Releasing viral content and making a video go viral relies on the content being good (ex. entertaining and/or unique and/or educational and/or news, etc). And improving your potential for success depends on the tools you use, the methods of syndication that are employed, the timing of actual release of materials across various portals and communication channels (ex. press releases, uploads, etc). Tools you will need to learn and use will play a crucial role in being able to use certain channels, provide better information to viewers and make materials easy to reference on search engines and libraries. Involving assets such as previous relationships, references and co-workers will serve as a fundamental base for communication and respecting your desired audience will produce “audience attention” encouraging the retention of the viral materials because interaction and conversation are what viral is all about. Making the News is the most important part of going viral. And timing is crucial, especially when clients have deadlines and goals they need need to meet (ex. the latest model of a branded product).
This is a very basic introduction to going viral. You’ll have to research each step on your own, and I won’t lie, if you are a novice, you are going to need a lot of dedication, some money to buy tools (good ones are not cheap like a computer with editing software to begin being efficient) and legal advice (you may have to reference an entertainment lawyer with interactive experience for things like talent releases, distributors agreements, etc), and a substantial investment of your time to learn the ins and outs and acquire technical knowledge.
I read some tips on WebProNews about going viral the other day that I completely have to disagree with. One of the things they wrote was “do not spend a lot of money”. What this was based on I’m not sure, but I assure you if you are a film maker you know the gear alone is not cheap. If you are handling other peoples materials, and you don’t have good, well written legal agreements to be able to distribute content, you could end up loosing your shirt in a court room. I don’t even want to link the article because it was full of terrible advice for anyone doing this professionally.
This basic introduction features more information on some accounts then I had when I first started. And this will be the best blog post I have ever seen on the topic (no, I have not read everyone’s blogs, and I encourage people to leave links in the comments to other good resources, especially if they are better, provide more detail or argue potentially better practices, all of which will have follow attributes, provided they link to good resources, that are not black hat, malicious or feature adult content in nature).
Why I wrote this post about Viral Marketing and Viral Video Distribution
I wrote this for anyone who wants to read it, I wrote it to give a piece of me that anyone considering me for their viral marketing needs should read to understand my methods, and so that they know they are getting more than see. I wrote this because some people think this game can easily be done b anyone, anytime. In a few distinct cases, it is easy. But to ensure a broader chance for success, there are many steps to proceed with. To monetize there are many agreements to understand.
I know these steps inside out. I have done them all numerous times. I have done them over the years and the portals, tools, services and styles I employ have changed many times, and will keep changing. Twitter, the best tool today, was not major factor just one year ago. This article is begging for recommendations and good arguments, so start promoting your opinions.
The Basics of Releasing a Viral Video
1) Prepare unique tags and labels for videos (and make sure they are relavent to the content). Spamming tags and labels will produce very poor results because the audience you are looking for is not going to be “your audience”. Pick labels only related to your content. It’s ok to get creative, as long as it is relevant. Seriously, do not abuse this, you won’t be helping yourself. Your goal should be to target potential audiences, while satisfying their search needs, as opposed to appearing in every search. For some clients I will spend a day or more just doing this and editing the list.
2) Have proof and credit people. Be prepared to certify that you own the content, have rights to distribute and have releases for on camera and audio talent (very easy to produce yourself or there are plenty of releases that are available online for a small fee-mine was written by an entertainment lawyer). Some of the channels / portals you will be using will require that you supply proof of ownership / copyright or the right to distribute and talent releases, especially the ones that pay. That is something you should actually be collecting before you begin rolling on any video or recording audio. Credits don’t need to be on content, sometimes they just annoy the audience, but your submission information must mention them, and credits can also provide satisfaction for many viewers, who may want to reference the creators. More importantly, credits on materials can prove how content went viral in many ways.
3) Convert your content into the various file types you will need (ie. flash-swf or flash-flv, mov, mpeg, avi etc). Make sure you output various sizes for each and label them well accordingly. When dealing with MOV and MPEG file formats, make sure you enter the ID3 tag information (ie. author, date, title, notes=description that should be 100 characters average in sentence from-very important). ID3 tags are generally just audio information, but on some video portals they are going to make or break you). Check to make sure all your outputs are synced and up to par for picture quality, color, sound and frame.
4) Register and contact the Portals you will be using. Start your sign up process for all video portals almost immediately. If you are distributing content for another person / third party, it is going to take some extra time (up to a month or two in some cases) because you are going to have to phone or email a request to many portals to send you a distributors agreement. That is when you will need your releases, and believe me, you want to make this as painless as possible for all parties involved, so have the paper work you need ready to go and a fax machine ready to go. Read the requirements of every portal carefully, and personally I suggest you make a hard copy file of requirements and paper work for every portal.
5) Know the rules. Always read about what different portals are looking for (ex. don’t send a music video to a how-to site). Abusing the rules will get you banned very quickly. If you are planning on putting in pre roll, mid roll or post roll advertising (not recommended if you are trying to push a video for your own branding or a clients) like what you might see on long tail video, find out if you are permitted to do so by the video portal(s) you are submitting to. If you are placing the advertising in yourself, be sure to visit the IAB and read the section on Digital Video Guidance(http://www.iab.net/iab_products_and_industry_services/508676/digitalvideo). Try to adhere to recognized and decent standards whenever possible without fail.
6) Prioritize file formats. There is a priority when it comes to making choices on video sites that will help your viewers. It goes something like this. HD, MOV, MPEG, Flash FLV, Flash SWF, AVI. No, I did not forget about the other formats, you should really be avoiding them. When it comes to codecs (very important), that is a lesson, possibly a book in itself and will not be covered here. Those using Final Cut Studio or Adobe Premiere will probably already have a handle on codecs and outputs. The most common one that will be requested is h264.
7) Make a note of approval times for submitted content for each video portal you are submitting to. You will want videos to be approved as close together as possible across all channels. You may have to run a test for each one individually. This is extremely important, and I learned this the hard way. It can make a 5000% percent difference in my experience for some content.
Check approval and Submission standards. When doing hard copy submissions (ie. tape or DVD), inquire about submission approval times early and confirm closer to release date (these can change quickly and often). Make sure all hard copies are submitted with documentation, contact information, labeling and meet the various portal requirements and match or exceed minimum standards when possible (ex. if the portal is wants PAL, you can also send an NTSC version-it has come up in the past as a useful practice).
9) Negotiate. Just because someone says they pay $XX/ per play or per video does not mean it’s not negotiable. Everything is negotiable friends. Everything. You won’t have luck if your content sucks, and you will just turn people off if you are pushing garbage, but every portal wants quality. Those with a good track record are always the first ones through the door.
10) Prepare your press release. Don’t write blatant self promotion. Write news that people want. Don’t stuff the wires with the same press release. Write 2 or three variations tops, and only pick a few good services. If you are really betting on this, go all the way and hire a PR person or publicist. Press releases are a major part of success. Don’t rely on bloggers for advice for this, no matter how popular they are. Trust people who have been editors at major news publications, and PR companies that represent major brands and public figures. Ignore bloggers and SEO’s with no public relations experience or interaction, those folks are going to be working for you in a minute. Computer jockey SEO’s are 4th tier players in this game. Your press release is going to create the keywords they use to help you go viral in headlines, not the other way around. Don’t fail at producing a scintillating and informative headline. Don’t fail at producing highly informative and efficient copy. Don’t fail at producing good contact information where someone is standing by to answer the queries regarding your release (or brand). Don’t fail to be on time to meet the dates mentioned for release on materials like press releases. Don’t use wires or press release services that appeal to everyone, unless you have the time to do a little extra, start with pro services like VPO that will likely come with a fee. Pay the piper(s) or risk failure.
11) Create your supporting materials. Prepare all your subsequent blog posts, Tweets, article submissions, supporting media like pictures or “making of” footage in advanced, if you are using a CMS like Wordpress, or Mambo, get your content ready and save it as a draft (remember to change dates later if you have to). If you are hand coding web pages, have them edited and ready to go, and hire an editor to check the content.
12) Social Bookmarking Accounts. Oke doke, you are getting warmer. Now sign up to ALL RELAVENT social bookmarking services you want to use, and create your profile, and be active bookmarking related content by OTHER SOURCES that are both relevant and quality. Practice tagging, labeling and commenting on each service. THERE IS NO SHORT CUT.
13) Prepare personal invites to (a) business associates (b) friends (c) people you want to see the video but don’t know about you, the brand your represent etc. BE PERSONAL! TAKE THE TIME. This core group is your greatest ally and should contain people you want to work with or already work with. They are your most precious commodity on the first, second and third round of release. Don’t abuse them or treat them like cattle. If you are dong this for a client, do not advertise yourself, you are insignificant, and you did not build the brand they are staked on. The only exception is when you are the primary contact, which you should only be on your materials. Do not separate clients from their customers by throwing yourself in the mix. It is not your right. With clients you are representing ALWAYS GET APPROVAL ON EVERYTHING. Every little thing, no matter how much time it takes and don’t worry about schedule, it is their brand, their right and their responsibility. While frustrating at times, do not break this rule. You should also prepare MMS text messages with something like a picture if you have a lot of contacts. IF YOU CAN PHONE PEOPLE PERSONALLY, DO IT.
14) Prepare social networking and link up all your appropriate social bookmarking accounts, email accounts, web pages and blogs. Test to make sure you are linked up and use tools to tie your accounts together so that publishing across things like MySpace, Twitter, Blogger, Wordpress, Tumblr, etc is done in a click!. You don’t have time for a mess or individual submissions. Personally, I could publish to 1400 digital portals in 8 hours (which is never required), and believe me, I don’t do them individually.
15) Prepare for launch. You are basically ready to go if all these steps were followed and researched well and your accounts for the services you will be using are standing by.
16) Send out Hard Copies. Fed EX, UPS or use your favourite courier with package tracking to send hard copies to meet target dates for release. Remind people (using phone, text, email, fax etc) that you are sending the materials and encourage them to contact you when they have received them if possible without being pushy.
17) Release Press Releases on Monday morning and 1 AM (in the time zone your key target audience is in) announcing the arrival of the new content. Contact some exclusive news outlets and send them the materials (if you don’t have contacts and are not comfortable making them, your PR person would have really helped here).
18) Begin digital submissions to the most popular, useful and key portals.
19) Publish supporting materials. Once your major submissions (to the most important or popular portals is done, publish your blogs and webpages and link up the video to the posts / pages.
20) Now put your email campaign on the job (I use Email Campaign), attach press releases and links. Use at least 1 minute between messages or risk being junk mail, and use separate emails (not bulk CC). Don’t worry about the timing (even if it is going to take a week).
21) Now put you mobile text service on the job, and send out those prepared MMS messages.
22) Get those social bookmarks cooking and start bookmarking your content with the established accounts and pre-prepared labels and tags.
23) Notify your client their campaign is active within 2 hours of start.
24) Finish submissions to smaller portals, and use those bookmarks again.
25) Use the live stream. Use Twitter. Your Tweets should be going and encourage re-tweets. Direct Message twitter followers that will be interested with personal messages and links.
26) Do steps 16 through 25 again for supporting materials like “the making of”.
27) Follow the metrics and support your content by responding to comments on the most popular portals for your video.
28) Eat something. Shower, you probably need it.
29) Stay on those comments, getting live users is super important.
30) Download your metrics every 12 hours for clients, if this is for you, you might want them for future reference.
31) Take a break. Go to bed after 24 hours of commenting and submissions (if you didn’t have shifts of people helping). It’s out of your hands now.
32) Prepare day by day analysis for clients with suggestions for future releases or do it for yourself.
33) Find yourself. You are not done. Now look for blogs, tweets, news and reference of your materials online.
34) Plugin your new Web 2.0 Ecosystem of information. Start linking to them your yourself on your blogs, web pages and social media accounts (ie. Facebook, Twiiter, Digg etc). Let your friends, co-workers and associates know what is happening socially/virally and provide links to the places the content is doing best. Don’t pitch. That is weak. Don’t sell, that is not Web 2.0 communication. Do get people involved, inspire them, invite them and be personal. Your goal is to involve them and make them part of “it”.
35) By now you should have some “authorities” interested your content. And they will likely begin to contact you. Here is where your short viral video now gets to really experience the power of true viral communications. This is where you get to discuss details about your viral materials content with people who want more than just a snack sized piece of information. If you were a software company for example that created a better way to create a common product like documents for example, you get to highlight the programming and tools used to create your software, or more importantly, discuss why your product is better because of unique features like sharable libraries or templates and more accessible because you employed “freemium business practices” and more usable because of better interfacing and more efficient because it perhaps created a better workflow that could commonly be related to non-users of that document software that maybe needed to understand the process of creation to better understand potential uses. These communications can produce things like print articles that will extend your viral campaigns life, promote the brand, and introduce a new audience. These communications will also lay a foundation for future releases for the brand you were promoting using a viral campaign.
36) Keep linking, keep updating, keep interacting through things like comments and forums, and don’t try to CONTROL your campaign. Even misinformation has its uses like a producing reasons to begin a thread in a forum that dispels myths and displays your brands best qualities like educating and entertaining your audience, and can do things like add a friendly face to your brand that will have wide appeal for solid PR value.
37) Do it all all again with a new angle, some fresh information and stay on top of it. Keep track of the channels that allowed you to monetize and see solid ROI. Keep in touch with the authorities that got involved and showed interest in your content and brand.
38) Take advantage of the hype. Finally, produce exclusive information for some authorities, non web media outlets (ex. radio or tv), partner companies and premier retailers that speaks to their audience and offer it to them.
39) What are your results like? If your content was good (defined earlier), it’s probably been a month or more, and you should have seen more than a million impressions already.
40) ROI and Brand Awareness. After you cross the 60 to 120 day period you should try to do the impossible. Back track, and attempt to see what your viral campaign impressions add up to. If you had a client, they will only care about the bottom line (ROI), but you want to be able to show something else, a little thing called brand awareness. That brand awareness is what fuels the attraction to viral campaigns, because if your client was selling something like software for example, their sales peoples jobs should have just been made easier to do because they will now be able to start a sales pitch by saying “I’m from Company X that makes XX”, rather than, “I’m from Company X that makes software that does X and is called XX and is like Company Z that you have heard of”.
Some Basic Viral Marketing Tools and resources
This is not nearly all of the tools you can use, it’s just a list of some great tools I have used.
Final Cut Studio (Mac editing software).
TubeMogul – Syndication tool for videos that can unite several video portals and accounts, offers social promotional tools like bookmarking in the interface. The premium version supplies important metrics than can assist in showing ROI.
Adobe Premiere (PC editing software).
Email Campaign (Mac) – To send email notifications.
Adobe CS4 – for content creation and supporting media creation.
UPS – For sending hard copies out.
Cannes Lions – Awards. Learn about the best PR tactics and most successful advertising campaigns for inspiration. If you are viral marketing and experience great success, submit your campaign for consideration (if you are allowed to).
Meda Futurist – Gerd Leonards blog about web 2.0.
Media Buyer Planner – See where major brands are purchasing media or make the news here.
New York Times – Don’t get crushed by someone elses headlines, Keep up with world, and learn the language of the world’s finest journalists.
Tech Crunch – Michael Arrington’s killer blog about anything tech related. Often covers important trends and news about the services and tools you will be using.
ARS Technica – Online tech resource that covers topics and trends about the tools you will be using.
IAB – Everything interactive advertising based. They set industry standards and recommend good practices.
Video Content Portals
This not my complete list, in fact its an old list, I have an updated one with rankings for clients, but its pretty darn good if your just getting started. And quality considering it’s for a free tutorial on how to avoid having to hire me.
A to Z directory list of Video Portals – DIGITAL:
#
* 3DD Digital – Produce and license/publish Live footage, Music, Documentaries.
* 5min – DIY (Do it yourself) videos and instructional content
* 7digital – MP3’s and Music Videos for the UK market
A
* Ahora LLC - Wholesale to the Spanish Market
* Alluc.org – A movie portal. Links with illegal bit torrent searches.
* Arcor – German Digital TV Broadcaster
B
* Balkan News Corporation – BTV owns and operates cable and satellite channels in Bulgaria.
* Black Entertainment Television (BET) – Mostly music video’s. Urban programming.
* Black20-Unique video portal and place for vlogs.
* Blastro.com – Music Videos on-demand featuring renowned artists from today’s urban, dance and latin music scenes plus movie reviews and original shows.
* Blip.tv – Made for Podcasting and Vlogging posts. Allows publishers to share in ad revenue.
* Break – Video Sharing network that shares ad revenue with users.
* BrightCove – Brightcove is a video distribution platform and service
* Broadband Television Network Corporation-Broadband Television Network Corporation, 1001 Penn Ave Nw Ste 600s, Washington, DC 20004-2505
C
* Code 7 Entertainment, Inc.(Movieflix)
* Country Channel – Anything country life based goes here. Farming, music, events and more
* Crackle – High quality video portal for wide variety of content.
* Crackspace - Hip-Hop and urban content portal
D
* DailyMotion – Youtube-like video sharing network where original content producers can brand a channel and portal HD content
* Der Spiegel – German News portal
* Diversion Media – One stop shop for quality content. Production, Encoding, Syndication, Casting, Post-production, Online Distribution
* Dragon New Media – Content for web and mobile.
E
* earthTV – One of the coolest projects on the web. Timelapse and live video of places all over the world. This is a marketing opp dying to happen.
* eBaum’s World – Video sharing network.
* EVTV1.com – EVTV1 brings you the best and most diverse video clips. From history and news, to comedy and bizarre
F
* Filmnight Digital – Feature Films.
* FORA.tv – High quality international video portal and sharing network.
* Free.fr – French cable portal.
G
* Globe7 – Popular desktop or mobile application for all content.
* Graspr – Instructional Content.
* green.tv – Green news portal.
* GUBA LLC. – Video sharing.
H
* Heavy.com – Most funny videos, music related.
* Howcast – How-to videos. Producers can share ad revenue.
* Hulu – A Quality content portal, not available in many regions outside of USA yet.
I
* i2TV - Users can upload videos and get them broadcast on the i2TV channel.
* Imeem – For iPhone users
* India Broadcast Live
* Internet Broadcast Corp – A News Portal
* Invision – Video
* Io Group/TitanMedia – Gay Adult video and pictures.
J
* Jokaroo Entertainment – User generated funny videos
* Justin.tv – Users (Producers) can form their own private channel and broadcast live. Great uses possible for live events.
K
* Kush TV -Independent online broadcaster.
L
* LATV – Mexican videos.
M
* MediaScrape – News Portal
* Megavideo – Various videos. HD capability.
* Memocast – Russian Videos and films
* MetaCafe – Youtube style video portal that allows publishers/producers of original video content to share in Advertising revenue.
* Modern Times Group (MTG) – A Swedish broadcaster that broadcasts in 29 countries and reaches more than 100,000,000 people.
* Mojo Supreme - Network of various sites with various niches.
* Moviebeam – A high quality content provider network.
* MuchMusic – Mainly music videos (rock, pop, hip-hop, metal, alternative, dance).
* My Damn Channel – Internet TV Channels with unique, better than average quality content.
* MySpace – Portals for various kinds of video.
* MyVideoDaily – High quality news video content portal
N
* Nautanki.tv
* Network Live – Broacasts live events.
* Network2 – Video Sharing network. Still in beta.
O
P
* Penthouse Media Group
* Porn.com – Adult Videos
Q
R
* Rainbow Media – Rainbow media produces, distributes and manages content for brands like AMC, IFC, Sundance Channel, Voom HD Networks.
* Rakuten, Inc. – A Japanese Shopping and information portal.
* Reeltime – Still in beta. Films and TV stations available online.
* ResearchChannel – Educational, news worthy, scientific. This portal is for education content.
* Revver – A youtube like site where content producer can share ad revenue.
S
* Sclipo – An educational learning social network. Eductional content.
* Shanda Interactive Entertainment - Content for China
* Stupid Videos – A video sharing network with a wide variety of content.
* Supernovatube – Video sharing network.
* Subaye – Various types of content for the Chinese market.
T
* TasteTV – Recipes, Cooking and just about anything you wood expect from a Food based portal.
* Televisa – Portal for Spanish content.
* Teacher Tube
* Ten Alps
* TinselVision
* Titan Global Entertainment
* Turning Point
* TV Links
* TVRI Free Record Shop
U
* Usen Corp – Content Portal.
* UUSee
V
* Vakaka
* VBS.tv – Five stars from Pulledin. Mix of domestic and international news, pop and underground culture coverage, and the best music in the world.
* Veoh – Video Sharing network
* VeryFunnyAds – TBS powered TV commercial website.
* Vibe – Professional Urban content.
* Viddler – Video Sharing network.
* Video Arts – Business related.
* Vimeo – Video Sharing network.
* Voddler
* VODone
* VVSky Broadband – Various services. HQ video ondemand for broadband users in China.
* Videoegg – Serves advertising and runs popular video portals.
* vlaze.com – not quite sure, but it looks a vlogging and short clip site.
W
* Webcastr – Video Sharing network
X
Y
* Yahoo – World’s second largest portal.
* Yam.com – Korean portal
* YouAreTV – Video Sharing network.
* Youtube -World’s biggest video sharing network.
Z
* Zango – Content portal.
* Zattoo - TV station portal with lots of European content.
Wow that is a lot of work! Who can do this for me?
Firstly me, if you have professional content. I can’t make people watch what they don’t want to see. I can’t, and will never again push junk (I admit I have pushed less than quality content in the past). But I would love to manage viral campaigns for brands I admire, especially those involved in film, music and gaming. As a film maker, I have used many premium tools like Final Cut 2 Studio. As a marketing company director I have created unique solutions and forms of communication. As a former live event producer I have also worked with cutting edge (bleeding edge) visual display technology and produced visually stimulating presentations. There is no way I am saying I am among the greatest artists, I live in Toronto where many far more talented artists live, but I am an efficient all-in-one solution that can do all the work required myself or manage and consult on the production of such a campaign. I am also a work-a-holic when I am passionate about something, which goes a long way in this field and that character compels me to keep learning.
Digital distribution is something I have been very passionate about for years. I’ve gone to major Trade Shows like Midem, Nab, Web 2.0, GSMA, Canadian Music Week and many more premium and industry leading events around the world to find out who the real players in the business are, which is why going with me is as your viral campaign manager is a wise choice. I have put the time in, spent significant resources and have played on the field before. There are truly few SEO experts, marketing experts, web gurus and advertising creatives that can say they have done the same tour. My knowledge is built on my obsession to learn, and my attraction to genius.
Major Advertising agencies and PR companies do an amazing job. They are much larger than me, and have the resources to make you soar, can offer a full package starting from creative to execution and the experience to communicate your brand very effectively. They know the major players and can provide more detailed reporting, metrics and strategy than me. Because they have more minds working on campaigns, it is very safe to say they have me beat hands down. This of course comes at a price.
When it comes to SEO’s and Web 2.0 professionals, I am far more competitive. I have worked in web, mobile, film, television, commercials, music videos, documentary, music, live production, news and print. That is one area other SEO’s and Web 2.0 professionals are going to have a hard time competing with me. Of course there are better people than me. Who is the greatest in my opinion? Gerd Leonard, hands down. If you can get him, you’d be nuts not to hire him for things like consulting on major brands, PR and Web 2.0. I’ve heard him speak, read him and seen him at many of the places that make a true expert. He is a futurist that has been right on many counts, and you can really learn from this man from Switzerland. He could train an army, if only there was an army willing to learn. I actually attribute much of my discovery to the Swiss futurist.
Why would I sell the other people? Am I getting some kind of residual or commission from them?
The answers are because I want clients to see and learn about the resources I learn from and people that led me to my understanding of things in Web 2.0 and SEO like the live stream (ie. Twitter) and new media business models like freemium (Both Mr. Leonard and Wired Mag’s Chris Anderson have written brilliant books and resources about the topic). And I DO NOT get any residual or commission for referral. I just share quality information because it makes me valuable, and is actually the fundamental new media practice that makes me an expert. No secrets, just good information. It’s a lot of work, dedication, passion and experience that has forged my knowledge. It’s also creative thinking and challenging so-called experts on theories by actually playing in the field that has enabled me to sort the junk out from the quality. And there is so much trash in the Web 2.0, new media marketing and SEO world that I shudder to think what some people are getting when hire another SEO or Web 2.0 person at times.
My rate for consulting starts at a very affordable $75/hour (55 hour minimum + presentation tools + venue rental + expendibles media production + travel and accommodation if required). This is a serious service for top brands, even if we are talking about putting a logo on the moon or an alien invasion of a ballpark or putting bulls testicles in energy drinks. You will laugh, you will learn about your competitors, you will learn about premium tools you need and about how to, you will learn about the best services to help you be efficient, you will be asked to think of ways to make your brand business model more new media friendly, you will learn about being in control by completely letting go of it, you will walk away in less than a week with information that took me years of research (still ongoing) to produce, and you will be able to produce a custom strategy that is unique for your brand.

Coca Cola viral-Coke maker sending 3 bloggers on all-expenses paid 206 country Blogging – Tweeting Campaign
Coca Cola has caught the viral marketing bug and is send three bloggers around the world in an all expenses paid trip to 206 countries were Coca Cola is sold to blog, tweet, produce video (for a shot at going viral) and to use web 2.0 and social media to cover there experiences during the trip.
The campaign is reminiscent and may be inspired by last years “worlds greatest job campaign” for the Queensland Tourism Board that promoted a job as “island caretaker” in the Great Barrier Reef region, and which was honored with a prestigious Cannes Lions PR award this year for it’s massive success raising awareness about the reef and it’s wonders. The man who the contest did go missing though (you’ll find a link below to a story on the subject).
Adam Brown, Director of Digital Communications for Coca Cola said, “it’s not about having the Coca-Cola brand first and foremost, center of the screen. It’s about telling the story that involves Coca-Cola, that involves the attributes of what Coca-Cola is about, optimism and joy.”
Credit to Mr. Brown and his team at Coca-Cola should be given because the company clearly understands that social media and viral marketing are long term, and not just one off attempts. I predict this one will be a winner because it makes some unlikely heroes out of the bloggers who many wannabes will follow in hopes of one day having the opportunity themselves, it should produce some interesting content, and will likely have many conversations about it like this article and in comments on other sites.
Social Media Marketing and Viral Campaigns are quickly becoming an integral part of many brands communications strategies that it’s impossible to ignore the potential of applying similar social media strategy to smaller companies because social media and web 2.0 are simply so accessible to anyone with some basic tools and imagination. There have been major fails by large brands in the past, but this story is one that looks like winner from the get go.
I’ll definitely be following this campaign to see the results.
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