How These 5 Brands Made Their Content Go Viral

Viral content is the proverbial “pot of gold,” coveted by every brand engaged in online marketing. “Viral content” is a bit of a buzzword, so what does it mean, exactly? There’s no firm definition, but it refers to any piece of content that’s generated enough visibility and momentum to be shared from person to person, as if spread like a virus, to enormous heights.

Let’s take a close look at some of the real examples of brands that have made the most of viral content. Take a look at these five brands, and how their content efforts ended up circulating virally:

1. Dove.

Dove’s Choose Beautiful campaign has garnered millions of views and shares. The central video focuses on real women, all over the world, who are forced to choose between walking through one of two doors—one says “average” and one says “beautiful.” How did it go viral? Well, first you have an emotionally resonant message—most women have faced a struggle of confidence over their physical appearance at some point in their lives, thanks in no small part to media-influenced cultural standards of beauty. Then, you have an original premise that provokes thought and stands out in the crowd. Finally, you have something approachable—it’s real women in these videos, and that makes the campaign participatory.

2. ALSA.

I can almost guarantee you remember ALSA’s “Ice Bucket Challenge” from a couple years ago. The campaign ended up inspiring millions of people to post videos of themselves dumping ice water on their heads in order to raise awareness and funding for ALS. Some individual videos garnered millions of views on their own. So how did this become so wildly popular? The big win here is the participation element; if you see a video, you’re called upon to take part in the campaign, and let’s face it, it was pretty fun to take part. That participatory element carried the campaign forward, and the emotional element—supporting an important cause—backed it up.

3. WWF.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) sponsored a SnapChat campaign known as “Last Selfie,” which featured images of endangered species of animals, decaying, as is the norm for temporary SnapChat “snaps.” Where’s the magic here? The emotional power of watching an endangered species literally fade away is unrivaled, and SnapChat was the perfect platform for it. The use of statistics helped ground the strategy, and at the risk of undermining the “big picture” point here, people always love pictures of cute animals.

4. Old Spice.

You probably remember Old Spice’s original “Questions” campaign too, even though it’s from 2010—yes, that’s right. 2010. Utilizing non-sequiturs and humor, the video’s racked up more than 25 million views overall. So what’s going on? This was a complete breath of fresh air in the advertising space. Nobody had done an ad like this before, and it spurred tons of imitators. The originality is resonant, and it fit perfectly with YouTube’s demographics. The video itself had a little bit of everything, and was hilarious to its target demographics (i.e., millennials), so it’s only natural that they wanted to share it with their friends.

5. Always.

Always broke onto the scene with its #LikeAGirl hashtag campaign, largely centered on Twitter , but featuring a YouTube video as a catalyst. The video highlights how people, especially young children, think differently of girls and women, such as the seemingly innocent colloquial phrase to “_______ like a girl.” This carries a level of emotional resonance on part with Dove’s beauty campaign, especially among women, and utilized both Twitter and YouTube to circulate its message, capitalizing on multiple audiences at once. The campaign also encouraged participation, through active use of the hashtag, and the kids in the video add in a bit of a “cute” factor, too.

Key Takeaways

These brands benefitted enormously from their respective campaigns, so how can you replicate this success on your own? Let’s glance at some of the key takeaways here:

• Evoke strong emotions. The first and most important takeaway is that your campaign needs a strong emotional element. Maybe it’s sympathy or pain, or maybe its outright humor—that’s up to you. As long as you connect to your audience in some strong way, you’ll be in a good spot.
• Choose your mediums carefully. Make your mediums work for you. The WWF’s SnapChat campaign is a perfect example. Also, don’t rule out the possibility of leveraging multiple mediums at once, the way Always did.
• Use statistics. Including statistics and hard numbers grounds your campaign, and gives people a sense that your message is well-researched.
• Be original. This should go without saying, but if you want your campaign to get any meaningful attention, it needs to stand out as something unique.
• It never hurts to go cute. Even if your subject matter is serious, it never hurts to throw something cute into the mix. Kids and animals are gold here.
• Encourage participation. Call your users to participate. The more engaged your viewers or readers are, the more likely they’ll be to share that material with their own circles of followers.

You’ll notice a few things conspicuously absent from this list. You don’t need a million-dollar budget. You don’t need a gimmick, like a massive giveaway. Instead, you can achieve most of these tenets with a basic setup and a solid foundational idea. Keep that in mind as you develop your content campaign and strive for a piece worthy of viral circulation. For more help, see The Ultimate System for Creating Viral Content.