Fake Viral Videos Trend

Viral videos are great marketing tools; however, they're also the product of a number of other great marketing techniques.Without the right combination of magic ingredients, your video is likely to remain resiliently unviral. So, what are the secrets behind successful viral marketing campaigns, and how can you harness them to your advantage?

First, you need to understand why videos go viral in the first place. You could spend hours watching talking cat skits on YouTube—or you could break it all down into constituent parts, like this:

1. From a scientific perspective, viral videos induce excitement in the viewer. They may be short, but they're physiologically compelling.
2. People appreciate the experience, so they share the video with others.
3. The effect spreads exponentially as more and more people experience the video and share it with other people.

How do you guarantee creation of a compelling video? You can't. You can, however, improve your chances by examining point one.

According to Professor Jonah Berger of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, people want to share feelings, not facts or practical ideas. Berger discovered this fact during a "most-read" article analysis, in which he examined the 7,500 most-emailed New York Times articles in 2008 and 2009. Interestingly, Berger incorrectly assumed that the most informative articles would be the most shared.

Why do emotions win over information? Berger asserts that the phenomenon is connected to the innate human desire to bond—and sharing emotion-filled content is an effective way to do this. When a person shares a stimulating article or video with another person, he or she shares an emotional experience, fostering a connection.

New York University professor Daniel Stiepleman has integrated this theory into his class, "Intermediate Production: The Short Commercial." During the class, Stiepleman introduces video production students to viral marketing concepts and media-based emotional responses. Class members then create their own fake films based on the concepts learned in class. One film, "Milk and Honey," became a convincingly real viral video in October 2013.

The film aired on Comedy Central, and millions of viewers initially assumed it was part of a dairy marketing campaign. Its concept was simple: several elements, including the name of the young performance artist featured in the video, were entirely factual. Other elements were staged. Overall, the blend of real and fake made the film believable.

As a communications and media specialist, you can harness the same emotional concepts—and the real/fake video production technique—as you create films for clients. After all, branded advertising has become an integral part of marketing strategy—and viral videos help draw attention to products. Naturally, viral videos are just one element in the modern reinvention of advertising. On their own, they are compelling—but as part of a branded advertising campaign, they can generate enormous interest for all types of clients.

(Photo courtesy of Freedigitalphotos.com)