What Do These 4 Viral Marketing Campaigns Have In Common?

Viral marketing campaigns are a lot like constellations. Fun to look at, plenty to choose from and a good majority of them are completely overlooked. When you’re trying to make a piece of content go “viral,” there’s no proven formula for success. In fact, we’d venture to say that the only strategy with a decent track record is the one of “ditching the strategy completely.” Piggybacking on other viral campaigns won’t work — we’ve all seen them already. You won’t have any luck relying on stale ideas. What you can rely on to help, though, is a constant intake of new inspiration. To help, here are 4 of our favorite viral marketing campaigns. Let’s see if there’s anything they all have in common…

Dove: Real Beauty Sketches

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpaOjMXyJGk Unless you’ve been living under a rock (or somewhere else without access to Facebook), you’ve certainly seen the Dove Real Beauty sketches come across your feed. The brilliant, targeted marketing campaign was revealed with the intention of waking women up to the reality that yes, you’re probably much more beautiful than you give yourself credit for. It worked. This video made Dove’s Real Beauty a household name, and was shared millions of time on social media.

Poo-Pouri: Girls Don’t Poop

Call it raunchy, call it wildly inappropriate, one thing is not debatable: this video went VIRAL. Similar to the hit DollarShaveClub ad, Poo-Pouri’s Girls Don’t Poop campaign took the internet for a storm, creating conversation (and debate) and, ultimately, giving the tiny product an incredible amount of brand awareness. The question of bathroom etiquette, though, remains completely up in the air. (Get it?)

Always: #LikeAGirl

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjJQBjWYDTs&t=18s It stinks to be undermined. It’s fundamentally annoying to be made to feel like you’re incapable of doing the one thing you set out to do. Always’ took their chance to fight stereotypes with their viral marketing campaign #LikeAGirl, which asked adults and children alike to act out what it means to throw, run, or fight like a girl. The adults were silly. The children, however, threw, ran and fought exactly the way you’d expect them to: like a human being. The campaign was wildly popular. The social media shares alone were enormous, and it engaged the public in a much-needed conversation about the way we socialize our daughters to perceive themselves.

Android: Friends Furever

The most shared ad of all time, Android’s Friends Furever campaign capitalized on the one thing the internet loves more than all else: cute animals. Set to the Robin Hood classic “Oo-De-Lally,” the video explores the theme of animal friendships to promote Android’s theme of “Be together, not the same.” With over 6.4 million shares, we’d say it did a pretty good job. Noticing any similarities?

These viral marketing campaigns all have one thing in common: They’re all videos.

According to Unruly, enjoyment of ads increases purchase intent by 97 percent. And while ad options on the internet are increasing daily, from native ads to banner ads to everything in between, you can be sure that nothing tops video. There just isn’t a form of content that compares to video anymore. Every other format pales in comparison in terms of engagement and shareability. So, what’s your video marketing strategy? Do you have one? Wherever you are in your process, we’d love to help. Check out some of our other blog posts to get started:

• 6 Key 2017 Video Marketing Trends
• 6 Sales Funnel Stages (And How Video Amplifies Them!)
• Millennials And Video Marketing: How To Connect With Generation Y