Here’s a great documentary from ROFLcon with some of the creators of the most famous Internet memes around. My favorite part? Most of them didn’t know what they were creating at the time.
More:
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This Tweet from Forrester’s Nate Elliott about says it all when it comes to viral video:
of the 65 online videos that have 100m+ total views, 57% are music videos, only 17% are user-generated http://bit.ly/4tAfbO
Nate Elliott
nate_elliott
So there you have it. The guaranteed viral video formula is to be a famous musician or band with a built in fan base and offline distribution via radio and music television. Easy.
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So if you shouldn’t be praying for viral video, what can you do to make video that resonates with online viewers? Well the first thing you have to do is understand your audience and your goals. The video you make for your winery to introduce your new tasting bar is much different than trying to promote your body wash. However, if your goal is to start a meme, that is to generate sheer volume of organic views then you need to understand the Internet Culture that decides what content becomes memes and what content dies in obscurity. You need to speak the language, acknowledge, understand and respect cultural symbols and create new content that resonates with the audience and encourages experimentation and remixing. It’s not unlike becoming part of any other foreign culture.
So before you jump in make sure you understand what you’re trying to accomplish and who you’re trying to reach.
Here’s a great interview from Rocketboom at ROFLcon, the “industry” conference for “meme-making” that gives you some insight on what makes a meme:
Mashable then caught up with Ben Huh afterwards to get a bit more insight into what makes a successful meme here:
Veronica Belmont also gave a great Ignite talk on the do’s and don’ts of business meme’s:
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If you work in the online video space for more than 30-seconds you’re bound to get asked this question, “How do I make a viral video?” Spend more than 30 days in the industry and you’ll feel like Brett Wilson, CEO of TubeMogul feels about the phrase viral video:
There are a few buzzwords that irk me. First is “viral video.” A viral video is a rare and beautiful thing, but we know that only about .33 percent of videos on YouTube have over a million views, and there are a lot that are effective that have far fewer views (53 percent of videos on YouTube have less than 500 views). People throw around this term carelessly to describe any video made for the web. Let’s just use the term web video. I was cheering when Rob Davis from Ogilvy said the same thing on stage this week at the Brightcove Video Monetization Summit in NY.
He’s not the only one. Kevin “Nalts” McNalty is currently writing a book on online video called, appropriately, Beyond Viral, which we hope comes out sooner than later.
And to add two more to the growing crowd of those with a distaste for the words viral video, check out Mike Arauz’s presentation (slides + audio) from SXSW ’10, Web Video Thunderdome, where he lobbies instead for the term “spreadable” or “shareable” videos.
Oh, and of course you can add one more name to the petition to stop praying for viral video – me.
This video of a Motorola phone solving a Rubik’s cube has everything you could want in a viral video: surprise, cool tech, something remarkable and Lego robots. They say there isn’t a recipe for viral video, and I agree, but the combination of the above is about as close as it gets.
Also, Google products have been on a roll with the viral videos lately. In addition to this one there’s Search Stories and the Chrome speed test. Three for three.
Enjoy the video:
Search Stories:
The Google Chrome Speed Test:
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