What Is Viral? How to Create an Engaging Viral Marketing Campaign

The concept of “Viral” has become a familiar term, especially in marketing and communications today. A successful viral campaign can spread fast on social media and catch the attention of millions of people. But to really understand what viral is, and why does it matter in a marketing strategy? Let's MONA Media explore these questions in the article below.

What is viral?

Viral is a term for the fast, exponential spread of a piece of content or an event. A marketing campaign counts as viral when it is widely shared across most social media, which raises brand awareness, creates engagement and motivates users to join the marketing campaign.

Common types of viral content today

To understand more about the concept of what viral means , let's look with MONA at the viral formats that are common today.

Viral through listening

This format uses songs, sounds or a memorable slogan to catch attention and make listeners enjoy it. When people hear a fitting, distinctive melody, they remember the brand and product, and it can even widen reach and build a widely spread “trend” that travels far.

Viral through watching

This format uses videos, banners, images and similar material to advertise a brand on media channels with a large audience. To make customers think of your brand right away, use videos and images with a signature element of the brand.

How important is a viral campaign in marketing?

Save on advertising costs

What is the role of viral marketing, and how do you use it without spending a lot on ads? When you build content that matches what people like, customers take over the job of promoting and passing on your message, at a speed you could not expect. This saves money and gives you a real “boost” in reaching customers.

Greater reach to customers

If marketing strategy gets a breakout moment, it can spread at a scale you never expected. A clear sign of a successful viral campaign is that overnight your brand appears everywhere across social channels, press and media. In particular, if you build viral content that is engaging and original, it can catch the attention of people who have never encountered your brand, and open up your potential market.

to strengthen brand recognition

Viral content gets shared and updated by many people at dizzying speed, with no limit on range. When social media users see a product or brand with such wide coverage, it is easy to build trust with customers.

MONA Media is confident in offering you a complete marketing solution with our TVC production services all-in-one service, which helps your business reach many different customer groups, raise the conversion rate and meet its communication goals. Don't miss the chance to get build your brand image professional support. Contact us HOTLINE 1900 636 648 so the MONA team can give you specific advice!

What makes a viral marketing campaign succeed

Now that you know what viral is, let's look with MONA at the main factors of an effective viral marketing campaign.

Unique content

What is unique content for viral? Unique content must bring a lot of useful value to users. Make sure your content has not been used by anyone else and does not repeat any idea already on the market. Being original and different leaves an impression on viewers and makes them remember your campaign and praise it highly.

→ Read now: Top 7 tools to check unique content quickly

Boldness

Bold content in a viral campaign not only creates curiosity and attracts viewers, it also brings in positive engagement. Some bold viral content can even change opinions, break traditional frames and create creative breakthroughs.

Touch viewers' emotions

A communication campaign should stir emotions and positive feelings and connect deeply with customers. Touching viewers' emotions means you can create excitement, sympathy, joy, anger or even fear about the content you share. Understanding and using emotion in your communication is a necessary part of viral marketing and helps build a lasting brand.

The right timing

You need to spend time researching the market and your target customers' needs, and identify the right “golden moment” to start the campaign. In particular, make use of current trends and public interest in an issue to build content related to it.

Support from social media channels

Many businesses have used the boom in media in recent years to spread their viral campaigns. Free platforms social media such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok have billions of users worldwide, which helps content spread fast and reach a very large audience.

With the growing potential of social media channels, especially TikTok (a platform with close to 2 billion monthly active users). That is why building a professional TikTok channel does not only help you reach millions of potential customers and raise the conversion rate, it also builds a personal brand effectively. And all of it is MONA Media packed into the TikTok channel building service which streamlines your channel's growth path with getting a video trending on TikTok reach “a million views” as fast as possible. So why not call HOTLINE 1900 636 648 for a quote on our channel-building plans!

Influence of celebrities

What is the influence of celebrities in a viral campaign? A celebrity's appearance in a campaign can build trust and spread the message strongly to consumers. This is also why fans tend to trust and pay close attention to core message from influencers, given the FOMO effect today.

Basic steps to run an effective viral campaign

Now that you understand why a viral marketing campaign matters, how do you run it effectively? Below are the basic steps to run a successful campaign that spreads.

Step 1: Research the market and target customers

For the campaign to reach your target customers, you need to research Customer Insight to see what they care about and what they need right now. From there, build creative content and related elements to get the best results. You also need to spend time researching the market before releasing a viral marketing product, so you can catch the leading trends and use the right moment to make quality products.

Step 2: Build a human message

A meaningful message is what touches viewers' emotions and decides whether your campaign succeeds. However, each viral marketing product should carry only one message, to avoid confusing or rambling content. That is why you need to research customers and the market first, to set the right message and goals.

Step 3: Build engaging content

“Viral” content can take many forms, but it must fit each business's direction. Above all, engaging content has to touch viewers' emotions, because that is the only thing that drives users to act.

Step 4: Distribute content widely

For content to spread widely, actively deliver it to your target customers through suitable media channels. Today, content distribution is no longer limited to traditional media. It has grown on social media channels such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, blogs and forums.

Step 5: Evaluate and track campaign results

After the content is published and distributed, you need to evaluate and track the campaign's results. Depending on which case below applies, there is a sensible way to respond.

• Case 1: Users are happy and engage positively with the content you made. Keep tracking the viral metrics and be ready to take in customer feedback to improve later campaigns.
• Case 2: The campaign did not go viral. Review what was missing that made the content unattractive, and record customer feedback to improve next time.
• Case 3: Users react negatively to the content. For this worst case, prepare in advance to handle a communication crisis, with quick remedies if the brand is “boycotted”.

Case studies: classic viral video marketing campaigns worth learning from

Dove's campaign “Real Beauty Sketches”

Campaigns Real Beauty Sketches was run in 2013 as a collaboration between Unilever and the advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather Brazil. Dove used an unusual method to explore women's confidence and how they undervalue their own looks.

They invited an American artist to draw women based on how they described themselves, and compared that with how other people described them. The gap between how women see themselves and how others see them made a big impact on social media and in the press. The campaign helped Dove build a positive image and earn customers' trust.

The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

Started in 2014, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge campaign became a social media phenomenon that drew millions of people around the world. The idea was to pour a bucket of ice water over your head and raise money to support research into ALS (a muscle-degenerating disease), a dangerous neurological illness.

Thanks to its fast spread on social media and the participation of many celebrities, the campaign reached millions of people worldwide. The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge not only raised awareness of ALS, it also made an important contribution to funding research and supporting the ALS community.

Old Spice's campaign “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like”

The Man Your Man Could Smell Like launched in 2010 and quickly took off on social media and in the press. With a funny male actor and distinctive imagery, it produced a series of short videos introducing Old Spice products, with humorous and surprising descriptions of a confident, attractive man with an alluring scent. The campaign drew a lot of attention to the Old Spice brand and built a loyal fan community.

In short, Viral Marketing is an important advertising campaign that helps a business reach many potential customers. But creating a viral ad campaign is not simple. MONA Media hope that this article helps you understand the concept of what viral is better, and that you use the steps above to get the best results.