Edwina / Published on April 4, 2013
Minnesota will play host to the second annual Cat Video Festival this August. The event boasted 10,000 people last year, and this year they’re invited back for a hefty viewing of their most enjoyed kitty-inspired viral videos, spreading its paws to Brooklyn later on in the year too.
If you’re a user of the internet, I don’t doubt that at one point you will have been bombarded with Internet memes and GIFs alike. They can be annoying. They can pass the time. They can even sometimes be funny. But one thing you should realise is that it’s catching the eye of thousands, sometimes even millions of people.
Marketers have already seen its potential and have harnessed its power in the form of creative social content – causing brands to explode. Back in 2010, Old Spice rejuvenated its brand with the aid of viewers. Send ‘Mr Old Spice’ a message via Facebook, Twitter or YouTube for a video idea, and proceed to await his visual response. This formed a string of viral videos, almost all of them racking up over a few million views.
There are brands who have done it well – VW’s ‘The Force'; and those that have belly flopped – Microsoft’s ‘Double Rainbow’. It’s not easy to create something that will go viral with positive backup, but knowing your audience is amongst top in ensuring likeability. Use your brand to produce a story that hits the spot for the 35 and younger crowd (they dominate the web); make them something they will want to share across their own social media channels.
A lot of people now heavily use social media platforms, daily. Maybe it’s time you gave them something to read!
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