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Viral video

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The term viral video refers to video clip content which gains widespread popularity through the process of Internet sharing, typically through email or IM messages, blogs and other media sharing websites. Viral videos are often humorous in nature and may range from televised comedy sketches such as Saturday Night Live's Lazy Sunday to unintentionally released amateur video clips like Star Wars kid, the Numa Numa song, The Dancing Cadet, and The Evolution of Dance.

With the proliferation of camera phones, many videos are being shot by amateurs on these devices. The availability of cheap video editing and publishing tools allows video shot on mobile phones to be edited and distributed virally both on the web by email and between phones by Bluetooth. These consumer-shot videos are typically non-commercial videos intended for viewing by friends or family.

Marketing uses

While the viral video phenomenon has occurred in a largely unstructured manner, a number of organizations are attempting to find marketing strategies that rely on the distribution of viral video, with mixed results.

Companies such as Kodak, Trojan and Ford are a few of the initiators of this new trend. Humor, wit, and creativity, combined with the randomness of "word of mouth" distribution, causes huge amounts of people to distribute a video among friends, co-workers, colleagues and reach masses of random users that are exposed to a video which promotes a brand. Small companies have found that viral videos can provide a tremendous "bang for the buck" in many cases. A famous example is the "Hiring the Right Person" video created by California recruiting firm Accolo, which parodied the Paris Hilton Carl's Jr. ad. In this case, the ad garnered so much attention that it even ended up on traditional media news reports and other non-internet venues. Marketing firms have flourished from this form of distribution and now dedicate specifically to the creation of viral video.

YouTube now shares revenues with certain users who generate enough hits that their video may be considered viral and therefore economically valuable.

Ikea announced a contest with a prize for the most innovative video for making a bed. On the same note, Coke, who rejected any involvement related to the creativity of two individuals who created "The Diet Coke and Mentos experiment", rethought its move and decided to capitalize on the video's popularity with a YouTube contest. Coke turned Coke.com into its own site for consumer-generated media.

Social impact, the case of YouTube

Internet celebrities

A lot of the "Viral Video" concept comes from the popularity of YouTube and other related websites. The man who popularized, but did not create, the term Viral Video was Nalts Kevin Nalty.

YouTube creates Internet celebrities, popular individuals who have attracted significant publicity in their home countries from their videos.[1] These memes have come from many different backgrounds.

Geriatric1927, one of the most subscribed YouTube members, is a 80-year-old pensioner from England who gained widespread recognition within a week of making his debut on the site.[2] For these users, the Internet fame has had various unexpected effects. By way of example, YouTube user and former receptionist Brooke Brodack from Massachusetts has been signed by NBC's Carson Daly for an 18-month development contract.[3] Another has been the uncovered fictional blog of lonelygirl15, now discovered to be the work of New Zealand actress Jessica Rose and some film directors.

Band and music promotion

YouTube has also become a means of promoting bands and their music. One such example is OK Go which got a huge radio hit and an MTV Video Music Awards performance out of the treadmill video for Here It Goes Again.

In the same light, a video broadcasting the Free Hugs Campaign with accompanying music by the Sick Puppies led to instant fame for both the band and the campaign, with more campaigns taking place in different parts of the world. The main character of the video, Juan Mann, has also achieved fame, being interviewed on Australian news programs and appearing on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Whistleblowing

Viral video has become a way for people to air their grievances, particularly when abuse of authority is caught on tape. For example, in 2006, a courtroom video of Utah Third District Court judge Leslie A. Lewis spread rapidly through Utah and was picked up by the news media, and ultimately resulted in her being voted off the bench weeks later. The video showed her imprisoning a courtroom spectator because he left the courtroom while the judge berated his brother for being a deer hunter, just as she was recusing herself from the case due to her professed bias against deer hunters.

Industry

With the rise of Millennial business owners and incorporation of video into the preexisting industry of online marketing, viral video outlets have been introduced as a new marketing tool. Just as SEO (Search Engine Optimization) became a popular tool for the marketing of new websites hitting the WWW (World Wide Web), in the same way, Viral Video Optimization (VVO) has become a new way to spread messages to viewers across the many virtual social social networks. The process of V.V.O. harnesses the power of a multitude of video integrated Web 2.0 networks to reach larger global populations, as well as to home in on niche local communities. The term V.V.O. was first coined by Caitlin Dyer (CTO of a Silicon Valley based media company by the name of Millennial Productions). However, since then similar or related processes of video marketing have been referred to as V.S.O. (Video Search Optimization) by SEMPO & SES, and S.M.O. (Social Media Optimization) by Rohit Bhargava.

Notable viral video sites

See also

References

  1. ^ Feifer, Jason (June 11, 2006). "Video makers find a vast and eager audience". Worcester Telegram.
  2. ^ geriatric1927's YouTube profile
  3. ^ Collins, Scott, "Now she has their attention" Los Angeles Times, July 19, 2006 (Accessed July 19, 2006)
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