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So, all the brand and marketing directors<\/em><\/span><\/a> who are challenged not to look up from their Ledger of Lack<\/em><\/span>( of viral content<\/em><\/span>) and holding fastidiously onto their KPI sheets, the magical request that echoes at every client meeting ” Abracadabra<\/em><\/span>–make us a viral video<\/em><\/span> ” resulting in eyes that twitch non stop and ears that wax up(in defense?).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n There is a thought that goes around: that viral video creation is like baking a cake – follow a recipe, put it in the oven and voila- 10 Million views later you have the next Gangnam Style<\/em><\/span>. And it never surprises that this supposedly Steven Spielberg style production<\/em><\/span> and Christopher Nolan style execution<\/em><\/span> has to be delivered on a student film budget. And though we wanted this to go viral last week, tomorrow is fine( yes, with 18 revisions).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And all these czars of branding<\/em><\/span><\/a> and marketing<\/em><\/span><\/a> are well versed with what has worked and will drop case studies like a hot potato. Here are the more common ones(inspiration if you will):-<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n And just to balance things out, let me add a devastatingly real-world example- who can forget Pepsi<\/em><\/span>‘s 2017 Kendall Jenner<\/em><\/span> protest ad? Boy did it go viral. And how. Only as a masterclass in uniting the internet in collective outrage<\/em><\/span>. They wanted to go viral, they went viral and ended up asking WHYral<\/em><\/span>? So, be careful what you wish for. Don’t tempt fate.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n No, adding a dancing cat won’t automatically make your B2B enterprise software video break the internet. Though I admit watching Mr.Whiskers explain cloud computing would be more entertaining than your current PowerPoint. What happened? Cat got your tongue<\/em><\/span>?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The most viral things<\/em><\/span> on the internet are usually accidents or authentic moments<\/em><\/span>. Strong emotions<\/em><\/span>! \u00a0Unfortunately, “mild interest in our new product features” isn’t one of them. Neither is “corporate-approved enthusiasm<\/em><\/span>.”<\/p>\n But My Nephew<\/span><\/em> said\u2026\u201d Expert<\/p>\n \u201cMy nephew said we need more memes. He\u2019s 14 and really good at Fortnite<\/em><\/span>.\u201d<\/p>\n Ah, the nephew\u2014the unsung hero of marketing strategy<\/em><\/span>. Who needs data-driven insights when you have a teenager who once got 50 likes on a TikTok. Outrage on Planet Social.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n So, the next time you get a brief that smells or sounds like this ” we don’t know what we want but we will know it when we see it<\/em><\/span>” , you know what to do.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I am quite keen to know who invented metrics<\/em><\/span>. Especially when I hear the brand say we will measure the success of the campaign by the number of likes metrics<\/em><\/span>. That directly translates to ” if it doesn’t get a million likes, it is a failure<\/em><\/span> “. Forget brand recall, sales, or long-term impact\u2014let\u2019s judge the entire campaign by how many strangers double-tapped on Instagram.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And last but not the least, as you are concluding the meeting – the one for the road( or trash you decide)-coming from the #<\/em>Hash You Like It Brigade<\/em><\/span>–\u00a0 Just add #Viral<\/em> <\/span>and #Trending<\/em><\/span>. That should do it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n All this has left me totally confused as to what should be the new pecking order:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n ” <\/strong>Pls make a viral video<\/em><\/span>\u201d<\/strong>\u2014would this be a request that ranks right up there with \u201c<\/strong>Make it pop<\/em><\/span>,\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>Use AI<\/em><\/span>,\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>Can you make the logo bigger?<\/em><\/span>\u201d. <\/strong>Pray, tell me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The two lines are no different. Create a Viral Video and Make Me Win a Lottery. It is the equivalent of saying, ” Horse riding is a no-no but I do want to head a cavalry regiment”. If wishes were horses… So, all the brand and marketing directors who are challenged not to … Continue reading “The Quintessential Client Brief: Make a ” Viral Video “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1911"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1915,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1911\/revisions\/1915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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