Embed The Entire Campaign Message In A Viral?
Today I came across an remarkable viral video from Samsung in which they do some awesome things with a herd of sheeps and LED lights. The viral kept spinning in my head. What will this do in terms of brand awareness? How high is the likability someone will go to the Samsung LED action page after seeing this viral video? Will the entertainment value be high enough to actively engage the viewer to visit the Samsung LED page?
For a change, not an in-depth case study of a social media strategy from my side. In this post I’d like to outlay a little question. Could you help me and share your opinion / expertise?
I hope that this viral video from Samsung is a part of an entire campaign. I come across many cases in which a viral video is the campaign by itself. Or worse – an client calls with the message they want to drop the original media strategy and only launch a big budget viral video. No support, no further campaign and no further information displayed somewhere else. Just big explosions, big fancy cars and high expensive visuals to entertain and create some brand awareness or to stimulate another goal in terms of traffic to the info page. Waste of money if you ask me.
Statement: Viral video’s should only be used as a part of a campaign – an entire brand message can not be delivered in just one (entertaining) video. If a brand’s message or campaign message does get to be communicated entirely, people will value it to commercial and won’t pass it along – gone is the viral effect.
What do you think about this statement? I haven’t seen any more media assets from Samsung on this campaign – yet. But what if it stays like this? Will it deliver the message clearly? Will the click through rate be high enough, considering the goals of this campaign? Probably not. I could be totally wrong about this case because I might not be the target group so I haven’t been communicated to. But I know how hard it is to virally push any kind of asset and that the best results come from an asset that has been embedded by a total campaign.
Are virals capable of delivering an entire message or can they be seen as just a way to drive traffic to another source and create campaign awareness? I’d love to see your opinion on this one in the comments!
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I think the subject matter is strange enough to draw my attention, and to be honest I think as a video it is entertaining. But if it is for marketing / advertising purpose, I think it missed something, it missed the idea to connect the video contents to its product – why sheep herding? how is it related to Samsung new LED TV? Fast refresh rate? Total control? If they have this in the video, I think solely the video can deliver the message, of course it’s even better if it can drive me to somewhere else and continue the engagement.
Thanks for the comment Kevin! I agree that if they embed the product message in the video it will be more clear. However, I think that the spread will drop dramatically. Consumers want to share entertainment, not brand messages.
schönes Samsung Viral für LED TV http://tinyurl.com/cuswf5
The trouble with virals – width vs. depth http://is.gd/nZtv
Reag a great article from Matthijs Roumen @ http://tinyurl.com/cuswf5
I think it’s very smart to use this video for reaching a wide audience, and let the audience know taht Samsung is doing something witgh LED. But I believe the follow up is even more important..
Yep, totally true!
A couple of months ago we did a viral video campaign for a Polish social lending website. Even though we strongly encouraged our client to support it with other elements they seemed immune to the idea of any follow ups. My feeling is that too many marketers think of viral videos in terms of viral commercials- encapsulating the whole brand message and attaining the campaign goals in one single effort or with just one tool. Most of marketers still need to learn to think 360, or at least open themselves to various digital channels and platforms including social media.
How did the campaign end? Can you share some insights?
I totally agree with you Tom.. Besides that I believe viral should never be an objective, but just a mean to reach an objective.. With other words, don’t go viral, because your competitor uses it..
So true! Don’t just go viral because its a cool thing to do. It should definatly be a thing that fits your communication objectives.
Virals, aren’t adverts or campaign messages they create buzz and lead people to find out more. All this is doing is linking the words LED and Samsung together in people’s minds and blogs.
I don’t think it needs to do much more than that. Besides if it does try to do anything more than that then its just a TV advert online and it won’t go anywhere as near viral.
Its just about buzz and branding. Same as Sony’s Bravia, it was balls – coloured balls. Millions of colours? Maybe but that was a weak link at best. These things work to get the messages out there.
Your totally right about the comparisation between a TV advert online and a viral video! Thnx for your comment
I’d like to say most marketing materials don’t stand alone.
I work in a large DM agency (can’t say which). Our mailouts on their own have such low responses but that would still be viewed as a success. If we send out 3 million pieces and only get a 10% that is viewed as a fairly successful campaign.
So I figure its similar with digital. How many click through this gets will probably be small however it has created chatter and buzz.
This is the first I’ve ever heard of a LED TV, previous my only experience has been LCD/Plasma.
I now only know that LED exists and Samsung make them.
I don’t know but I think if we pick apart this, then surely we could do the same with most marketing materials? None of them work alone. Most TV adverts depend on the website, most mailouts on phone ups or in-store promotions.
I agree on your comment, communicate to the masses and pray the conversion is as high as possible.
However, the big difference between DM and viral is the way the messages receives the consumer. DM is pushed into their face, viral (should) spread through friends. Conversion, likeability and attention should be much higher then in a push campaign.
Which I believe it would be on these virals.
You’ve got to remember that a LED TV is a rather niche product and I think that the Viral has got more people interested in LEDs and what they can do, I would view this more as a long term education about LEDs
Next would be the other agencies jobs to follow this on…
In terms of views, the results were excellent (keep in mind that the viral was in Polish and seeding was limited to Poland as well): 100.000 within the first week, approx. 4,5% of the viewers responded to call-to-action at the end of the video (visited the website). Had it been combined with a few other elements, the campaign would have brought much more blog posts and comments, media attention, and overall buzz. We would have been able to optimise conversion as well. But, most importantly, planning for more campaign touchpoints would have resulted in deeper consumer engagement.
remarkable viral video from Samsung
http://tinyurl.com/cuswf5
Even though I dont think the connection between the viral and Samsung is that strong surely the aim of this campaign has been achieved, as we are all discussing and blogging about it.
Will this viral make me buy a Samsung TV… hmm probably not
Will i share this viral and blog with my peers… highly likely!!
[...] Embed The Entire Campaign Message In A Viral? -Stay on top of the latest viral and social media marketing trends with ViralBlog on viral videos, games, advertising, research and social media. … Written by Matthijs Roumen on March 18th, … Today I came across an remarkable viral video from Samsung in which they do some awesome things with a herd of sheeps and LED lights. [...]