I drew an early version of this cartoon a few years ago and wanted to update it. Last week, I made my kids jealous by giving a talk at Disney. One of the themes from my talk was the topic of trying to create marketing that “goes viral”.
There is a mad rush to create “viral content”, as if viral was just one of many types of content that marketers can select in a creative brief. Pursuing viral can lead marketers astray, fixating more on the shares than the community they’re trying to reach. It can lead to “shockvertising.” Many brands act like one-hit wonders, chasing the elusive hit song rather than building a relationship with an audience over time.
A couple years ago, the marketing world went viral-crazy after Oreo tweeted an image reading “you can still dunk in the dark” moments after the power went out in the New Orleans Superdome during the Superbowl. It was the tweet that launched a thousand one hit wonders. Many brands opened real-time marketing news rooms to try to catch viral magic with one-off tweets timed to topical events like the Emmy’s.
What many marketers missed was the far more interesting campaign from Oreo that year — 100 Days of Oreo. To commemorate it’s hundred-year-anniversary, Oreo released 100 images over 100 days, building a sense of expectation and connection with their audience over an extended period of time. That investment set the stage for the “dunk in the dark” message to land.
It’s not about any one piece of content; it’s about building a relationship with an audience over time. Continuity trumps going viral.
Gail Gardner says
May 31, 2015 at 8:48 pmThank you for pointing out how Oreo had built such an engaged audience to share their timely tweet. Today any colorful image can get updates some attention. Truly compelling images are making it easier to make content stand out. But as more marketers and brands learn what works the competition will heat up.
Just as many think they can hire someone to rank them #1 in search, they think they can buy “viral” content. The most important variable in being able to make content go viral is already having a receptive audience.
If you have deep enough pockets, you can have someone like Rhett and Link make you a video to be seen by their fanbase of millions. If you don’t, you have to build an audience over time yourself.
Mark says
June 1, 2015 at 6:28 amHi Tom,
Spot on as usual, I love what you do, but… It’s quite hard to share effectively on LinkedIn as the cartoon doesn’t appear in the link.
Hope you can fix the glitch.
Daryl Weber says
June 1, 2015 at 7:31 amSo true. Just think, where are the “What does the fox say?” guys now?
Gerard Jean-Baptiste says
June 13, 2015 at 6:42 amI enjoyed your explanation with Oreo, noting that they established an engaging dynamic with their audience, before a single piece of content became a viral sensation. I strongly agree that continuity trumps an isolated viral-craze. Great read!