Viral videos for marketing: A difficult balance

Many viral ads are fun, funny or clever, but few do a good job of really selling the product.

While taking a break after teaching a webinar from my home office, I was watching the top five viral videos that were mentioned in an e-newsletter I subscribe to from Marketing Vox.

When my wife, Andrea, came into my office to ask how the webinar went. She sat down and watched with me.

After watching the first one, Gorilla Drummer which was interesting and fun, Andrea said, “I don’t get what this has to do with the product.” The product, a chocolate bar, was only shown briefly at the end.

We both agreed that the second one, loosely promoting a alcoholic green tea beverage, was funny, but way too long.

The third one, sponsored by a leading manufacturer of sunglasses according to Marketing Vox, was interesting, but also never mentioned the brand, Ray-Ban™, directly. I’m guessing they thought that we all would recognize the sunglasses in the video as being their brand. The risk is that the audience of this viral video may be too young to recognized the iconic look of Ray-Bans.

I thought the fourth one from a blender manufacturer, Blendtec, was the most effective overall. It not only was provocative, making it a good candidate for going viral, it also clearly demonstrated the product in action and offered up a website to learn (see?) more. My wife commented that she sure hoped our kids didn’t see the video, as she didn’t want them trying it at home. But she also suggested I send it to a friend of ours.

The fifth video, although clearly not aimed at my demographic (old and married), was clearly effective at selling the implied “benefit” of a body spray for young men. I’m guessing any male teenager with horomones raging would understand the message clearly. Even this old guy got the message, as did his wife.

Although these are the top five viral ad videos, I’ll bet these last two translated into far more sales than the first three!

Even though these examples are not business-to-business advertising, I think there are lessons we B2B marketers can learn from them.

The main lesson is that the hard part is making the video interesting, funny or provocative enough to go viral, while selling the product at the same time. Hats off to Blendtec and Lynx and/or their agencies for doing so.

I also wonder, is anyone tracking results such as a lift in sales as a measure of success? Or are they only bragging about how many views the videos got?

b2b marketing, marketing