Viral Video Marketing on Social Media - Starting from the Hilarious BBC Family Video

Viral Video Marketing on Social Media

- Starting from the Hilarious BBC Family Video

Su Tong (1155082126)

Last week, a video clip from the BBC World News went viral overnight. A pundit Robert Kelly was giving a live Skype interview from home about the South Korean political issue on the BBC program, while his 4-year-old daughter and later the 8-month-old son suddenly wandered into his study, interrupting the conversation, before they were dragged out by their mother rushing in. The funny contrast between the high mood of the kids, the serious and embarrassed dad, and the hasty mom left viewers giggling, so that the video was soon labelled as “the hilarious video ever in history”, igniting heated discussion on social media at once. To date, the original video released by BBC official account on YouTube has got more than 22 million views, which also became a great material and timing for social media marketing.

For sure, a number of parody videos have been constantly coming out and reposted since then. Video bloggers imitated the reaction of the dad and mom with different settings such as the Indian version, the star war version, the nanny version, etc. Some parodies also drove millions of views and comments, and were reposted by some brands on social media. For example, a parody produced by a comedy YouTuber Jono and Ben from New Zealand in which they replace the dad by the mom who could handle several extreme situations during the interview by her excellent multitasking skills. The key concept was to raise the awareness of inequality between male and female, and that mothers are always the strongest backing.

This video was widely reposted by a number of brands that targets at women, and feminism groups, which received sensation among the user segment of mothers. The example can be considered as a practice of viral video marketing on social media, in which the brand strengthened the shared value with users, triggered their resonance and also drove them to repost. The brand awareness is greatly increased during the process.

Get to Know Viral Video Marketing 

Viral marketing was first defined by Steve Jurvetson in 1997 as “network-enhanced word of mouth”, inspired by the great success of Hotmail.com which included a promotional link in every message sent by a Hotmail user. So the viral marketing is to let every user become a salesperson.

Viral video marketing on social media can be seen as the new trend of viral marketing. Thanks to the lowered technical threshold of accessing online videos, a whopping 74% of all Internet traffic in 2017 will be video, according to a report from the Syndacast. Besides, social media sites such as Twitter found out that video content gets the most retweets. Video has a potential of becoming viral, and the combination of video and viral marketing could be very powerful in building brand awareness. However, viral videos may not be a good solution for increasing sales or revenue, compared to promotional or informative ones.

Strategies in Viral Video Marketing 

Viral videos are usually hilarious or emotional, there is one common type based on adaptation from some famous video clips (like the “BBC dad” video or some classical movie clips), and the other type primarily has a well-written script associated with the brand image, aiming at trigger the emotional resonance of their target audience.  Above all, the content and the value proposition is both considered as the secret of a successful viral video marketing plan, which motivates users to share with others. Besides, it should also be backed up by a solid media planning, the investment in channels and a public relations strategy.

The campaign of Always is one of the great examples of viral video marketing in 2016, whose title is “Like a Girl”, aims to empower girls and women by raising attention to the ordinary insult against women and changing the narrative to “fight like a girl”. The video contains a strong and clear emotional appeal, which gained more than 28 million views on YouTube, and strengthen the brand recognition from clients.

In the era of online video, it is of great importance to grasp the value with the customers and generate content of quality, which could turn the social network of users into our own marketing channels. The toddler in the BBC video became famous, and with the viral video marketing as a strategy, so our brands will do in the near future.

Reference:

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[i] 5 Secrets of Super Successful Video Marketing (https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/5-secrets-super-successful-video-marketing)

[ii] Jurvetson, S. (2000). What exactly is viral marketing. Red Herring, 78, 110-112.

[iii] Video Marketing Statistics & Trends 2015 http://syndacast.com/video-marketing-statistics-trends-2015/

[iv] Why Do Brands Make Viral Videos? And How Do You Make One for Your Brand?
(http://tubularinsights.com/why-do-brands-make-viral-videos/)