But, Will It Go Viral?

Flat design vector megaphone illustration.
OMD Australia
By OMD Australia
SHARE
THIS



In this opinion piece OMD’s Head of Fuse and Word Melbourne, Anjana Mani, looks at our misplaced obsession with making content go viral, and why that doesn’t always guarantee consumer engagement and sales results.

Have you noticed how BuzzFeed, Pedestrian, Vice and many other top publishers manage to make their content appear to go “viral”? Have you also noticed how previously cool, calm and collected marketers are gripped by an undying lust for virality?

Just two hours ago I had someone ask me how we would ensure a campaign for an FMCG product re-launch was going to have a viral outcome. Not only did they want something that has no real news value to go viral, but they wanted it to go viral with all of the key brand messages attached.

When probed into why they wanted this to go viral, they responded with, “to drive sales, of course”. To which I responded with the following:

Going ‘viral’ is not an insurance policy to deliver your key messages and sales targets.

Giving your audience what they want on the other hand, will.

Let’s instead look at an optimised amplification plan, that puts all of the focus on the headlines and images that make a solid first impression on your audience.

This is about controlling the way we are presenting our content, with the headline and images delivering the all-important click through.

By creating alternative headlines and thumbnails for every piece of content and then pushing these out, we can get a sense of what people expect to hear from us and what language will drive the best result. This then delivers the amplification result and a suite of content learnings for the next piece of content that we push out.

According to an article on Upworthy, a good headline can be the difference between 1,000 and 1,000,000 people engaging with your content, and optimising images can do wonders for SEO.

So, not only will optimising and A/B testing drive results for this particular piece of content, clever marketers can take what they have learned and use it to guide all future content that they push out across multi-channels. This makes perfect sense, for us and for our clients.

The media we consume is increasingly fragmented and the way we consume this media is growing in complexity each day. I can’t tell you what I am going to find interesting in five minutes, let alone when your next campaign goes live in three months.

So, here is your challenge to consider an optimised amplification strategy and try to catch me if you can. It is important for all you marketers out there to think about the headlines and images that caught your attention today, what made you click and what didn’t, and how one simple click is being increasingly watched and more importantly listened to.

Noticing your reactions to online content will impact the way you create content for you consumers.

Please login with linkedin to comment

Kontented Prisons PumpTV

Latest News

Are Media Study: Beauty Influencers Remain Strong With Gen Zs But Sampling Is King
  • Marketing

Are Media Study: Beauty Influencers Remain Strong With Gen Zs But Sampling Is King

Influencers are a key factor in helping Generation Z make beauty purchases, but their influential power drops when it comes to all other women, Are Media’s first BEAUTYVOICES consumer survey has revealed. Sampling beauty products is the most successful form of marketing likely to drive purchase for all women aged 18 to 74, followed by […]

Chris Howatson’s Next Move Revealed
  • Advertising

Chris Howatson’s Next Move Revealed

B&T can confirm departing CHEP CEO Chris Howatson's next move here. Not that he's actually confirmed it to us.

Recommended

by B&T Magazine

B&T Magazine
Anchor Dairy Launches Christmas Appeal For NZ Food Network Via Pead
  • Campaigns

Anchor Dairy Launches Christmas Appeal For NZ Food Network Via Pead

New Zealand’s Anchor Dairy has switched strategies for its 2020 Christmas campaign, with the company this year drawing attention to the need to give during the festive season. The Fonterra-owned company is encouraging Kiwis to fundraise for the New Zealand Food Network, following the release of research that showed one in five people risk going […]

Victorians Told To Take Advantage Of Energy Reforms In New Campaign, Via Icon Agency
  • Campaigns

Victorians Told To Take Advantage Of Energy Reforms In New Campaign, Via Icon Agency

The ‘It’s Your Energy’ campaign, delivered via Icon Agency, encourages Victorians to take advantage of recent energy reforms and ensure they’re getting the best deal possible. Essential Services Commission, the regulatory body for Victorian energy and gas, water, local government, and transport sectors, has engaged Icon Agency to develop an integrated communications campaign to help […]

MJZ’s Juan Cabral Joins FINCH, Colenso BBDO On ‘NRMA Sleeper’ Campaign
  • Campaigns

MJZ’s Juan Cabral Joins FINCH, Colenso BBDO On ‘NRMA Sleeper’ Campaign

In the insurance company’s latest campaign, NRMA Sleeper depicts a road trip, like any other, except everyone in the car is asleep, even the driver. Yet they arrive unscathed. According to production company FINCH, which is behind the work, the spot dreams up a world where cars drive themselves to remind us that until they […]

Charity Bailey’s Day Launches ‘The Big-Hearted Bear’ Campaign Featuring Livinia Nixon Via Noisy Beast
  • Media

Charity Bailey’s Day Launches ‘The Big-Hearted Bear’ Campaign Featuring Livinia Nixon Via Noisy Beast

Children’s cancer charity, Bailey’s Day, has teamed up with full-service international communications agency Noisy Beast to launch ‘The Big-Hearted Bear’ campaign, voiced by Channel 9’s Livinia Nixon. Each year, Bailey’s Day hosts a charity golf day, auction and luncheon to raise funds for children’s cancer research at Monash Children’s Hospital, but with the COVID-19 pandemic, […]