iClickNation.com

In my last post, I talked about pushing the limits of social norms. One of the best people at doing this is Sarah Silverman. The video below has been viewed over 4 million times.

UPDATE:

Here’s Jimmy’s reply.

Also, check out this great spoof featuring Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Great editing.

If you're new to my blog, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Sometimes you have to do something jarring or unusual to get noticed. Sometimes you can’t wait for something magical to happen. You have to take matters into your own hands and stage an event. Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn’t:

7 Viral Videos You Didn’t Know Were Staged
This article exposes the truth about some well known viral videos. It has some great footage of how these “fake” videos were made.

Firefox Marketing Campaign Goes Too Far
During a recent viral marketing campaign Mozilla did a statistical comparison between Firefox and Internet Explorer users. Unfortunately, some of their stats tried to convince us that we’re less likely to get Cancer if we use Firefox.

To get noticed, marketers occasionally push the limits of widely accepted social standards. Sometimes, things backfire.

Although this footage of how Pauly Shore made his video is successful in its own right. Hmmm. That’s one way to give a campaign new legs.

Okay…this Japanese viral marketing video is weird. Prepare yourself. This is not the Ronald McDonald your grew up with.

Although, check out the first Ronald McDonald commercial. It’s equally as creepy.

via viralavatar

If you’re planning to release a viral marketing idea into the webisphere, you should check to see if your campaign passes my four simple rules of viral marketing.

1. Simple to Understand - if you can’t describe the concept in one sentence, it’s probably not going to work.
2. Simple to Use - keep it dead simple for the user to use - life is complicated enough.
3. Simple to Find - seed your viral marketing campaign (blogs, emails, ads, websites, etc) and make it easy to find.
4. Simple to Share - make it easy for people to tell others.

If your campaign can accomplish these four simple things, your viral marketing idea has a much better chance of being click worthy.

After looking at hundreds of viral videos, microsites, emails, and services, I started to notice several patterns.

Here’s a list of the most common benefits/incentives that make people want to share a viral idea:

1. Benefit in Numbers - To personally benefit from the product you need to sign up other people. More people the bigger the benefit (e.g. Skype).
2. Competition - This usually involves challenging someone to a game (e.g. can you top my score).
3. Entertain Others - Make other people laugh…the louder, the better.
4. Influencer- Allows you to become the leader of the pack. Spreading the message will help build your reputation as an influencer or leader (the more you influence, the more powerful you become).
5. Social Needs - Desire to be part of the herd or share an experience.
6. Fear - Motivation based on fear of death, illness, isolation, shame, etc.
7. Knowledge Gap - A situation is created where the visitor has to invite people to fill in gaps in her/his knowledge. Family history is a good example of this.
8. Financial Gain - Commission, free samples, bribes…you get the picture.
9. Entertain Yourself- Ability to surprise, trick, scare or embarrass someone.
10. Ultruism - Help friends just because it’s the right thing to do. It gives you that warm fuzzy feeling.
11. Cause-Driven- These campaigns are centred around a cause or charity. Sharing them with other people makes us feel like we’re helping someone and that other people identify with our plight.

I’ve also posted this on a marketing wiki called Whamwiki.com. If you’d like to expand the list, simply visit the wiki and post your additions.

And hey, why not use reason 4 or 10 to share this article with your friends and colleagues (wink wink, nudge nudge).

Photo credit: Grant Neufeld