ILLUstratIoNs: Joey hI-fI. photography: dave sIdweLL
have a viral
video hit
So you’ve got a cool idea for a web video or a funny song about
a cute kitten that falls off tables. How do you then get a million
people to watch it online? And how do you get them to watch it
all the way to the end and then forward it to all their friends? Matt
Smith of The Viral Factory* explains the high art of the viral video
1. COmE UP WITH
a kIllEr IdEa
first off, your idea
has got to be fresh.
then it’s got to hit
certain viral buttons.
“songs are big,”
says smith. “people
love a song. and
animals. people love
animals. If you can
get cute animals to
do a song – that’s a
surefire hit.” other
buttons include:
“cute”, “blokey”,
“sexy”, “violent” and
“ninjas”. as a rule,
avoid “funny”. a lot
of funny tv ads don’t
go viral.
2. HavE SOmE
rESPECT
“don’t waste
people’s time,”
says smith. “It’s an
offering.
a gift. so do it well.
ask yourself, ‘what
is going to make
people want to share
this?’ don’t try to
get them to buy
something. Just get
them to like you.”
Keep it short. today’s
audiences barely get
through 59 seconds
of anything, even
porn. 1:00 is good;
1:30 is the maximum.
3. makE SOmE
EffOrT
shooting on
phonecams doesn’t
mean you dump the
pinpoint artistry
of film-making.
storyboard it out.
Keep it tight. add
loads of detail. and,
above all, make a
huge effort. “people
love it when you go
to enormous lengths
to do something
utterly pointless
just for the sake of
it,” says smith. “we
faked black-andwhite
Moon-landing
footage for one viral,”
says smith. “we
actually found one
of the original apollo
cameras in a museum
and used it to shoot
the film. people
couldn’t believe that
it wasn’t real. even
Nasa phoned us.”
4. rElEaSE aNd
SEEd IT
a typical short may
circulate for anything
up to six months
before it finally “goes
viral”. accelerate this
process by carefully
blanket-seeding
your film in the first
week. simul-release
the clip among
key underground
sites such as
kontraband.co.uk,
somethingawful.com
and stumbleupon.
com. pay to have it
featured as editorial
content. Not as ads.
email it around. then
sit tight…
5. rIdE THE CUrvE
your clip will
gradually bubble up
to the mainstream.
If it’s good, it
should reach critical
mass within two
weeks. If it hits
aggregators such as
digg or reddit hard
enough, it’ll soon go
supernova. the sign
is a sudden, massive
spike in your hits
in a 24-hour period.
If you get over 2
million views in total,
congrats! you’ve got
how to…
slash your
online
shoPPinG
bill
> Still queuing up
in over-crowded
supermarkets? So
expired. Save time –
and money – by using
intermediaries to help
you to complete your
online shop. Start at
mysupermarket.co.uk,
an aggregator and
price-comparison site
that covers Tesco,
Sainsbury’s, asda and
Ocado (Waitrose).
You can search
its database to
learn which shop
is cheapest for any
product – or you can
complete your entire
online shop with your
chosen supermarket
through the site. as
well as providing price
comparisons for every
item you put in your
basket – so you can
avoid stocking up on
Tesco’s lavazza if
you discover there’s
a half-price offer at
Waitrose – the site
offers a useful “Swap
& Save” service,
which suggests
cheaper alternatives.
real savings come
when you’re preparing
to pay. Before you do
so, Google the store’s
name with “voucher
codes” or “codes”.
This will lead you
to blogs and forums
that collate discount
codes. Often, the
codes are intended
for specific customers
and will be rejected;
but keep trying. We
saved over £20 on a
£90 bill – that’s an
awful lot of lavazza.
* the viral factory (theviralfactory.com) has created
over 100 successful virals, for corporates, for JJ
abrams – and just for their own amusement. google
“trojan games”, “sfw porn” and “Levi’s giant puppet
mash-up”
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