Examples of Successful Commercial Viral Videos
The Superbowl is the largest television event in America. Each and every year, 40 percent of America individuals, or around 80-90 million Americans, are tuned into the Superbowl at some time. The 30 second Superbowl commercial, the most highly valued spot in American air time, sold for a reported $2.5 million in the 2006 Superbowl.
With viral marketing, the same level audience can be reached, but at a fraction of the price. The best viral marketing is not blasted at once to a large audience, but once seeded to a few individuals, will increase until several millions of individuals will have heard of it. Significantly, these individuals aren't just getting a TV advertisement, but they are telling their companions about it, discussing it, joking about it, and making a mental impression of it. One person who tells others about a video he looked at is more important than 10 that see your video and forget about it.
One accomplished viral video reveals 2 males dressed in lab coats demonstrating the befuddling Diet Coke and Mentos chemical reaction. Evidently, if you drop Mentos breath mints into Diet Coke, it creates a reaction akin to mixing baking soda and vinegar. Numerous videos were produced, but this certain video was most likely the best produced, together with a musically choreographed demonstration of over 100 Diet Coke and Mentos fountains. After being featured on CNN, it was shown that the video's creators had at that moment made several tens of thousands of dollars selling the advertisements at the beginning and end of the video.
The Diet Coke video is a perfect model of how viral videos can profit. But a company that would like to get exposure needs another approach. One method is for the organization to promote the creation of a newly made video (or the sequel of a formerly popular video), and then intersperse the company's logo and website throughout the video. A good example of this is Stride gum's commission of "Where the Hell is Matt" - a video that shows Matt dancing for a couple of seconds at dozens of places across the globe, all set to entertaining music. The video is novel and silly at the same time - just how many airports, customs, and taxis did Matt and his crew have to go through just to film a few seconds of Matt's dancing? Anyways, the video took off, and Stride cannot be dissatisified with their investment return.
However, the Matt video still merely straddles the line of balancing commercialism and content. The most ideal video is able to both arrange the company's product with content so effective that the commercial part is no longer a concern. To remove the commercial aspect would damage the very frame of the commercial. These ads are classics of viral marketing due to their power, their persuasiveness, and elegance in combining commercialism and content.