Step away from the norm

Brands in certain verticals tend to cluster around similar content, often evoking similar sets of psychological responses. I'm sure we can all recall countless auto ads featuring cars driving quickly around tracks, or stunning Italian mountain roads (or perhaps not). While there is nothing necessarily wrong with this if done well (such ads can evoke intense exhilaration), it's hard to stand out from the crowd by sticking to the same tried-and-tested creative techniques.

Brands which evoke different psychological responses from their competitive set, those that have diverse and interesting content, are those that win big in social video. Stepping away from the norm of your vertical means that your ad is more likely to be memorable, and is more likely to gain cut-through among the 300 hours of video that are uploaded to YouTube every minute.

A great example of this is the Metro Trains 'Dumb Ways to Die' campaign. The Australian train company took a safety message that is normally communicated using hard-hitting, shocking imagery and turned it on its head, using cute characters and a catchy song to evoke feelings of warmth, happiness and inspiration. The video captured viewers' imaginations and has amassed 4.9m shares and 102m views.

Ensure valuable virality

Ezgi Akpinar (Assistant Professor of Marketing at VU University Amsterdam) and Jonah Berger (Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania) conducted a study looking at the drivers of brand metrics in video campaigns. They found that the campaigns with the strongest uplift in brand metrics were those in which the brand was integral to the storyline of the video, such that if the brand were removed, the story would no longer work. So, it's not enough simply to create a shareable video and place your logo at the end of it.

Building on this work, we can identify the three pillars of valuable virality for brands.

Shareability of content is certainly one pillar, and it's the hardest to get right, but it's not the only thing brands have to do to create great social video. There are many examples of brands which have created shareable content, but announced their presence with a mere whisper, damaging brand recall and inhibiting purchase intent.

Branding is the second pillar. Research from Ehrenberg-Bass shows that there's no correlation between branding and shareability, so brands should not be afraid of announcing their brand loud and proud as part of their video. Use brand fonts and colours, feature a strong final branding sequence and ensure your brand is integral to the storyline of the video to drive brand recall and purchase intent. And remember, we're not in the business of making lovely video for the sake of it.

The final pillar of valuable virality involves making the ad relevant to the audience who see it. Relevance in this case is all about correct distribution of content, ensuring appropriate contextual placements and programmatic targeting to deliver the ad to viewers with whom it's most likely to resonate.

Brands that create shareable content with a strong brand message, and then distribute that content smartly, will achieve valuable virality.

Great examples of videos that have achieved valuable virality are Blendtec's 'Will it Blend?' series, in which the blender company blends a succession of ridiculous items, from footballs to phones. The videos combine a quirky humour with a strong brand message: the Blendtec blender is so powerful that it can blend anything.

Source: Warc, Ian Forrester