Situationist Guy Debord once said that art is disturbance – a red-rash slap in the grey face of eight-to-five routine. Similarly, that is what viral marketing does – it stops us in our tracks and engages us. Viral has been around for more than a decade. Probably it was the producers of The Blair Witch Project who consciously combined hype, word of mouth publicity and underground sharing to such an effect that the 1999 American horror film became one of the most successful independent films ever. Its success is even more appreciated when considering that the film went viral in an age when social media didn’t even exist.

A medium which is based on insistent whispering has been transformed into a loud shout

2013 was the year when viral went mainstream. That is paradoxical in itself – a medium which is based on insistent whispering has been transformed into a loud shout. And yet, despite establishing itself as a regular form of marketing, viral hasn’t lost any of its shocking, surprising qualities. From Evian’s Baby and Me video, Dove’s real beauty campaign and Pepsi Max’s test-drive footage featuring professional stock car racing driver Jeff Gordon to photos of Grumpy Cat, which catapulted the mixed-breed puss to internet stardom and a movie deal, viral was all the rage.

Despite first appearances, viral isn’t that random. Behind the seemingly casual approach of successful viral campaigns is a very smart plan to take a message to its maximum referral, exposure and influence.

The golden rules of viral

Once upon a time

Like any other form of marketing, viral needs to tell a great story. If your narrative is compelling, then viewers or readers will feel the need to let others know about it. Because that is the essence of a great story – you will feel the need to tell others about it and share it.

The product you want to sell is only there by association. In Evian’s Baby and Me video, for instance, the product only makes an appearance in the last five seconds – it was the babies that pushed the video to more than 70 million views.

Grab attention

There are endless messages all vying for attention. They are all your competitors – to emerge on top, you need to grab the viewer’s attention in the first five seconds. If you don’t, then the viewer will move on to something more interesting.

How do you do it? There is no one answer. It could be a dramatic intro, a thrilling action sequence, or the face of a celebrity. Turkish Airlines use the latter technique very effectively. In their Selfie Shootout campaign, they present football legend Lionel Messi and basketball star Kobe Bryant in the first three seconds. No wonder the video has been viewed 136 million times, and counting.

Surprise

Once you have caught the viewer’s attention, you need to sustain it through engagement – your story needs to evoke emotions, whether it is smiling, laughing or crying. One of the best tactics to do this is to surprise the viewer. But don’t go for shock tactics – if a story, picture or video are shocking, then the viewer will think twice before sharing it.

Care to share

Content may be king, but so is distribution. Your main aim is to get celebrities or influential people with thousands of followers to like and share your content – it’s the shares that guarantee views. If you don’t get enough shares and your content hasn’t gone viral in the first 24 hours, the chances are that it won’t.

Engage

So your content has gone viral and you have managed to engage with thousands of viewers. But that is not the end of the story. You need to generate more output which, despite being consciously viral, is still sudden and unpredictable. And that is the hardest part.