The 14 Drivers of Successful Viral Advertising/Marketing

The chance of viral advertising/marketing taking off and actually going viral is well, small. Many place it in the range of 10-15% and the best ones fall well inside the 1% arena.

Viral success, or more the lack of it, is a function of: a) the competition from thousands of campaigns, b) the particular context for launching a campaign, c) the initial push you can give it, both paid and unpaid and d) tapping into a core viral motivations of wanting to pass something along.  It's certainly more art than science!

Recently  looking at a gallery of 100 of the best viral ads/marketing campaigns ever produced, I did however manage to bucket the best ones into 14 messy compartments. Without exception, I could place each into at least one, and commonly more than one of these categories:

1. Humour i.e. John West Salmon

- the #1 thing we like to pass along to other people more than anything else are things that are funny, that's why grassroots companies and risk takers do better viral; they understand the medium better, feel like they have less to risk and perhaps candidly have a better funny bone

2. Authentic/Cause-Driven i.e. Dove Evolution

- infrequently, there exists a type of viral campaign that stirs our souls, that asks questions and solicits a debate, that makes us feel like somebody identifies with our plight and has a magical, poignant take on the human condition.

3. Taboo i.e. Agent Provacateur

It's human nature to push boundaries of taste and decorum. Deep down, there's a part of most of us that rejects conformity and likes to see how far something can go...and then want to share it with our intimate taste circles.

4. Remarkability/Creative i.e. Sony Bravia

Who says good long-form film/TV styled creative doesn't belong on the web?  Oftentimes, these efforts have large production values but are so grandiose and cleverly filmed on such a big scale, we have to look twice and take it in.

5. Outrageous i.e. Trojan Games/Will It Blend

A clever or unexpected surprise is always a just dessert for investing time as a recipient with viral efforts.  Although visually arresting, they usually start with some type of bizarre or novel premise

6. Mystery i.e. Ronaldinho

This type of viral commonly leaves the recipient with the questions: "did that actually happen?"/"did that person really do that?". Many of them cloak themselves in mystery - sometimes revealing themselves at some point to extend the buzz and others taking their secrets to the grave.

7.  Celebrity i.e. Paris Hilton Carls Jr.

In the Paris & Perez Hilton-induced culture we live in, celebrities may not be credible spokespeople but they sure make for incredibly interesting viral fodder, oftentimes getting in trouble on behalf of themselves and at other times, vamping it up for the camera.

8) Clever Visual Idea i.e. Honda Cog 

Some things just play out better as a visual story - no voiceover, no commentary, just a visual feast and coup d'art. In a global connected universe, this type of viral knows no geographic or language  boundary, it just seeds itself and spreads like wildfire.

9. Schadenfeude i.e. Dell Hell

As much as humans can be incredible forces for altruism, good and empathy when we want to, more than 1/2 the time we like to laugh at another person's mistake or gaffe. Vigilante viral when rooted in truth is powerful enough to make large companies change course.

10. Interactive/Customized i.e. Subservient Chicken

Most viral is still very much broadcast-y 1.0 material housed in a 2.0 environment. Some novel upstarts allow their viewers to actively participate in the effort or give the appearance of participating in the effort.

11. Unusual Talent i.e. OK Go

World's Funniest Videos, That's Incredible and David Letterman Stupid Human Tricks have been mining this camp for years. What works on the TV tube, can work equally well on YouTube.

12.  User-Generated i.e. iPod Touch Ad

We like to root for the underdog and the underdog is usually us. It's been proven on certain campaigns that people find user generated ads more creative, more customer-centric cand entertaining. The idea that a normal person like  you or me generated the idea adds to our egalitarian and  democratic love of what gets produced.

13. Spoof i.e. Slob Evolution

What's the next best thing to launching a great original viral campaign? Launch a spoof of a great viral ad. You're likely not going to generate the same type of audience, but 10% of a very big number usually is better than most.

14. Free i.e. Radiohead

Every promotion house knows that better than any other word used in copy is "free". Free is a powerful motivator. Radiohead is trying to prove that to be in true in music distribution, in reality they have served it up as a "pay what you want" but many have taken that to mean "free". Most of the best web properties are free to use as well. It may be lazy but it still sells.