April 5, 2013 jon

What Makes Corporate Videos Go Viral

cokementosCreating a professional corporate video with a video production company is a good move if you want to increase sales, customer engagement and brand recognition.

But having a professionally produced video is just one part of the puzzle in creating a viral corporate video. So what are the key lessons you can learn from businesses that have cracked this magic formula?

Make their jaws drop

The best corporate viral videos show something remarkable. Something unforgettable, that importantly gives the viewer a compelling reason to share the content with friends. Whether it’s men doing back flips into a pair of Levi jeans, or the founder of Blendtec throwing in an iPhone or iPad into one of his company’s blenders, these videos have something to talk about.

Both cause a strong reaction to viewers of these videos, there is something unbelievable happening on screen, and that gives the viewer a story to tell. When they pass on the video to their friends, they know they will get some glory in being the one who found and shared the phenomenal footage.

Ask yourself, in your corporate marketing video do you have something remarkable to show? If not, you may want to work with a video production company to think about how best to tell your company story in a way that is memorable.

One way to do that is to:

Strike their emotions (hard)

Another common element to viral corporate videos is how emotionally charged they are. This might include disgust, shock, amazement hilarity or compassion, but the common denominator is that viral corporate videos create a forceful reaction in the viewer.

This is what rivets viewers to the spot, and then spurs them into action to share and let people know about the video at the end.
This video about an emotional story shows the power of a very simple corporate service: yoga instruction.

Currently it has more than 8 million views

Look at your own corporate video. Is there an emotional angle there? Or is there one you can explore? Remember, even a simple story about how you run your business day to day can make for an emotional corporate video.

Keep it short

There will always be exceptions to the rule, but generally, brevity is best when it comes to corporate videos going viral. In the recent video marketing report: Lights, Camera, Call to Action, the average length of corporate videos produced by best-in-class companies were 3.5 minutes.

Keep it sincere

One thing that is obvious when it comes to going viral, is that audiences don’t like being misled. Audiences don’t mind knowing that something isn’t real life, such as the Old Spice adverts, but they react less positively when companies try to pull the wool over.

This video has a lot less views than many other successful viral videos, and part of that may be the pretense that it is real, when it’s obviously faked:

 

Remember, your brand is not the story

Successful corporate videos understand that the story has to be more than just about the company or the product. If you want to really have a chance of making a corporate video you have to be able to tell a story that can excite and engage people beyond your current sphere of customers, prospects and employees.

Make the story fun, moving and engaging to capture people’s attention. If you can tell a story that is all about your ideal customer, even better!

For ideas for corporate video production from creative storyboards through to motion graphics, filming and post-production, contact flycreative today.