Creating a viral video is today's marketing gold rush. Companies everywhere are trying to create something that will get millions of views online and make them the cool kids on the block. As a responsible video production company, we want to provide our clients with all the information possible for making their project a success.
In an interview with Mashable, partners from Seedwell, a creative video agency, discuss what viral videos typically have in common. They talk about how one of the problems in discussing viral videos is that there is no general consensus as to what a viral video is. Is it a threshold of views or is it how many shares occured with in a certain time frame?
Seedwell goes on to define a viral video as "an impressive performance of views, sharing and growth curve relative to the top 5% of the class (10,000+ views, 1,000+ shares in 24 hours)." From that, they've found that most viral videos have some things in common: theme, structure, and tastemakers. From the article:
Theme: Most “viral videos” fit into one of three thematic categories: 1) parody of something popular and timely, 2) cute as hell, and 3) did that just happen? (It usually didn’t.)
Structure: There’s a compelling case for a progression that starts by surprising the viewer, avoids interjecting much advertising, and takes the viewer on an emotional roller coaster. Viewers’ screen time may be going up, but attention span appears to be going down, which means that the video needs to repeatedly earn the viewer throughout its duration.
Tastemakers: Almost all viral videos get their legs after being discovered by tastemakers and digital influencers. These are celebrities with built-in audiences the size of cable channels. Kevin Alloca gives a good TED talk on the subject, and the Kony 2012 video was perhaps the best example of engineering it to date.
The entire interview is a worthwhile read. There is not a formula for creating a viral video. The trick is in creating a strong emotion or reaction with a viewer that compells them to share.