Hot topic of the week: Jennifer Aniston's viral video for Smartwater. Here's the video to watch if you haven't already seen it:
So what's my point of posting this video that is already deplete of discussion?
Bad viral videos are still viral.
The first major mistake of Smartwater: naming their viral video a "viral campaign". As my respected teacher of Digital Advertising at the University of Northern Iowa and aficionado of digital knowledge, Matthew Wilson so cleverly stated, the #1 rule of viral videos is don't call it a viral video, that's just lame. Viral is an organic state of extreme growth and it cannot do just that if people are told that it is supposed to spread like wildfire.
The second mistake of Smartwater's video was a bad video. What makes the video worth watching and then sharing with your friends? If you want to see Keenan Cahill, there are way funnier videos to watch. If you think Jennifer Aniston is hot and that's why you are watching the video, there is a video titled "Jennifer Aniston- The Hottest Woman on the Planet"; I'm sure you could see hotter images of her in that video than in the Smartwater video.
How did this bad viral video that was named viral, go viral (+6 million views to date)? There are no answers to this question because there are no magic rules to follow that will guarantee a successful viral campaign; it just happens. As David Meerman Scott, author of The New Rules of Viral Marketing, states, "It is virtually impossible to create a Web marketing program that is guaranteed to go viral; it requires a huge amount of luck and timing."
If I just told you there are not set rules to going viral, what are these "new rules of viral marketing" that Scott claims then? Rather than calling them rules of viral marketing, a better description would be "rules to turn the odds in your favor". If I have sparked your curiosity, I highly advise locating a copy of Scott's book and enjoying it with a glass of wine some evening. You may be able to figure out for yourself how this Smartwater viral campaign went viral despite some major faux pas.
I would say the main thing that made this go viral was just the fact that it featured Jennifer Aniston. It's easy to relate with a well-known person. After seeing so many of their movies, you almost feel like you know them even though you don't. If she was replaced with a no-name actor, I don't think this video would have gone viral.
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