Viral Marketing: The Value Of Creativity

Viral marketing continues to be one of those buzzwords that just won’t go away. Everyone wants, “to go viral.” While it still is a mainstream buzzword, viral has been around for a long time. We came across this link and thought at the bare minimum you may enjoy it for all its creativity…

Creative AND Retention-Driven

For those wanting a deeper perspective, we found it an interesting lesson in marketing that might go unrecognized. Sure, while these are all fabulously creative, the value is not just in the creativity. To us, we believe that while creativity gets people to watch, the retention of the campaign is what’s more important. Being creative for the sake of creative gets you nowhere. For instance, would you rather have the most creative ad of all time and 1 million people watch it, but only 10,000 retain it. Or, a very creative ad that 250,000 people watch and 100,000 retain?

The Brand Remains King

When you look at these viral spots they go beyond creative. They deliver on the brand’s selling proposition that runs product-wide. It is another way to deliver a carefully crafted and consistent message to an audience in a very creative manner. The spots wouldn’t be nearly as effective if they didn’t spawn from the brand’s overall direction. Sure, they’d be creative. But, they wouldn’t be nearly effective at actually getting us to buy the product – which in the end is what they are trying to do, right?

So, when you get ready to develop your viral marketing campaign, don’t just get wildly creative for the sake of being creative. Remember your audience. Remember your message. Most important, remember your brand, its cornerstones and its selling proposition and make sure you deliver on those – as well as being creative.