What makes people want to share? These viral marketing campaigns have figured it out. If you tap into a user’s emotion, they naturally want to share your work.
When a user experiences a strong emotion, it is natural for them to want to share that emotion. Here are a few viral marketing campaigns, and the emotions that they tapped into to get their work shared.
Amusement
A set of quirky commercials from Old Spice took off after their original 2010 Super Bowl spot. While I’m not a consumer of their product, this is a memorable commercial for how ridiculous every beat of this punchy script is.
This series of commercials were memorable in promoting a specific product. They are using humor to make their product memorable and, more importantly, shareable. When someone watches something that they are amused by, it’s natural for them to want to share that amusement with the people around them, which is why this video in particular reached 12 million views in 6 months. It has 51 million views to date and it was posted almost 5 years ago. Taking a look at the comments on the YouTube post, the viewers are all conversing and sharing… still, almost 5 years later
Shock
As promotion for the movie Carrie in 2013, a coffee shop in NYC was rigged to make it seem as if a customer had telekinetic powers, just like Carrie. Watching this video for the first time, it’s hard to not have a physical response to it. The viewers tend to feel a portion of the shock and fear that the coffee shop patrons are feeling.
A video like this makes people say, “Oh my gosh, I gotta show this to so-and-so,” so that they can share what they just felt.
Pride
Dove has spent less time promoting their products, and more time focusing on positive beliefs in relation to body image and self-perception. Their first campaign was Real Beauty Sketches, which explored self-perception versus external perception. They’ve continued to explore perception through their Self-Esteem Project.
All of the videos in the Self-Esteem Project reinforce the company’s vision “of a world where beauty is a source of confidence, and not anxiety.” These campaigns support their mission of positive self-esteem for children. As more and more people understand the importance of this mission, they share videos like these out of pride. They are proud to support these views and they want the world to know.
These viral marketing campaigns all focus on emotions, and they’re unique and memorable. Each production started with a goal, and that goal was to make their viewers feel something. If they are successful in reaching that goal, the shares will come naturally.