The 7 essentials of a Viral Campaign

The biggest problem most websites have is that they are instantly forgettable. They sell or say the same thing as hundreds or thousands of other sites; to an audience that is so quick to click-away, that a large percentage of their traffic never appreciates why they should buy anything or listen to what's being said.

In order for a website, or ad campaign, to be interesting enough for visitors to stick-around, or clever enough to be viral, it must be compelling enough to prompt viewers to; stay, absorb, and pass it onto friends and colleagues.

This does not mean that the media presented has to be salacious or somehow socially inappropriate. Common viral videos of silly people doing immature things on fuzzy video maybe viral for people with too much time on their hands, but it's viral without a marketing or branding purpose. Purposeful virals present meaningful theme-based messages within the context of an entertaining experience that is worth repeating and distributing. In other words, it must have both substance and style.

The 7 essentials of a viral campaign are therefore:

1. Engage the Audience
Grab Attention. If you start with the idea that Web traffic is an audience, you stand a better chance of grabbing their attention and making a connection that will get them to stick around long enough to listen to your message.

2. Enlighten and Inform
Provide Substance. Having a specific marketing or branding point, but understanding that not everyone is going to get all the references, but for those who do, the target audience, will be truly engaged by the presentation and informed by the content.

3. Stylize the Experience
Create an Experience. Of course we can present the same basic content with a straightforward presentation in a clear and concise manner, but it would be uninspiring and instantly forgettable. In marketing, being forgettable is the first deadly sin. If you're not creating an experience for your audience you will never be remembered no matter how important, or potentially useful, your information.

4. Focus
Be Consistent. Companies can't be all things to all people, but hammering away at the same message in the same manner can create a scenario where the audience feels they've heard it all before. The challenge is to keep campaigns fresh and new, while at the same time delivering a focused, consistent message. Don't change the message; just present it in new and exciting ways.

5. Entertain
Be Memorable. Be Bold. Deliver meaningful concepts that are worth the audience's time and attention because they inform and entertain at the same time: a simple idea that relies on creative implementation to make it memorable. The challenge is to turn advertising into memorable content. For the Web to be an effective marketing environment it must be more than a digital corkboard where millions of businesses place their flyers. The Web is a communication environment and effective communication must be entertaining and enlightening.

6. Resonate
Hit A Nerve. The flip side of entertaining is the necessity to connect to your audience. The message and the style must hit a nerve and a light bulb must go off in the audience's head that says, 'I get it.' What makes the Web such a powerful marketing and branding tool is its ability to communicate on a verbal, non-verbal, and metaphoric level. If a solution isn't communicating on all three levels then you’re missing opportunities to resonate and connect with your audience, and that means lost opportunity and business.

7. Excite
Compel Action. We all understand the need for a call to action but how can you expect people to pick up the phone, email, or fill-in a contact form if they aren't turned-on by your presentation. You cannot treat viral as a one-off commercial. It needs following up, a series, a campaign based on a terrific focused, differentiating concept.

The Web, unlike television, offers businesses the opportunity to create meaningful marketing campaigns that excite, entertain, and enlighten an audience looking for more. For some it's a giant leap of faith to accept the idea that something can be entertaining and meaningful at the same time. To turn a viral concept into an effective campaign – from advertising into content, not content into advertising, needs vision, guts, and great creative idea.