a very worthwhile extra and extended clip of the movie). [...]
May 9th, 2007 at 3:43 pm