Your clients love viral, they just don't know it yet.

Let’s just say, hypothetically, that you would like to film a guy setting his face on fire with kerosene for 20 seconds before dousing him with ice cold arctic spring water, in order to demonstrate the cool feeling you get when using the new Gillette Splash Aftershave, hypothetically.

But hypothetically, let's say that you're hitting a bit of a snag. You have to do something about that pesky client, the last person standing between you and your childhood dream of setting another man’s face on fire. Aside from including a fact-based viral projection chart or two (see below), which is a must, It will help to have prepared a few rationale arguments to what will surely be your client’s concerns about this really fun idea.

FACT-BASED VIRAL SUCCESS PROJECTION CHART EXAMPLE


First, the client will tell you that her target doesn’t watch viral videos. Your client is wrong. Everyone wants to watch a man get his face scorched off, and everyone will want to send it to at least a small group of other friends who also have the internet. There isn’t a single category I can think of where viral wouldn't work. Try me in the comments if you dare… I dare you.

So once you’ve encountered and thwarted this knee-jerk client reaction, you must quickly move to more convincing viral sales tactics. It is very important that for the next 5 minutes, you don’t let the client speak. Bludgeon her swiftly with the following irrefutable evidence that her viral video will successfully make her needle move.

1)    In YouTube, keywords and “related videos” hold the answers to most of your problems. While the user is watching our man get his face scorched off, at least two of the other recommended videos on the page should be direct ads for Gillette. I know it sounds "un-ethical," to "fix" the Recommended Results for something that's supposed to be completely objective, but we're not politicing here, we're advertising. Treat these other videos on the page as you would a banner campaign. 2% click-through to the other videos should be considered a success. But don't tell the client that, always set her expectations really really low. In order to help guarantee your success, tell her you're aiming for closer to .5%.

2)   The second key to your viral’s client approval is paid search and paid media. Anytime your video is posted on a blog or site that’s a member of the Google ad network or has relevancy-based banner placements, your video just being embedded on the page will trigger those paid placements about the new aftershave. In addition to Google Ad words, have prepared a list of sites and blogs that you plan to buy paid media on that are most likely to embed your video. If you don't think there are any sites that will embed your video, then take $10K of the production budget and bribe a few editors.

*The advice above actually working for you is entirely contingent on your viral idea being really awesome.

Comments

[Omar]

"There isn’t a single category I can think of where viral wouldn't work."

That line might be correct (and only might) if you consider your target audience and viral content is appropriate for them. You can get a campaign to be viral, but you must ensure success with the intended demographic or else you will only get eye balls but no conversion.

Great post. Next, I'll try to find an example to refute your statement!

[Tiffany]

Someone stole your concept...they are called converse. Their advertising strategy was to hijack the system. I have the dirt. Their agency approached us.