Old Spice, Doritos, Dollar Shave Club….what do these brands have in common? They are companies that have leveraged the viral power of YouTube to create excitement for their products, and in the case of the Dollar Shave Club, generate a presence to help with the launching of a new and unique business model. In fact, their quirky video generated so much traffic upon the launch that they saw subscriptions hit the roof, signing up 12,000 new customers within two days. Creating videos and uploading them to YouTube has never been easier; unfortunately, creating a video marketing campaign that will truly go viral and bring visitors promises to be herculean task. How can your video marketing efforts break through the clutter?

Humour

A comment trend with videos that go mainstream is that they have a humorous component to engage the audience. Simply put, users are more relaxed when browsing YouTube, and a video of a talking baby, an anthropomorphized animal, or a series of unfortunate events tends to generate more hits than a 30 minute video instruction for accounting software. However, you need to also be cautious in this regard: something too outrageous may overshadow the brand message and fail to elicit the desired actions from your audience.

Length

Nobody wants to watch a video that’s longer than 5 minutes; however, videos shorter than 30 seconds can also be counter-productive. Finding the right balance between too long and too short can become a significant issue for video development. The average video length on YouTube according to recent research is 2 minutes and 46 seconds, providing brands with a good barometer for how long their video should be to effective engage their audience.

User Generated Content

Once again, Old Spice proves successful in this regard: they launched a viral marketing campaign where their infamous manly “man” would perform whatever action users requested via YouTube. This entailed filming 180 different spots that would be generated based on what actions the users requested. With regards to improving brand recall rates and a buzz online, videos that encourage users to interact with the brand prove to be the most effective.

Power of Video Marketing

With over two billion video views per day on YouTube, there are plenty of opportunities available for brands to exploit the power of video marketing campaigns. The cost effectiveness of creating videos compared to traditional television and print advertising gives companies a new alternative to break through the clutter. Whether it is a short and quirky video showcasing you brand, or a two minute short similar to the Dollar Shave Club, incorporating video marketing into your online mix can help make your company name go viral.