Since T-mobile danced in Liverpool Street Station and Cadbury drummed with a gorilla, viral campaigns have become increasingly feasible for inclusion in corporate public relations strategies due to there ability to increase the length of, what would usually be, short-term news.
In the past 30 days – 4 out of the top 20 Viral Video Chart are company promotion:
- Number 3. Evian ‘Live Young’
- Number 9 & 14. Nike ‘Today was a Good Day’ and ‘Extended Version’
- Number 11. Kuroshio Sea ‘2nd Largest Aquarium Tank’
Yes we also see featured the standard wedding dance, music video previews and funny animal too, but from where I’m sitting…4 out of 20 is astonishing.
Looking specifically at the joy that are the Evian babies – we se from the below chart that not only are they being emailed and talked about, the watched count has been exploded with additional help from 3632 bloggers (3633 now) and 17551 comments to reach an impressive 24798637 views.
Evian Video Campaign
It can still be a difficult, technical and not to mention risky marketing tool to use for small businesses but the following case study sent to me this week, may install hope to those. This online green gardening store demonstrates how the video, viral marketing tool can be adapted to suit the niche business and doesn’t need to be shocking, hilarious or celebrity-based to get coverage across the web –a little quirky helps though!
Wiggly Wigglers created Wiggly Podcast and Wiggly Cinema – available on iTunes and their website, to boost traffic to the website and share gardening and general ‘green’ information with the Wiggly Community. Since launching the social media campaign in 2005, they have received over 100 5-star reviews, great coverage and recently won the Global Small Business Excellence Award! Not a bad outcome at all for a £250 start-up marketing budget.
They have also implemented a blog, Facebook and Twitter site – updated regularly with industry news, gardening tips and quirky thoughts. This campaign should be a hugely positive and uplifting starting point for other SMEs out there. No excuses from those readers worrying they’re not ‘techy’ enough either – Wiggly Wigglers owner and online marketing coordinator, Heather Gorringe, is a farmer.
On a final note and referring back to the extension of promotion length – viral campaigns mixed with social media = PR future.
Where did I leave my digital camcorder anyway…?
Happy Monday,
Lauren
