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full post on http://blog.heavybagmedia.com

I recently lead a round table discussion on viral content. There was much banter about what makes content go viral, how it can be encouraged and what the results are when it does take off. We were lucky enough to have Gregg Spiridellis, CEO of JibJab with us. He shared some of the experiences he has had in launching and creating a successful company with several viral success stories.

Let’s get one thing straight: no one can make a viral video. I love it when a client asks me to create a viral video for them. There’s no such thing. I can create a video that has the right characteristics to go viral, and I can make it easy to share and introduce it to the right audience, but then there’s some magic that has to happen. It’s got to catch on. There are several things you can do to help it catch on and that’s what I will focus on in this post. Let’s take a look at what we can do to encourage the viral spreading of content.

Content is King
The main ingredient for success is content that will engage the people you are trying to reach. For content to engage, it’s got to be entertaining, or educational, and it’s got to trigger an emotional response from the viewer. Tim Street, creator of French Maid TV believes firmly that “In order for a video to go viral it needs to move two or more emotions.”

Engaging also involves knowing your audience and what they are willing to devote their attention to. Gregg Spiridellis filled me in on the story behind “This Land” the cornerstone for JibJab’s continued success. Gregg and his brother Evan had been running JibJab since 1999. They created their first hit in 2000 with a Bush/Gore rap battle that streamed 5 million times, which is successful even by today’s standards, and seriously impressive when you think about the total online population and proliferation of broadband at that time. In 2004 JibJab released “This Land” and things really took off for them. He mentioned the fact that an election is the biggest new story in the US, and you can plan for it in advance, you know it’s going to happen. It’s also a topic that many people are passionate about. Gregg also makes sure to note that from the get go they consistently remained as connected to their audience as possible, building an email list of 130,000 registered members in the process. 130,000 people who were loyal enough to the brand to register. Those 130,000 brand loyalists sparked a chain reaction that ended with 80 million streams, appearances on the Tonight Show and continued success to follow. Gregg also believes firmly that in order to continue to be successful you can’t just be a one-trick-pony. You need to continue to innovate, he says “you can never stand still.” JibJab has gone on to produce new and innovative content, including their “Starting You” series which lets users put themselves into the videos.

Another great example of awesome content is Blendtec’s “Will It Blend” videos. The story behind the videos is the stuff legends are made of. I wrote a guest post for Mashable on the subject. Here’s an excerpt, click here for the full story.

George [Wright, Marketing Direct at Blendtec] was smart enough to recognize this gem and turned it into the widely acclaimed “Will It Blend” series of videos. He simply unveiled the face that the company had all along. The videos were distributed online and Blentec employees reached out to their personal networks to let them know. Word spread and “Will It Blend” became a viral phenomenon, garnering of 100 million views in total. Blendtec’s marketing now serves as a profit center for the company, the videos have made over $50,000 in ad revenue from Revver.

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