Viral Ads and Viral Advertising

Creating viral ads is a great way to do viral advertising and make an ad self-propagating. A viral ad is an ad that people feel is worth telling others about, and so they do, spreading the message virally.

Viral ads need to be designed in such a way as to stimulate the emotions of the viewer in a way that leaves a memorable impression. It must also stand out as being significant and/or relevant enough to give incentive to be passed on to friends and associates.

Here are the definitions of the words "significant" and "relevant" as cut & pasted from Dictionary.com

significant
adj 1: important in effect or meaning; "a significant change in tax laws"; "a significant change in the Constitution"; "a significant contribution"; "significant details"; "statistically significant"
2: Having or likely to have a major effect; important.
3: Having or expressing a meaning; meaningful.

relevant
adj 1: having a bearing on or connection with the subject at issue; "the scientist corresponds with colleagues in order to learn about matters relevant to her own research"

For example: if the viral ads are significantly funny, then they may wish to pass it on to their friends based on the fact that their friends will get a good laugh out of it. Viral ads that are funny, tend to be the most self-propagating form of viral advertising. Viral ads that are relevant to topics of interest of ones friends may also have enough of a viral effect to instigate the viewer to pass it on to a friend whom they know is looking for such relevant things related to their topic of interest. Not only should such an ad be relevant though, but also have some value, such as information or news about the topic. In this case though, there may be only a select few who would know someone that would want to see such a relevant viral ad.

Humor seems to appeal to a large majority of the population, which is likely why it is such an effective viral incentive. Every ad is relevant to something, usually to a niche market related to the ads product or service. If the ad is both relevant and significant to a person's interests then it is very likely that friends and associates who view the ad may mention it or send it on to that person who it is relevant to. In this case, the ad will be truly viral if there is a method in place to make it easy for the viral ad to be sent to that person: such as through the use of a tell-a-friend script or forwarding email.

It is usually best that the viral ads don't appear to be ads at all, since many people are unwilling to try to sell things to their friends, particularly when there's nothing in it for them. If the viral ad is cloaked within an article that has relevant and significant content, then you will probably have a higher propagation rate.

Another way, is to give the viewer an incentive (Such as an affiliate commission if a sale is made through their referral) to pass the message on to a friend. This may be too much work for them to bother in many cases, unless you make it extremely easy for them to sign up as an affiliate without much trouble. Perhaps by only requiring them to input their paypal email into a simple form that is connected to a tell-a-friend script and sends a commission to their paypal account if a sale is made through their referral. If it's simple, it has a higher chance of becoming viral. If they are required to fill out all their details into a form, agree to affiliate terms, then click a verification link in an email, then get an affiliate link, and then still have to promote it to their friends in some way; This is just getting too complicated, and if they only know one person who it's relevant to, then their chances of making a sale through the referral are slim at best, and the effort put in may not pay them a dime for their effort.

There has to be an incentive for passing on your viral ads, and it doesn't have to be commissions. Generally people pass on jokes or significant relevant content because their incentive is to feel the value of being the friend who made them laugh, or gave them a lead to some information that they found some value in. If you can offer them commissions as well for passing on your message, then I recommend it, because the more incentive there is to pass it on, the more likely they will do so.

So, to sum it up: Make things simple, significant and relevant to your target market, give people incentives, and people will reward you by propagating your viral ads.

Jambhala Rinpo
ViralMarketingBuzz.com

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