6 Essential Elements For Any Viral Marketing Campaign

In the last two weeks, the Kony 2012 movement has surpassed 80 million hits on youtube, garnered over 750,000 likes on Facebook and was last weeks no.1 trending topic worldwide on twitter. In case you’ve been living under a rock, Kony 2012 is a film created by Invisible Children Inc. which became a viral video. The film’s purpose is to promote the charity’s ‘Stop Kony’ movement to make indicted Ugandan war criminal Joseph Kony internationally known in order to arrest him in 2012. Over the past few days the organization has received significant backlash from various publications denouncing the campaigns credibility and questioning their “true intentions“.  In the midst of all the controversy and notoriety Kony has received,  marketers and advertisers are taking close note on how they can replicate the success of the most viral video campaign in history.

Most viral content and successful social media campaigns follow a similar pattern. After watching the same formula unravel throughout the Kony video, I felt compelled to expose the blueprints of a viral marketing campaign.

6 Essential Elements For Any Viral  Marketing Campaign:

1. High level of emotional content - People act on emotion not logic, so you must align with their emotion, put them into an emotional state, and then ask for action.

2. Deadlines/Milestones - April 20 2012 milestone “We will be putting up posters, stickers, and signs of Joseph Kony in every city, on every block possible in order for the rest of the world to (literally) wake up and see that we want change. Invisible Children seeks to make Kony infamous worldwide and the video sets a deadline of Dec. 31, 2012 for Kony’s capture.”

3. Clearly defined villains and heroes - Kony and the LRA V.S. the world

4. Specific calls to action - Sign the petition, order the bracelet and share the video. The combination of a clear and easy call to action with explicitly defined benefits has made the campaign very successful.

5. Well crafted storytelling - Incorporating the directors child and the Ugandan boy Jacob helped create a parallel between two cultures.

6. Targeting influential people with reach - Identify and engage communications channels that are open to your message, influential, credible, and that have reach.

It’s easy to become overwhelmed with the process of incorporating each of these elements into your viral company. We’ve been doing this for a while and would be glad to lend some advice on how you can customize each campaign element to resonate with your  audience. Shoot us an e-mail or give us a call, were happy to help.

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