Creating your Viralskool Video
A "viral video" is a video that becomes popular because one person recommends it to their friends and they then recommend it to their friends and so on until the video views grow exponentially. So, at Viralskool, we're asking you to submit cool clips that people want to share.
Just uploading any clip to YouTube won't make it "go viral" - it has to have some inherent properties or characteristics and that's what we'll discuss here.
How Do You Make Your Videos Sharable?
You have to put yourself in the shoes of the sharer and the receiver. Nobody wants to be associated with lame content, right? So don’t create anything that’s lame, self-indulgent, pretentious or badly acted unless it’s for humorous effect! Ask yourself these questions. When I send someone a link to this video:
- Will I look cool for sharing this video?
- Will it strengthen my friendship with the person I’m sending the video to?
- Will they look cool passing it on?
Unless you can answer “yes” to all the above then revisit your video idea until you score 3 out of 3.
How to Approach an Assignment
Creative people don't like rules or templates but with evidence available of what works and what doesn't work in the world of viral, why not devote creative energy to coming up with an original concept rather than re-designing the basic format? So, although you're free to ignore all of what's below, a few minutes reading our advice might pay big dividends.
Here's our advice:
- Spend more time thinking up a great idea than you spend shooting it. This will keep your costs down, keep your enthusiasm high and is most likely to yield the best results. More on this later.
- Grab attention in the first 5 seconds. Be surprising, be funny, be shocking or tease. Just make sure you grab attention or else you’ll be dead in the water.
- Finish with a punch line. There has to be a reward for anyone that’s given you up to 30 seconds of their life! Make the last 5 seconds more surprising, funnier, more shocking or more provocative than the first 5 seconds. You want someone to finish the video and think “OMG I have to send this to ….”
- Use the middle part of the video to engage. The part between the beginning and the end is the part that needs to keep evolving the idea or revealing something new. If you look at the Levi’s viral Guy Backflips into Jeans, it’s only about someone jumping into a pair of jeans but the team tries to keep the idea fresh by using different methods and places to jump. It’s the same for the Ray-ban Never Hide videos.
Although there's no limit to how long your video can be, it's better to get in, do the job and get out within 30 seconds... 90 seconds tops. Sure, you'll find videos that are longer but you'll find that your time and money is better spent getting those 30 seconds the best they can be than making the video longer.
- Invoke a primary emotion in the viewer. Think about which emotion you're trying to invoke in the viewer. Research on viral marketing from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University found that the best emotions to invoke were surprise & joy. Others possible, although less effective, were sadness, anger, disgust, fear. Although not essential for the viral spread of your video, it's important for the assignment that the emotions invoked and the connections/connotations brought to mind are consistent with the brand's image and what their fans believe. This is explained a little more below in Working With the Client.
- Don't make an advert: Your goal is to entertain, not to inform. An advert is different from what we're defining as a viral video in that it has overt branding, slogans, product details. Virals are much more subtle in their selling - they're entertainment first and a sales pitch a distant second. Creating a great advert is really tough to achieve and if you have limited resources or lack experience then there's a risk that your "viral" will look like a poor advert... which is unlikely to spread. So concentrate on making something entertaining that people want to share.
For inspiration and a discussion of successful viral videos, why not check out our document Viral Video Styles & Tips.
Working With the Client
In the assignment brief, we'll give you guidance about who the client feels their audience is and what values their brand conveys. Don't let this faze you - just think of the brand as a music artist.
For example, if you were asked to direct a music video, you wouldn't create the same video for My Chemical Romance as you would for Rihanna - the music belongs to different genres, they have different fans who have different fashions and beliefs and so on. And it works in reverse: if you see a music video for a band you've never heard before you can probably guess how their fans might dress, where they hang out, what films they watch and so on. None of this is given as information in the video, it's all inferred from the music and the video style.
This is how it should be for a great viral video that's in sync with the client's brand. Your viral, having met all the other "criteria" outlined above, ought to create the right sentiment towards the brand and bring to mind the right connections and emotions. It's tough to do but the sign of a pro!
Check out our advice for creating videos that spread.
