Viral Video Brand Marketing – What Makes It So Effective?

Lately the marketing campaign trends have shifted from posters, slogans and TV adverts to brand videos that are basically posted on social media. The reason for this shift is obvious. People spend a lot of time on social media, on their phones and tablets all day. I mean seriously, when was the last time a millennial read a newspaper? Everything is online now. Even television is slowly becoming obsolete. Why pay for cable when you can stream movies and TV shows online for free? And that too, without the annoying commercial breaks!

But let’s get back to the effectiveness of branding through video marketing. For obvious reasons I do not want to argue against the effectiveness of these videos. But if we want to use them to our benefit, it really helps to understand what makes them so effective. First off, the video will only be effective if it goes viral. But what makes these videos so effective in advertising? Let’s find out!                                                                                              

1. TV Commercial Vs. Viral Marketing Video

The difference between a TV commercial and a brand marketing video is that the latter is usually longer in duration, extending up to 3 to 4 minutes. These videos often tell a story, have a theme and sometimes use their brand name and products to provide solutions or create awareness about a popular social cause.

TV commercials on the other hand are made purely with the agenda of promoting the product and making it look good no matter how fake the premise may be. They also have slogans that make claims that sound great, (like “instant whiteness”) but aren’t necessarily true. So when you set out to make a video, make it with the agenda of entertaining your audience instead of blatant, obvious brand promoting. 

2. Public Reach

There are over 6.88 billion cell phones¹ in use in the world today. That means at any given time, 6.88 billion people have potential access to material on the internet. Furthermore, a study published on plos.org shows that the average young adult spends approximately one third of his waking life in front of a screen. This may not be the best news for the health of our youth but the point is that people spend a lot of time on their phones, laptops and tablets.

This is makes marketing on the internet a great pathway for brands to advertise and make their presence known. Being able to access 6.88 billion people with the click of a button is something short of a miracle. Still wondering why brands are using viral videos for marketing? It’s a bit of a no-brainer. 

3. Views and Shares

With online branded videos, not only are you able to reach a huge demographic but you can also effortlessly rely on a lot of viewers to share and re-post your videos, thus reaching more people each time your video is viewed.

Furthermore, now-a-day with social media, especially Facebook, even if a viewer doesn’t share the video, it shows up on his/her feed which makes it visible to everyone on the viewer’s friend-list. Talk about minimal effort!

4. Content – The Message

It isn’t just the medium that is working wonders for video marketing. It also has a lot to do with the content and theme of the videos. As mentioned earlier, the content in these videos is a lot better planned than say, a TV commercial.

In marketing video production there is almost always a theme that is followed across all videos that the brand makes. For example, when you think Red Bull, you automatically think extreme sports, but not everyone who drinks Red Bull is into extreme sports. Or, when you think Coca Cola, you think friendship. The brand itself gets associated that particular idea.

Furthermore, the trend today is to tackle a social issue or support a cause in these videos which really seems to be working great on social media.

For instance, the video marketing team at Proctor & Gamble (a company that makes feminine hygiene products and cosmetics among other things) has been making adverts dealing with the theme “woman empowerment” for years. Their latest video “Like a Girl” went viral because it spread a very strong message how women should be revered for their strength and beauty instead of being viewed as weak and powerless. The video deals with the connotation of the phrase “like a girl” and deals with how the phrase is used as an insult. The video has over 62.1 million views on YouTube today.

In all honesty, brands like Coca Cola, Red Bull, Samsung, Apple, etc. are popular enough without advertising mainly because they have been around for a while and have built a name for themselves. But for new up-and-coming brands it is worth considering and investing in a viral video marketing strategy for the soul reason that you have easy access to a very large audience.

Looking for an innovative video production company? You have come to the right place!

Resources: 

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_mobile_phones_in_use

Dr. Kavita Chordia

Last updated: October 4, 2024

Dr. Kavita Chordiya experience covers almost 10 years of teaching. She holds the variety of other crucial positions like Chairperson for Labour Laws, Member of the Syllabus Review Committee of SPPU, Paper Setter, Moderator, Examiner, Ph.D Guide, BSE Resource Person. She is Author of many books in the field of Management.