Every week Advertising Age, in conjunction with company Visible Measures, publishes a list of the week’s top performing videos. The weekly chart highlights viral video ads that appear on online video sites. Each ad measures viewership of brand-syndicated video clips as well as social video placements that are driven by viewers around the world. (A measurement called True Reach™ quantifies the total audience that has been exposed to a viral video campaign. The measurement combines data from brand-driven seeded video placements with results from community-driven viral video placements – spoofs, parodies, mashups, and more.)
There are three key factors for viral video success:
-
Reaching the tastemakers.
-
Building a community of participation.
-
Creating unexpectedness in the video.
Regardless of the type of product or service, the country of origin, or the importance of the message, what matters is reaching the audience in a way the both entertains and informs.
Check out this week’s top videos and discuss what makes them “go viral.”
Group Activities and Discussion Questions:
-
Bring up Ad Age’s weekly Viral Video chart: http://www.visiblemeasures.com/adage
-
Have students examine how the ads are measured by Visible Measures.
-
Divide students into teams. Have each team select an ad on the top video chart and analyze the ad.
-
What is unusual?
-
Who will it interest?
-
What is the key message?
-
How effective is the ad at getting the company’s brand and message across to viewers?
-
In teams, have students design a viral video for a product of their choosing. What are the elements that are needed to go viral?
Source: Advertising Age, Visible Measures – weekly update
