Live from SXSW: Viral video how-tos from the pros
The most fun — and still useful — panel I’ve attended at SXSW Interactive so far was Saturday’s How to Create a Viral Video. It doesn’t get much better than the three viral experts that Flux creative director Jonathan Wells brought together:
- Damian Kulash, frontman of rock band OK Go
- Margaret Gould Stewart, head of user experience at YouTube
- Jason Wishnow, director of film and video, TED
The tone for the session was set when Damian Kulash teed up “the definition of viral video”: Boobies and Kitties, which presents the view with 30 seconds of plunging necklines, 30 seconds of saccharine-sweet kittens and 30 seconds of kittens stuffed into bodacious cleavage. With such quality artistic contributions to our cultural good, who needs Quentin Tarantino?
Once we were all laughing, the panelists proceeded to illustrate answers to the 30 million-page-view question: How do you create videos so compelling that your viewers become part of the distribution process?
- Hit people on an emotional level. TEDTalks are 18-minute taped academic lectures, which could easily be “online suicide” but instead have been viewed by 230 million people to date. According to Wishnow, the production quality — shooting in HD, using multiple cameras, actually being able to see details on the supporting visuals — enhances the “talk of their lives” feeling that TED is going for. The real key to viral success, though, is the ideas that genuinely inspire the speakers and their work, he says. Content that taps into viewers’ emotions travels farthest.
- Go for a sense of wonder, optimism and surprise. OK Go’s approach to viral video is to “think of the craziest ideas they can come up with and figure out if we can pull them off,” said Kulash. This has led to masterpieces like “Here It Goes Again” (the treadmill video that inspired a whole host of fantastic spinoffs), “A Million Ways” and the Rube-Goldberg-inspired “This Too Shall Pass,” which recently led to the dissolution of the band’s contract with EMI. Damian’s advice — to embrace cleverness and the element of surprise — jives with recent research out of the University of Pennsylvania about what compels people to share. “The fact is, humans like to share good news. So Debbie Downer won’t work,” said Margaret Gould Stewart. “We are trained to put things in buckets. So when you mix cookie monster with German metal, it’s really funny!” Oh man, is it ever.
- Think about production value. While high production-values work for TED, less high-tech videos can also be an effective content strategy. Your video doesn’t have to be pixel-perfect. It should have appropriate production values, depending on the content and context.
- Have people participate in the things you make — if not in the actual shooting of the videos, then after they go public. Solidify your community by getting into the comments and engaging directly in what’s happening with your content. Create conversation between the creator and the audience, and encourage satire and offshoots.
- Make it easy to embed your videos. More than half of YouTube traffic comes from those who grab a video’s code and tweet about it or integrate it into their Web sites and blogs. “If you don’t make it easy to embed, you are hamstringing your video,” Stewart said.
- Mind your metadata. Embed key search terms into the titles of your videos. If you’re creating parodies, include the same key words in your video’s title as in the original. Surround your video with supplemental material such as additional video material and still images. Paying attention to metadata details will aid with search engine optimization.
To conclude this hilarious session, our esteemed panelists grabbed a video camera and climbed up on top of the panel table to recreate the infamous surprised kitty video with us, the audience, playing the role of kitty. What the result (below) lacks in production quality, it makes up in on-the-spot charm. Viral-to-be, for sure.
Image credit, Merritt Colaizzi
Posted by Kathleen Pierce on March 15th, 2010 at 5:34 pm
Thank you this is very helpful, entertaining advice. Especially for those not at the conference. Not sure "Surprised Kitty" will go viral tho,
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Posted by Craig Stark on March 15th, 2010 at 7:03 pm
Good points. Getting comfortable on video takes some practise before it feels spontaneous enough to be accepted.. it's hard not to appear "to be that guy/gal" in sales pitch mode!____Those at the conference- have a productive day!
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Posted by davehuffman4jakobfreely on March 15th, 2010 at 7:40 pm
Thank you thank you thank you for point #3. I talk alot about not getting stuck in "perfection paralysis" when making videos and how one doesn't need the greatest production value if the story is good/great.
@davemhuffman
The Indie Launch Pad
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@davemhuffman – Apparently it is not about perfection with your spelling either (alot).
Posted by Kris on March 15th, 2010 at 11:44 pm
Some good tips here. Pay attention to tips 5 and 6 as they are really important to spread the video virally. I would also recommend that you'd connect your YouTube channel with your Facebook account. This way all your YouTube updates get automatically posted on Facebook.
—–
Kris Olin, MSc (econ.)
Author of the Facebook Advertising Guide
http://twitter.com/KrisOlin
Posted by Alicia on March 16th, 2010 at 12:12 am
As a video production company I get asked to produce "viral" videos quite frequently, which sometimes means 1) make us a video on the cheap 2) make us a video that will get a lot of views. I've found the former to be most common. What I noticed from this article is there is no talk of what a company should expect to spend on the video. I have found that with "Viral" videos most of the work is in pre-produciton and coming up with the idea. Depending on the complexity of that idea will help establish the monetary implications of the production. Just becasue its being distributed online doesn't mean the cost of production shrinks in price. Even staging a scene that looks relatively simple or "consumer generated" can still require considerable amount of planning and practice. Check out our marketing videos at http://AliVega.com
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Posted by Alicia on March 16th, 2010 at 12:12 am
As a video production company I get asked to produce "viral" videos quite frequently, which sometimes means 1) make us a video on the cheap 2) make us a video that will get a lot of views. I've found the former to be most common. What I noticed from this article is there is no talk of what a company should expect to spend on the video. I have found that with "Viral" videos most of the work is in pre-produciton and coming up with the idea. Depending on the complexity of that idea will help establish the monetary implications of the production. Just becasue its being distributed online doesn't mean the cost of production shrinks in price. Even staging a scene that looks relatively simple or "consumer generated" can still require considerable amount of planning and practice. Check out our marketing videos at http://AliVega.com
My recent post Video production kit for under $250
Posted by Video viral: uma estratégia aplicável para as pequenas empresas « Casos e Causos on March 15th, 2010 at 6:08 pm
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Posted by MerrittColaizzi on March 16th, 2010 at 9:03 pm
You're probably right, Kathleen. At least we were entertained, though!
Posted by MerrittColaizzi on March 16th, 2010 at 9:06 pm
Good point, Kris. Cross channel promotion, be it automated or, better yet, fine-tuned for each social media channel is always a good idea.
Posted by MerrittColaizzi on March 16th, 2010 at 9:11 pm
Thanks for your comment, Alicia. I was talking with Margaret Stewart after the panel and mentioned that when I first saw the title of the session "How to create a viral video" I thought it was a joke! We laughed about the concept of executives calling in their marketing lead and saying "Why don't we have a viral video?" As if that's how it happens…
Posted by @kristinwolff on March 17th, 2010 at 4:32 am
Merritt: This is a handy little list – thank so much! We've increased engagement and decreased production costs (and weight!) by going to the FlipHD – so bloody simple and does not intimidate people. Much more authenticity and a lot less running to the bathroom for lipstick or hair-combing – and greater diversity when we're doing public engagement, which is great.
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Posted by MerrittColaizzi on March 18th, 2010 at 1:14 pm
Excellent tip – thanks, Kristin. I, for one, have major FlipHD envy.
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Posted by Jeremy Campbell on April 26th, 2010 at 4:09 pm
Great tips, and a hilarious viral video of your own at the end, classic!
Posted by MerrittColaizzi on April 26th, 2010 at 4:40 pm
I really wish you (and everyone else!) could have been at this SXSW session. It really was hysterical.
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Posted by Mat, Video Marketing on October 14th, 2010 at 2:12 am
Thanks for giving us a simple checklist to critique our viral video ideas. The few examples were well-chosen too! 'The surprised kitty" video did not require expensive production. And the 'OK here it goes" video was refreshing—a music video with no heavy make-up, no bo%bs, and no sexy professional dancers and bling!
Not against the latter, but it does dominate marketing.
Surprisingly, there are more warm, sweet, original, charming viral marketing ideas that succeed online, compared to TV and print ads that are more filled with the 'ol sx and violens' and heavily styled artificial look.
So viral video marketing reminds us not to take for granted the other ways we can touch people emotionally.
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Posted by AshleighTurner on December 20th, 2010 at 1:20 pm
I review a lot of music and bands local to my city, so I see a lot of shoddy and amateur video production. Although all of the points listed above are true and worth considering when making a video, I'd like to mention something that makes a video stand out to me: local landmarks. Granted, this isn't as effective when you're trying to make a viral video that will be seen across the world, but some bands are happy to just go viral in their state or city. Including local landmarks (a well-known bridge, a graffiti wall, etc) are sometimes helpful in catching the eyes of critics (who may in turn blog about it, etc).
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Posted by Justin83475 on March 29th, 2011 at 8:46 pm
Luminosity wrote 7 steps to a viral video here: http://luminositymarketing.com/blog/?p=3738
Personally, I can think of at least one step that's missing. Can you?