Have you heard of the Ice Bucket Challenge? The Pineapple Pen song? Fidget spinners? The blue and black dress?
These are all things that have gone viral in recent years. Virality is a pretty recent phenomenon, amplified by the power of social media. All it takes is for a chain of shares to grow exponentially, and a piece of content can reach thousands to millions of people within a short amount of time.
But the above examples seem to be purely for entertainment. So how can businesses and brands harness virality for a more targeted, promotional purpose?
What is viral marketing?
Viral marketing is when a brand’s content or ads catch the attention of their target audience so well that they feel compelled to share it with others.
A campaign is usually deemed to have reached viral status when it is being shared by the public at large, if it gets mentioned or covered in the news, or if it reaches a global audience.
The goal of the best viral marketing campaigns is to have thebrand’s messageor content become such a trending topic that your brand awareness reaches exponential growth. As viral campaigns are organic, this is one of the most cost-effective ways for a business to reach new audiences and generate potential leads.
But take note: there are two sides to the viral marketing coin.
Once a campaign goes viral, your brand loses control of how people perceive or interact with your message. This means that things can also "go viral" in a negative way, and just as viral marketing can amplify awareness, it can also amplify backlash.
What are some successful viral advertising and viral marketing campaign examples?
While there are many international campaign examples – like the ones byIHOPandOld Spice– here are some viral social media campaigns and viral content examples from Singapore to inspire your own.
Singapore Be Steady! by Gov.sg
In 2020, the Singapore government released a couple of videos featuring one of the country’s most beloved icons, Phua Chu Kang (PCK). In rap format, PCK educates viewers on what they should and should not do to stay safe from COVID-19. To date, themusic videohas been viewed over 1.4 million times, and theinformational videohas been viewed over 721,000 times on YouTube.
A huge reason for its virality is that the videos bore a striking similarity to a previous campaign done during the SARS epidemic in 2003, also featuring PCK humorously scolding the audience into social responsibility. The throwback nature of the campaign struck a nostalgic chord with its audience, amplifying its reach and message.
Ramadan by McDonald’s Singapore
AMcDonald’s Singapore ad went viralfor its intimate and touching depiction of a day in the life of a McDonald’s delivery driver during Ramadan. The ad was shared internationally, reaching even viewers in America, and was picked up in an article by Buzzfeed. The video has since been viewed over 1.2 million times on YouTube.
#3DollarBaller Circles.Life
This example is pretty unique because it was a combined digital and out-of-home (OOH) effort. The telco Circles.Life launched a viral campaign in 2018 called #3DollarBaller, which saw ‘vending machines’ dispensing S$50 bills in exchange for S$3 – basically, they were giving away free money.
The vending machines were placed in strategic locations along Singapore’s main shopping strip and CBD area for maximum foot traffic, and crowds got so big that thepolice had to shut the event down.
How to run a viral marketing campaign for your brand
Viral marketing is high risk, high reward. The truth is, you can never guarantee that a campaign will go viral, but you can optimize it for the best possible chance. Here are three things you can do, based on our analysis of how and why other viral campaigns have worked.
Be timely
The internet is a fast-moving place, and trends come and go in the blink of an eye. The audience is constantly on the lookout for the next meme, topic, or trend.
That’s why successful viral campaigns tend to happen quickly in reaction to current events to achieve that first-mover advantage. Repeating old trends or exhausting existing ones are doomed to failure – can you imagine a brand putting out a campaign today that still references Baby Yoda or the “Woman Yelling at Cat” meme?
When a scandal broke on the morning of 20 June 2018 aboutInstagram-famous photographer Daryl Aiden Low’s plagiarismof buying stock photos and passing them off as his own, Scoot released a parody post on their Facebook page that very afternoon. Their impressively short response time resulted in the post receiving record levels of engagement and shares. If they had done it much later, after everyone else had put out their responses, the audience reaction might not have been as huge.
Be authentic
The thing about viral campaigns is that they’re all organic. That means you need to rely on people to want to share your content.
And one of the best ways to do that is to elicit a laugh, spark a constructive conversation, or create an emotional connection with them.
It’s also important to be culturally relevant – putting out content like Singapore’s PCK social distancing video wouldn’t resonate as strongly with audiences outside of Singapore. On the other hand, McDonald’s viral Ramadan ad was able to go international because it was culturally relevant to Muslim audiences in other countries.
The McDonald's ad was also undoubtedly authentic to their brand – the company's message has been the same for years: that food is about bringing people together and sharing happiness. Think Chinese New Year reunion dinner ads, ads featuring nostalgic Sunday Happy Meals with parents and grandparents, and football season ads with promo sharing boxes.
Be socially conscious
Running a successful viral marketing campaign is about treading the fine line between ‘yay!’ and ‘yuck!’. Keeping a viral campaign tactful can be tricky because what is deemed appropriate can vary based on times and taste.
For example, homeware brand IUIGA thought it would be a good idea to name a line of products after Inuka the polar bear after it passed away in 2018 as a tribute. Unfortunately, the audience saw the campaign as tone-deaf, and a blatant capitalization of a tragic event to boost sales, and IUIGA ended upreceiving serious flak for it.
The brand later came out to say that it would be donating all proceeds from sales of the Inuka series to Polar Bears International, a nonprofit that advocates conservation for the polar bear’s natural habitat. Unfortunately, the damage had already been done.
FAQs about viral marketing
What is viral marketing?
Viral marketing is always organic, making it one of the mostcost-efficient ways to promote your brandand get people talking about your business.
How can viral marketing benefit a brand?
However, viral marketing can also backfire if not done correctly. Culturally insensitive or inappropriate content can go viral for the wrong reasons and cause damage to your brand reputation.
And remember that there is no guarantee that something will go viral, so spending a big budget on a campaign and banking on it to go viral is very much a high-risk (and unadvisable) strategy.
What makes a viral marketing campaign successful?
How can I create a successful viral marketing campaign?
Each market can have nuanced but significant differences that need to be accounted for – what may be a positive experience for some may be a negative experience for others based solely on their socioeconomic environment.
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