Successful viral campaigns can circumnavigate the globe, reaching an audience of unprecedented size. But these remain far outnumbered by the unsuccessful.

Taking Digital Media Online

The Internet is changing consumer expectation of and response to advertising. Accustomed to interactivity, the consumer has evolved and advertisers need to wake up to this reality. Long gone are the days of sitting at the mercy of whatever was showing on a handful of TV channels. In those days, quality adverts could actually be hailed as ‘the best thing on TV’. But things have changed.

The internet, on-demand multi-channel TV and time-shift recording systems, such as Sky Plus or Tivo, mean the consumer is totally in control of what they watch and when they watch it. Given this choice, the viewer is electing to avoid advertising; Moreover, they are increasingly finding the programming on TV tame and obvious in comparison with entertaining, less-regulated and increasingly sophisticated content of online channels like YouTube.
 
So what’s the answer for advertisers? Every organisation now knows it needs to deliver online: Digital media is becoming essential to reinforce the brand and engage with the target market. But this is the most fickle promotional landscape we’ve ever seen. Brand managers and advertisers should not underestimate the level of sophistication required in order to succeed with an online campaign, even though it may have cost a fraction of a traditional TV or print campaign. And it’s not enough to think that just because high fees have been paid to an established agency, the online campaign will automatically grasp the imagination of the online consumer.

Online Imperative

There is a huge gap between the decision to run an online campaign and actually achieving measurable success.  Today’s consumers may have a growing tolerance for low quality imagery as a result of watching home-made videos on YouTube, but they have no tolerance for hackneyed or platitudinous content. The online generation is easily distracted; advertisers have mere seconds to grab attention.

The online market offers incredible channel diversity and extraordinary speed of content and delivery evolution. There are already 78 million videos on YouTube and users upload between 150,000 and 200,000 new videos every day; an amazing 10 billion videos are viewed every month.

The same affect is seen on social networking sites; there are 69 million active users on Facebook, with 140 new Facebook apps added every day. It is little surprise, therefore, that US marketers are set to spend £445m on social networks this year. Indeed, US online ad spend is set to overtake newspaper advertising by 2011, reinforcing the extraordinary shift in consumer behaviour.

Furthermore, technological progression now means it is possible for anybody to create extraordinary computer generated imagery, as well as audio and video footage, creating unprecedented opportunities for innovation and creativity.

Changing Behaviour

It’s not enough just to have a presence online. Campaigns in the online world don’t just get watched passively as they once did on TV: They need to be passed on to succeed. This is not a captive audience; on the contrary. Each viral campaign must be tackled in a unique way if it is to inspire the online user, spoilt by an ocean of choice, to hit the forward button. Any online campaign that does not provoke consumer interest and is not spread around has failed.

To date, the imbalance between those campaigns that work and those that don’t is extreme. An ineffectual campaign that doesn’t understand the medium it occupies is a wasted investment.

How many times do we ignore applications on Facebook? There are just so many of them now.  What may have piqued interest six months ago would now be in danger of being over looked. The online user is so spoilt for choice that they are unlikely to bother with an application that looks similar to something they’ve already seen. 

The brands getting the balance of their online advertising right are seeing their viral campaigns become a global cultural hit, reaching audiences of millions in a matter of days.

New Rules

This is an entirely new marketplace, with new technology and new rules. The speed of consumer reaction is unprecedented, creating huge pressure to get it right first time. Fear of failure is understandable and highlights the need for experience and digital media expertise to deliver high quality, relevant and innovative online campaigns.

The accessibility of digital technology is adding to the highly variable quality of online marketing. There are a growing number of organisations that will happily develop Facebook widgets or videos for YouTube. But to what end, if the content simply replicates traditional offline advertising?

Audience reaction is dictating the greatest shift in advertising concept and standards the commercial world has ever seen. Take the VW Polo terrorist ad which was seen exclusively online: A suicide bomber blows himself up in a Polo but the car remains intact. The punchline reads: “Polo. Small but tough.” This was allegedly a hoax, created and distributed by a small independent company and condemned by Volkswagen. However, it has proved extraordinarily successful. Even though VW claims it had nothing to do with its creation, it is still being forwarded on the internet three years after it was first ‘accidentally’ released. This enormously popular viral reveals key clues to what appeals to the online user; intelligent humour, references to current affairs, originality and good production values work (according to sources, the ad allegedly cost 40k to produce).

Many organisations remain behind the online curve - just waking up to the idea of viral marketing, many months after consumer interest has already evolved to a level that they might struggle to understand. With so many avenues of influence, this medium is developing at such a rate that practically month on month, virals appear outdated and a new ‘face’ of the internet is revealed.

Conquering the online world

A highly customised approach to online campaigns is key and adapting them to each different channel is essential.

This is not just about tailoring content but also using the most appropriate video, audio and imaging techniques for each channel. If the production quality does not reflect the style of each specific delivery mechanism, it could alienate this incredibly selective consumer base

There are huge opportunities to leverage distribution channels to increase consumer awareness. Richer Sounds, for example, has its own YouTube spin off - RicherTube - which allows the company to use tags for Google around the video content. By actively tagging content, the company can not only increase hits but also monitor performance by time of day, a feature that is not available on YouTube. This insight into campaign performance enables the company to quantify value and set expectations for ongoing campaigns.

With the growing diversity of marketing channels, too many organisations today are overstretched and under-focused. Getting it right requires more than jumping on the viral campaign carousel or paying someone to develop a Facebook app. With competition increasing, successful online brand awareness requires an ongoing, detailed understanding of the rapid changes in both internet trends and online consumer behaviour and the experience and expertise to deliver consistently across multiple channels.

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