Key Successful Factors to Run Viral Campaigns

According to Hubspot, viral campaigns are advertising techniques that leverage the power of visual content to market a brand. If an advertiser shares creative and unique content, the probability of it spreading like wildfire is high. The main impact of viral campaigns is higher engagement rates and greater brand awareness.

The immediate impact of viral campaigns is astronomic increase in sales. In particular, the more people that are aware of your brand, the more the sales. This is because viral content tends to attract viewers to the featured brand. Usually, the customers associate the capability of creating viral content to better customer service and great products.

Guerilla Marketing

There is an increased competition in crowded advertising spaces. The average US-consumer is exposed to approximately 3,000 advertising messages in only one day (Kimmel, 2005). Most of the digital ads barely get noticed with such high volume of ads. The industry has been witnessing a shift in the advertising concept to more tangible and memorable ad techniques.

Some tactics win by introducing elements of surprise and creativity as strategy to provoke consumers attention and to make it memorable.  The guerilla concept has been applied by niche advertising agencies that lately have been targeting consumers by placing ads on daily consumables as door hangers, pizza box toppers, prescription bags, drink coasters, Custom Coffee Sleeves, hotel key cards, valet tickets, restaurant placemats and dry cleaner hangers as advertising space placing the message in the hand of the target audience.

This innovative method has been used by such niche agencies focus on the unconventional nature enhances the assimilation of the message that has a direct impact on increasing the brand recall rate

Here some practical examples:

1. A beer snack manufacturer that promotes a new product launch on beer coasters in NYC bars

2. The pharmaceutical companies can promote the new medication by placing a message on branded pharmacy bags in reputable pharmacy venues close to hospitals

3. A new museum offering a coupon discount on coffee cups targeting millennials

4. A high-end product advertised on hotel room key cards targeting high-end consumers

5. The new fitness center offering a promo code on pizza boxes after ingesting a decent amount of calories!

What challenges does a guerilla marketer face when running viral campaigns?

Easy as it might sound, viral marketing is quite an uphill task to the guerilla marketer. One of the biggest challenges faced in creation of good content. According to Hubspot, the scale at which the content goes viral depends on the nature of content. Usually, content that makes people hooked to their devices has better chances of going viral.

The second challenge is access to a good platform. Today, there are numerous social media platforms but each one treats viral content differently. This is because of the demographic that makes the majority on each platform. Thirdly, a guerilla marketer faces the challenge of converting the views into direct actions. While many people might view the viral content, just a few might actually follow up with direct actions.

Unconventional advertising is ideal for higher engagement rates

Unconventional advertising encompasses all the tactics that leverage on the surprise element to increase brand engagement. Admittedly, all advertisers desire to earn as much engagement rates as the impression rates. Particularly, this is a huge problem for traditional media because of their inability to attract enough attention.

On the contrary, unconventional advertising techniques startle customers because they do not expect to see ads in certain places. Subsequently, the customers grow interested in the brand, which leads to higher engagement rates. Unconventional ads are cheap to implement and easy to produce. Therefore, advertisers have a chance to earn many customers at a discount.

Ambient Media

An emerging unconventional advertising tactics is Ambient Media. This concept is usually applied by niche advertising agencies that aim to overcome traditional methods of advertising to get the attention of consumers. Traditional advertising has been witnessing a decline in the effectiveness so there is a  greater demand for point-of-sale communications and its ability to offer precise audience targeting. Another factor that contribute to the success of agencies using ambient media is the smart way to regain consumers attention as marketers target on creating an incongruent stimuli that evokes surprise by placing ads in unusual locations and with unconventional methods that had never used before.

As example of ambient media that agencies have been using as innovative method is daily consumables. Brands seek to attain audience’s attention by placing ads on consumables that the target audience must touch creating a surprising effect. Such consumables can be: door hangers, pizza box toppers, prescription bags, drink coasters, Custom Coffee Sleeves, hotel key cards, valet tickets, restaurant placemats and dry cleaner hangers.

Here some practical examples:

1. An anti-DIU awareness campaign that can be placed on beer coasters in NYC bars

2. Healthy food provider places an ad on branded pharmacy bags in reputable pharmacy venues close to hospitals

3. The new entertainment business offering a ticket discounts on coffee cups aiming to target millennials

4. A high-end service advertised on hotel room key cards: perfect tactics to target affluent travelers

5. The new sports center offering a promo code on pizza boxes after eating a certain amount of calories!

Factors necessary for successful viral campaigns

Viral campaigns are a favorite marketing tactic, especially, for advertisers who have a huge presence on social media networks. Despite this presence, the advertisers still need to focus on the following factors if they want to succeed. In the first place, they need an excess of creativity. Currently, there is plenty of content on social media platforms. Therefore, you need to offer original content to go viral.

Secondly, the advertiser needs to tailor content to appeal to the audience. People are not easily moved by bland content. Thirdly, the content should be able to tap into the positive emotions of the customers. In particular, content that awes the people is likely to go viral.