Going viral (in a good way) could be the holy grail of any campaign and while this is not always so straight forward, with the right idea and the proper principles in place it can definitely be done. The gist of all viral marketing strategies is that it spreads from one person onto others very quickly. Thus each person infected infects more and more people in the blink of an eye, creating an epidemic. This is of course what is happening with the ALS #icebucketchallenge where every nominee gets to nominate at least 3 more people. So how did the #icebucketchallenge became such a hit?
Not all
campaigns have big budgets behind them and when they don't, this is when you
have to be smart and really think outside of the box. To generate millions of
dollars in such a short time, one has to tap into the resources of other people
and make good use of them in a way that benefits everyone. This can be said
for the campaign intended to raise awareness of ALS.
Ideas Spread Like Viruses
Going viral, depends less on luck and randomness but more on applying the right
effort in the right way and create a virus worth spreading.
What are the principles that made the
challenge viral?
1. The Message: has to be interesting and catchy enough that it sticks and can be passed on to others.
- It gives personal value (a social buzz) to each infected user. Although the main idea at first glance is to raise awareness for ALS, people get a direct buzz from the humor of getting soaked in ice-cold water, taking a video and sharing it with their circle on social media. So there is a give and take relationship where people are creating awareness and donations in return for attention, likes and some fun.
- It taps into basic human emotions: people love to spread laughter and happiness and this challenge definitely creates a good buzz. People will never want to show others that they will back down from a challenge, especially a noble one and one that everybody else is doing. It also taps into the human desire to get attention and approval along with being a part of the buzz.
- Makes people feel that they are part of something bigger. People see it as a righteous thing to help raise awareness and funds for curing a disease and making people's lives better. This gives the challenge a greater meaning.
- Asks you to take action: it gets people to do more than just listen to another campaign. By getting people to take action, they literally become a part of it and feel more of an urge to spread the idea.
2. Users passing it on: users are asked as part of the challenge to nominate another 3 people. This will definitely help the spread of the idea and with an idea that creates so much value to everyone around, why not?
3. Environment: in order to quickly and easily spread the viral idea, there needs to be an environment which allows for the quick, easy and scalable transfer of this idea from one person to another. Social media definitely provides an amazing environment for this sort of thing to happen. People are in close contact with each other all the time, sharing content is something that we do almost continuously in a way that costs us nothing and the whole infrastructure of the social media platforms support this with great ease.
...and what's more...
What made this idea even more powerful is that a good number of people with much bigger circles of influence have become infected along with us common folk. Great CEOs like Richard Branson and Mark Zuckerberg and Bill gates as well as many other celebrities have become a part of the buzz, spreading the idea within their own large social circles as well as lending the campaign the power of their own influence and fame.
What made this idea even more powerful is that a good number of people with much bigger circles of influence have become infected along with us common folk. Great CEOs like Richard Branson and Mark Zuckerberg and Bill gates as well as many other celebrities have become a part of the buzz, spreading the idea within their own large social circles as well as lending the campaign the power of their own influence and fame.
So next time you are thinking about creating something powerful for your business marketing think about creating messages that do all of the above or as many of them as you possibly can.
