Viral Videos – Are they good for YOU?
Viral Videos - Is the Hype good for YOU?
Social media ROI is increasingly becoming a topic of interest to Marketing Directors. I recently published my own two cents here – “Social Media KPIs?“ and this post is something of a follow up spawned from the insights gained there, and from my ongoing work with Treepodia following the uses of Online Video for Ecommerce.
Interestingly the “buzz” surrounding online marketing videos, and people’s expectations of what video should be able to do for their businesses is rather narrowly focused on Viral Videos. There are even weekly updated “Greatest Hits” charts dedicated to following them
Viral Videos – The Hype
If you happen to have somehow missed out on the buzz, a word of explanation is in order… Viral Videos are marketing and advertising clips with amusing, shocking, sexy, or silly content that spread virally from one viewer to the next via social sharing (email, Facebook, Twitter, etc.).
The most successful Viral video campaigns have reached millions of online views, driving social media key performance indicators for the commissioning companies through the roof.
It’s important to consider that silly, shocking and sexy don’t necessarily fit every business. The most popular videos on Youtube are mostly of cats and dogs doing crazy crap – very cute but sell nothing…
Are Viral Videos Right For YOU?
Some times it seems like so much attention is given by businesses to the details of creating a viral video, that little or no thought is given to the important things:
Advertising campaigns aren’t a goal unto themselves. They’re a means to an end.
A bazillion hits on Youtube are great only if you can use them to boost SALES
What will make a successful viral video is nearly impossible to predict. I only dare say it seems anything with a puppy, kitten or baby in it has a better chance of making it…
Most of the companies lucky enough to have created a video that “went viral” were one-shot-wonders and never recreated their success.
An SME doesn’t need millions of Youtube views, and if successful, is probably ill equipped to deal with the publicity Tsunami that follows.
OK so no Viral Video – What should we do instead?
What your business needs is to reach targeted audiences and achieve sales conversions in a measurable and consistent fashion. The ability to then recreate this process is infinitely more precious than any singular publicity burst.
For the VAST majority of cases businesses eventually discover time, effort and monies wasted on viral video attempts would have yielded a safer, more predictable, and considerably more LUCRATIVE return on investment, had they been allocated to enhancing the websites shopping catalog with product videos.
Conclusion:
I’m not opposed to occasional creative risk taking.
If you’ve got a great passion to make an easy-to-produce video you feel will be the next big hit and will make you rich overnight in the process – By all means give it a shot, it’ll be worthwhile even if only for the sake of pursuing your dream, but always remember:
Getting a video to go viral is like winning the lottery.
Have you won many lotteries lately?
You might also want to do yourself a favor and not focus ALL your business’ online marketing budget in this project. The data proving the marketing benefits and positive effect simple product videos will have on your bottom-line is readily available online.
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Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/4yas/3492450507
Category: Ecommerce, Video Marketing
