The Digital Era of Going Viral

 
 
 

If you have ever studied the science of cross pollination, you would realize that the plants that use this mechanism to reproduce need certain agents to achieve this goal. These agents are mostly birds and insects and it is the flowers that have certain features; colorful, sweet scented and sometimes contain nectar that that are polinated. When the birds and insects settle on the plants and feed on them, they carry pollen on to the next plant; fertilization takes place, leading to reproduction. If you are to explain this in the language of marketing, you would say the pollen has gone viral.

Physical word of mouth was made even faster with the advent of mobile phones, now, we have the Electronic word of mouth (EWOM); everything has become a click away. In recent times, so many things have gone viral on the internet; from Vikileaks to “who said tweaa?” the internet has been swarmed with lots of “interesting stuff.”

Marketers on the other hand have used the “ready to click and share” craze that seems to have caught up with everybody to create innovative and interesting messages to attract attention to their brands. Internationally, you can talk about the Dove “real beauty sketches,” or the Oreo “you can still dunk in the dark” tweets. In Ghana, you can talk about the Pomo Rice television ad (19,859) views, the Cargo Dance advert (214, 660) views, the Kasapa free night/wrong number commercial (22, 462) views, and the Vodafone “One Ghana for your pocket ad” (17,207) views, all on YouTube.

However, making a good ad campaign does not always mean it will go viral. There has to be some elements that catch the attention of your audience. From the analogy of the cross pollination, you realize that some elements need to be present to attract the insects.

What then will attract people to your ad and content to make it spread like butter?

Be crazy with your ad

Have you seen the Vodafone “one Ghana for your pocket” ad? You notice how the fat man came out of the bathroom with just his towel on and dancing to an azonto beat with his big stomach? That is the stuff most popular viral ads are made of.

Think of emerging trends

Azonto is one of the trendy dance routines of our time now. Blending the dance with an advert is sure to get your audience clicking on the share button faster. Fiesta condom used this trend and it has caught up well with people, especially the youth. Their Facebook page has 10,597 likes within a year of their emergence on the market.

Use catchy sound bites

Back to the Vodafone advert, the sound bite used was already a danceable tune. The message of the advert synced perfectly with the song. Anytime I hear the “one Ghana for your pocket” song, I remember the fat man, his belly and which advert I saw him in.

Have a story line

The thing that sent me going “Wow” and “Awww” the first time I watched that Gino ad was the way it began and ended. Within 49 seconds, the ad had captured a family’s emotional time, leaving audience spell bound. This kind of emotional ad is definitely worth sharing.

Put together a marketing plan

 The last thing you would want to do is to rely on luck after putting in all that effort. Don’t think “what if it flops?” It is better to do the craziest thing than do nothing at all. Put down your list of actions and how you plan on executing them.

Now that the mystery has finally been unveiled, I hope you can create an ad that will get thousands, if not millions, clicking the share button.

By Dorothy Owusu