Going viral

Jawa Ex Machina

Jawa Ex Machina

Veteran
Does anyone here have first hand experience with uploading a clip that went viral?

I mean, we could all speculate about what tags to choose etc, but I'd love to hear from someone who's actually had this happen to one of their clips what the exact process was.
 
I would say that there is no solution. Going viral seems to involve factors that are almost entirely out of control. It's possible to make a video that's like a viral video, but that's as close as you can go...outside of brute forcing the solution (i.e. making lots of sock accounts to promote the video and hoping that you can make it catch).
 
Gary Huff said:
I would say that there is no solution. Going viral seems to involve factors that are almost entirely out of control. It's possible to make a video that's like a viral video, but that's as close as you can go...outside of brute forcing the solution (i.e. making lots of sock accounts to promote the video and hoping that you can make it catch).
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It's not impossible. Far from it.

Corporations create viral videos all the time. It's called viral marketing and is used for movies and products. We see them daily.

JJ Abrams knows how these things work, and if anyone has ever had a clip go viral, by accident or on purpose, I think it would be really interesting to hear about that in detail.

Especially since it seems to be an affordable way to get attention to the films we make here.

I don't think it's like winning the lottery as much as it's like playing poker.
It's only a major gamble if you don't know what you're doing.
 
Jawa Ex Machina said:
Corporations create viral videos all the time. It's called viral marketing and is used for movies and products. We see them daily.
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Advertising agencies attempt to create viral videos for their clients, however the percentage of videos that actually go viral is relatively small.
Off the top of my head I can remember one fabricated corporate video that went viral - the Red Bull plane that lands with one wing.
 
milksac said:
Advertising agencies attempt to create viral videos for their clients, however the percentage of videos that actually go viral is relatively small.
Off the top of my head I can remember one fabricated corporate video that went viral - the Red Bull plane that lands with one wing.
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Really? What about the Old Spice commercial? Or the BMW one? Or the Ray-ban one with the people throwing sunglasses around a few years ago. Things like this happen constantly. Cloverfield's entire marketing strategy was viral. So was The Blair Witch and Paranormal Activities.

You make a clip featuring your product and people will also know your product. When other people go in and make their versions - autotuning your clip or make parody videos - and you get a couple of million clicks on youtube... a lot of people will know your product.

I just want to hear from anyone who has actually succeeded.
 
Viral Marketing is a different discussion and includes; video clips, games, images, eBooks, text messages, email, etc...
A LOT more then just a video clip.

Making a viral video IS like hitting the lottery....
 
Actually, it's very simple:

Step 1) Watch viral video on YouTube and make similar video
Step 2) Upload new similar video to YouTube
Step 3) ???
Step 4) Profit!
 
ZazaCast said:
Viral Marketing is a different discussion and includes; video clips, games, images, eBooks, text messages, email, etc...
A LOT more then just a video clip.

Making a viral video IS like hitting the lottery....
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Ok so let's talk about viral marketing then.

But again, is there anyone who has first hand experience with this? That's what I'm looking for.
 
Gary Huff said:
I would say that there is no solution. Going viral seems to involve factors that are almost entirely out of control. It's possible to make a video that's like a viral video, but that's as close as you can go...outside of brute forcing the solution (i.e. making lots of sock accounts to promote the video and hoping that you can make it catch).
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Disagree. But more on that in a moment.
 
Couldn't you have waited to respond until you could actually respond? Why make a post that says, "You're wrong! Details at 11!"
 
milksac said:
Advertising agencies attempt to create viral videos for their clients, however the percentage of videos that actually go viral is relatively small.
Off the top of my head I can remember one fabricated corporate video that went viral - the Red Bull plane that lands with one wing.
Click to expand...

Agreed. The ugliest word in marketing, to me, is Viral. The second I see it, hear it, smell it I turn around and walk the other way.

Too often I see these corporations/companies attempting to do something viral, too often does it come off as just that... ATTEMPTING.

You're right, I can barely think of many examples of anyone pushing a product and also going viral... the two don't go hand in hand.
 
Wait, now I'm confused. I'm wrong in thinking that you can't make a video specifically to go viral, that will go viral, and yet companies trying to do viral videos are simply wasting their time?
 
Gary Huff said:
Wait, now I'm confused. I'm wrong in thinking that you can't make a video specifically to go viral, that will go viral, and yet companies trying to do viral videos are simply wasting their time?
Click to expand...

Haha. I'm writing my response! Hold yer horses.

And yeah, there's a HUGE difference between a company and a kid with a camera.
 
in my opinion the most important factor is that the video offers something unexpected.
 
Just to be clear, the reason I want to hear from someone who's actually done this is otherwise we're all kind of like a bunch of teenage virgins discussing how to get laid.

"There's no way of doing it on purpose. Just be yourself and it'll happen naturally"
"No way, you gotta read THE GAME!"


You know?

We can learn from other people's experience, but not from speculation.

I'm sure there are a lot of unintended viral videos, just like there are a lot of videos that were intended to become viral but didn't.
But I don't think any of them went viral for no reason.
 
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