I’m pretty sure when I mention the name, “Imran”, many of you will think of this guy.
Although successful, the Imran above isn’t the star of today’s post.
THIS is the Imran I’m talking about! The warrior who has eyes more powerful than his rifle. Back in July 2019, the Basic Military Training Centre (BMTC) Facebook page posted a photo album of recruits during their weapon presentation ceremony. Out of all the photos that were posted, this particular one above swept the nation by storm.
It almost look like Imran was the one who was presenting the rifle to his commander instead. I mean, look at his ferocious look and beefed-up arms. Who wouldn’t think that way?
I don’t know about you, but I have never spent so much time reading comments before. Take a look at this, just… hilarious!
Till date, the photo alone garnered over 700 shares and 300 comments over a short period of time, compared to other photos that garnered little to no reactions at all. Impressive for an army-related post. Salute!
Question now is, how do we get things to go VIRAL? Well, after watching a video on “Contagious: Why Things Catch On” presented by Jonah Berger, I quickly found out that there are six key steps to make a product or idea contagious.
#1 SOCIAL CURRENCY – APPEARANCE MATTER
How many of us go through the process of editing our photos before posting it on Instagram? This is the concept of social currency. People want to make sure they are looking at their best before sharing it to others.
Similarly, people evaluate whether a particular product or idea makes them look good before liking or sharing it.
#2 TRIGGERS – TOP OF THE MIND LEADS TO TIP OF THE TONGUE
Top of Mind Awareness (TOMA), something all businesses aim for. When I say name a smartphone brand, what’s the first brand that comes to mind? Most would say, “Apple”, right? This is exactly the concept of TOMA, being on the top of a person’s mind.
Viral content often possess effective triggers, be it in terms of sight, smell or sound etc. An article from Medium showed Jonah Berger saying that, “triggers not only get people talking, they keep them talking. Top of mind means tip of tongue.”
#3 EMOTIONS – SHARING IS CARING
Emotions arouses people to take action. Emotions can be deemed as positive and negative where positive leads to high arousal, vice versa. Again, Jonah Berger suggested in a Medium article that, “we need to focus on feelings; the underlying emotions that motivate people to action.”
Take a look at this Singtel advertisement where the emotional appeal was used to promote their services.
#4 PUBLIC – MONKEY SEE, MONKEY DO
A very good example of this concept would be the “ALS Ice Bucket Challenge“ that went viral couple of years back. The challenge was started by Pete Frates and Pat Quinn and spreaded like wild fire on social media. Even big name celebrities such as Dwayne Johnson and Will Smith did it. This is the concept of “social proof”, where people do things that others do if he/she deem it as the correct behavior. As Jonah Berger said in a Medium article, “The observability of a product has a huge impact on whether products and ideas catch on.”
#5 PRACTICAL VALUE – SHARING THINGS THAT HAS VALUE
Take a look at the KFC advertisement above, would you share it with your friends? No doubt I would. Who wouldn’t want a good deal right?
As Samuel Hum mentioned, delivering content that possess practical value allows people to be more incline in promoting it to others that they think might benefit from it.
#6 STORIES – A LONG LONG TIME AGO…
Kimberly A. Whitler stated that, “Storytelling is a fundamental human experience that unites people and drives stronger, deeper connections.” Jonah Berger also suggested that narratives are more engaging than facts itself. People stay for the conclusion if a story has a start, middle and end. Hence, with people being sucked into the story, they are more likely to share it with others as well.
Now we know in theory what are some factors that creates viral content, share with me your thoughts on any other viral content that you’ve came across, and why you think they became viral!
Cheers.
THE ROCKET MARKETER 
What an insightful post about Viral Marketing! I especially like the reference to Imran and might i say the Facebook comments are HILARIOUS! I personally am a avid fan of viral stuff, I tend to feel left out when my friends start talking about a viral post that I know nothing about. Thus, I always find myself always looking for potentially viral posts before my friends so that i have bragging rights! Haha!
For me, viral content are things that become popular overnight. For instance, there is a local company called Sqkii that launched campaign with a cash prize of $100,000, and it became the talk of the town overnight! Sqkii used the cash prize as an incentive and I feel they went viral because people couldn’t believe the $100,000 that they were offering.
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Hi Ryan, thanks for the reply! Interesting point on Sqkii! Personally, I felt that it was a great movement on their end to launch such an interesting campaign. Of course, one reason would be its attractive incentives. On the other hand, I felt that it really got people moving, and also facilitated a lot of interactions between those who participated. This whole campaign was also successful in building communities of like-minded individuals, who were eyeing for the prizes.
I once joined a Telegram group call “Skqii Hunters”, that has over a few thousand subscribers all helping each other with the hints provided. It was an interesting sight as I felt that money can be a sensitive issue to some, and to see everyone helping each other to try to win the prizes instead of being selfish, was quite a feat.
All in all, this campaign by Skqii has no doubt went viral, in fact, it has been viral ever since it started. Kudos to them!
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Hey there, this is a very interesting post about viral marketing! I’ve always thought that there wasn’t much to this sort of marketing and sometimes its purely accidental but how you’ve explained the 6 points behind viral marketing, it blew my mind!! Thanks so much and I think it’ll definitely be beneficial to me, in an everyday context.
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Hi Dave, thanks for the support, appreciate it! Exactly what I thought before knowing about the theories behind Viral Marketing.
It’s funny how I’ve been exposed to so much viral content thus far, but not know there are theories behind them. I guess its just the beauty of marketing. How we wouldn’t know about how much impact a simple content can make us feel, until we analyze it further.
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Hey, great read! Personally, one form of viral marketing that I found really interesting was the Dove Really Beauty Sketch Campaign. Although they did not feature any products during the advertisement, the message that Dove created was so powerful that it changed the way how woman viewed themselves and how Dove is viewed as company. Just like you mentioned, by using Emotions and Stories, Dove was able to create a viral campaign and this goes to show how powerful viral marketing can be when used appropriately!
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Hi Wei Han, thanks for the reply! Yes, I remember this campaign as well. To add on further, I feel that Dove has made a bold move by using women as the focal point of its campaign. Today, many brands are jumping on the “women empowerment” bandwagon as women are seen to be as strong and beautiful in their own ways. This also helps in building communities of like-minded individuals, which are what brands are aiming for. Again, it was a clever play by Dove to launch such a campaign and like you’ve mentioned, if used right, viral marketing can be a very useful tool in bringing messages across.
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Very in-depth and insightful post!
I agree that emotions do play a huge part on how a source can go viral. However, there’s many elements in the Principles of Contagiousness, which element would you say is the most important or are all equally important?
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Hi Brian, thanks for the reply! In my opinion, each element are important in their own ways. However, if I would pick an element that is equally important, I would say stories.
Like I’ve mentioned in the post, a good story would entice people to stay and yearn for more. If you think about it, behind every viral content, is some form of story-telling. Take for instance, the famous YouTuber, Casey Neistat. In the past, his videos are always going viral and he often credited it to story-telling. Hence, to reiterate, if I were to pick an element that is equally important, definitely stories.
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hi there, this post was super comprehensive! I’ve seen many failed viral campaigns on the web, so what do think are the common pitfalls a marketer should avoid?
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Hi Simone, thanks for the reply! Indeed there are quite a number of failed attempts of viral campaigns as seen on the web. I believe some pitfalls marketers should avoid could be:
1. Lack of research – Make sure to do thorough research on the type of content related to the product/service of the business, go through relevant and up-to-date information and learn from the flaws and mistakes of others
2. Lack of specific marketing goals and objectives – Define what are the key goals and objectives of the campaign and work closely towards it
3. Lack of unique selling point (USP) – Identify the USP of your product/service and use it to your advantage
Of course these are just some suggestions, you might want to do your own research to find out what are other common pitfalls to avoid as a marketer!
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