In August in the context of a video of Tiger Woods, I put together a list of things that help a video “go viral,” or get passed along through multiple groups of people online. This list included:
- it has to be compelling (this might be oddly funny i.e. NUMA NUMA, timely i.e Paris Hilton’s response to John McCain, heart-warming like the late Randy Pausch’s last lecture, or just oddly compelling like the Daft Punk girl)
- a story arc – albeit short – not all videos have them but it can help
- something people can identify with
- safe for work – most people view online video at work, don’t make them feel like they’re going to be fired for watching
- a core audience – who is going to start the video moving? There has to be some core group that cares about the content, then it can move beyond them
Want to see another video that does that?
Wow. Extremely Well done by the original cast of the “Whassup” ads and videos from 10 years ago. Thanks to BoingBoing for posting this. Take a look at the list above that I posted about why the Tiger Woods video and others worked. This video has them all.
If 2000 was the first election where online campaigning got going with MeetUps, and 2004 was the first election where both sides really embraced online tools, 2008 is where video came into its own in online campaigns.
The power now is clear. It’s not the campaigns that innovate, it’s those that care about the issues.
Filed under: marketing, public relations Tagged: | boingboing, campaign viral videos, social media in politics, whassup, whassup 8 years later
