In the 80s and 90s the only thing they had was short TV movies, often broadcast at a fixed time together with those of your competitors. Who could have dreamed of the online opportunities that marketing and communication specialists now have available? It offers modern campaign leaders many benefits, but there are also many challenges.

Political campaigning in the digital age

Everyone is now looking en masse for the holy grail of digital marketing – a viral that is shared thousands of times with family and friends and rages through Twitter, Facebook and YouTube like wildfire. Of course, it is also sometimes a matter of chance or luck. Who could know in advance that Gangnam Style would eventually become the most viewed video clip on YouTube with 1.5 billion views? Nevertheless, you can often take a number of factors into account in advance to prevent your video commercial from becoming a flop.

The science of viral campaigns is starting to take shape. Thanks to recent developments in science, campaign leaders can leave less and less to chance. One of these studies has been conducted by Dr. Thales Teixeira, assistant professor at Harvard Business School. Eye-tracking scanners have been used to look at exactly what people look at when they are viewing a video advertisement. Thanks to special hardware that analyzes facial expressions, it was possible to map the feelings that come up with viewers when they are viewing an advertisement. In his article, he gives 4 tips to turn a video into a viral.

Four Tips To Make  A Video Viral By Dr. Thales Teixeira

1. Use your brand subtly

When people watch videos, they are looking for objects like a mouth and eyes, but also logos. If the logo is too prominent, they stop looking because they have unknowingly resisted forced branding. If you show your brand a little more subtly, where it is part of the whole, then you have 20% more viewers in your pocket. A good example is the ” Happiness Factory ” from Coca-Cola. The Coca-Cola logo is shown repeatedly, but always very quickly and very subtly. The content must, of course, be so interesting that, even without showing the brand, it is interesting for people to view.

2. Start immediately with a moment of happiness or surprise

After analyzing thousands of responses to the videos, the researchers found out exactly at what time people stopped looking: when they got bored. And there are only two factors that hold attention and that can keep people looking: joy and surprise. Traditional TV commercials work towards a certain climax or there is a surprising end. However, modern online viewers must be enthralled in the first seconds to watch the video. You can see that for example in this video clip where the so-called Apple presenter is completely surprised by Mr. Bean who continues to dance the rest of the movie.

3. Build an emotional roller coaster

Even though the video with Mr. Bean able to interest people in the beginning so that they keep watching, it does not necessarily mean that they watch the entire video. It is too much of the same. The aforementioned research shows that videos that create emotional stability are less effective than videos that create emotional ups & downs. The “Clothing Drive” commercial from Bud Light makes excellent use of this roller coaster technique. Throughout the entire film, the viewer is constantly surprised with fun and funny scenes, with increasingly naked people appearing.

4. Surprise, but don’t shock

Ensuring that people continue to watch a video for 1 minute is perhaps not that difficult, but ensuring that it is widely shared. Research shows that people are inclined to keep watching when they are shocked, but the shock effect does not contribute to the will to share the video, on the contrary. Unlike ” Clothing Drive “, where one is somewhat shocked with nudity, Evian’s “Roller Babies” commercial is often shared. This video, which has used all of the above techniques, was able to get more than 50 million views on YouTube and can therefore safely call itself a ‘viral’.

Campaign from the heart

If your campaign is well-designed and creative from a strategic point of view, the above four tips will give you a boost. But more is needed to achieve the mindset and behavioral change among viewers. To start with: every campaign must be conducted from the heart. From your own conviction and from your will to give people a better life. Otherwise, it makes no sense; what does not come from the heart will not touch the hearts of others. The success of both political campaigns teaches us that your ideas should not be independent of the ideas of the people or the target group. Every campaign leader must learn to get into the stereotypes and create a campaign that reflects the dreams of the people or the target audience.

The film ‘No’ won an ‘Art Cinema’ award during the Cannes film festival and was nominated for the Oscar in the ‘best foreign film’ category. The film premiered in the Netherlands at the end of January. More than that. ‘No’ has inspired a group of creatives in our country to set up the NO (W) collective with the aim of connecting creatives, marketers, artists and filmmakers who want to use their talent for social change campaigns. It is possible for everyone to join you .

Due to a lack of (real) democracy, Leonid Rybakov no longer makes political campaigns. He helps companies come up with brands that reflect the needs of the people, something he has learned in politics. And with great success.

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