Top Viral Videos

After my previous post on the tasteless Viral campaign by Extended Stay hotels, I would like to present you with some of the most compelling and successful viral campaigns. Some were so by design and some completely by accident.

AzA Creations has created a checklist for eMarketers embarking on a viral campaign, and mention the following items to look out for:

• Identify the main benefit to the user
• Will viewers actually look at it and pass it along?
• Does it have ego factor and make me look good to my peers?
• It is easy to pass on?
• Is there a clear benefit I can easily understand and explain to others?
• What objections could the user have and how have they been answered?
• Could sending this somehow make me look bad?
• Is the marketing message clear?
• Is the call to action clear?

Ok, so here is the list of viral ad campaigns:

QuickSilver Dynamite Surfer
In which surfers supposedly throw dynamite into the Thames river to cause a burst of surf-worthy waves. Notice several user comments are still questioning whether this video is "for real"?! The video was viewed over 750,000 times

Test Your Awareness
Over 4,000,000 views in a campaign to increase driver awareness of ciclists on the road.

Cadbury's Gorilla
With over 2.5 million views, this simple advertisement spread like a firestorm thanks to the web.

Big Ad
Carlton Draught Big Ad was created by Young & Rubicam and employed viral marketing before release to television. The link here is for one of the over 50 instances of "Big Ad" just on YouTube alone.

Berlitz - What are you zinking about?
A short and succinct ad that clearly promotes to action anyone who seeks to improve their language skills. Developed by BTS United Oslo the response to the ad was so large that Berlitz ended shutting down their site.

Diet Coke & Mentos by EEPYbird.com
Remember I mentioned some viral successes are accidental? Go figure what happens when you put a plain old...Mentos into a bottle of Coke! Experiment #1 by Eepybird was a video showing two men dressed in lab coats conducting an "experiment" witht the above mentioned ingredients. Tens of millions of viewers around the world have viewed the over 150 EEPYbird experiments. Both companies have taken advantage of the popularity of the videos (do a search in YouTube on "Mentos" and "Coke" and see how many knock off videos you will find...)

Dove Evolution
In this campaign, by Ogilvy & Mather, a normal woman is transformed into a billboard supermodel through makeup and photoshop. The viral video promoted a campaign for natural beauty and increased self esteem for young women.

An Finally: here is an example of a viral campaign gone wrong:
http://www.boston.com/news/specials/local/cartoon_devices/