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March 16, 2010 By 6 Comments

Online video: When it goes horribly wrong

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Online video can be a great tool for marketers – especially if you’re looking to launch a viral marketing campaign. But I’m not sure Swedish corporates are getting the idea if Vattenfall’s, er, “rock video” is anything to go by. Yes, I know it’s from December 2007 but there’s still plenty of this kind of material around.

This energy company’s online video for “The Vattenfall Song” has employees miming to a song that, er, extols the virtues of the company and how they run their business. Look out, in particular, for the cringe-worthy air-guitar solos at 1:08.

Viral Marketing Strategy

I can only guess that the producers of this (no doubt expensive) clip hoped it would go viral. But no matter what some agencies tell you, it’s almost impossible to predict what will go viral.

Viral marketing is generally taken to mean any online strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others, creating the potential for massive growth in the message’s exposure and influence.

The “make it so funny that people pass it around to their friends”-strategy is a good one, but tough to deliver.

Yes, Vattenfall’s video is amusing, if not quite laugh out loud funny, but I get the joke after 3 seconds. After that I can’t be bothered to watch much more.

What Other Strategies Can You Use for Building Viral Video?

The “get involved” mechanism seems to be good for building community and bringing people together – when it works. 1-800 Flowers “How we fell in love” series got a lot of attention. The motivation of a prize certainly seemed to get people involved.

I also think the instructional video, showing users how to actually use your products, can be a great way to spread your brand. For example, I recently bought a vacuum after watching someone demo the product in their home on YouTube.

Great viral marketing

Heineken staged an elaborate scam when professors, employers and girlfriends persuaded avid football supporters to miss a massive Champions League game in October 2009 for a poetry reading and classical concert.

The scam generated massive online coverage.

What about You?

So what other than the: wacky, the instructional or the get-involved online videos are you enjoying?

I’m curious to know more, especially as advertising companies also get it wrong

Filed Under: content marketing, marketing, youtube Tagged With: , , , , , ,

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  • freelancerant

    Sometimes these “nice try” videos do go viral but for all the wrong reasons (I doubt this one will though). Everyone loves a laugh through the social media ranks.

    Some negative flack, however, can turn into a positive business outcome. Just take a look at the Three Wolf Moon t-shirt phenomenon.

  • http://www.jontusmedia.com/ Jon Buscall

    Yeah, I know what you mean. It's so difficult to predict. This piece by Vattenfall seems scarily cheesy but just doesn't work for some reason.

    I think a lot of it has to do with the pacing of the video. It's quite slow.

    I just read David Meerman Scott's New Rules of PR, which is an excellent book, and he makes a good point about how difficult viral marketing is to deliver.

  • http://www.jontusmedia.com/ Jon Buscall

    Here's an intriguing video by a math teacher ! http://www.engelskagymnasiet.se/mr-olson-talks-…

  • Minna

    Good point about it being “almost impossible to predict what will go viral” – this video was never meant for marketing purposes but filmed during an internal team building event. You can read more about it here: http://bit.ly/aFSRza (put through Google Translate, in case you don't read Swedish – yet! ;-) ).

  • http://www.jontusmedia.com/ Jon Buscall

    @Minna, Thanks for the link and for the clarification of context. That really helps.

    The post on Vattenfall's webpage (Det går ju bra på svenska! Har bodd i Norden i 20 år! ) doesn't explain who released to the general public.

    If it came from Vattenfall, it still strikes me as viral marketing albeit in a more slap-dash fashion and I wonder what the motivation was. What this says about the brand.

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