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“Viral marketing is attacking the conventions of traditional marketing,” said James Percelay, Co-Founder of the viral marketing firm Thinkmodo.
In short order, viral marketing has shattered the old model for advertising and created a new one where the ad is so engaging, it becomes the content. Thus, branded content was born.
Through their numerous successful viral campaigns with brands as varied as 20th Century Fox and Verizon, Thinkmodo believe they’ve found the formula.
It’s simple: 1) One big (and simple) idea. 2) Content first, rather than the product. 3) Make it all relatable by creating something outside of the world of the product.
Viral marketing presents an unparalleled opportunity to engage audiences and make audiences come to your message, instead of pushing your message onto them, or paying for them. When you buy views, they are not as effective as when they are earned, Percelay said.
The mistake with branded content comes when you’re focusing on the brand or the product. For their viral campaign for the film Devil’s Due, involving a devil baby run rampant in New York City, the film title was only mentioned at the end.
“Rather than branded content, I think of it as content that’s branded,” said Percelay. “People come to you with something that’s entertaining first, then you attach the message.”
The throughline for all of Thinkmodo’s successes is pickup from the news media. This can happen when you create branded content that is a news story, a pop culture story, rather than a “commercial.”
“News media has a voracious appetite for content,” said Percelay. And once they’ve found a story they like, that their audiences will like, they have an obligation to tell the full story. That’s when they bring the brand into the conversation, to complete the story.
Case in point: their viral campaign for Verizon’s Hum, a device that upgrades a car’s technology interface and boasts dozens of services, was merely a car that can go UP, above other cars, bypass traffic. When it was picked up by news outlets, they discovered what Hum does.
“They did all of our work for us,” he said. Viewers similarly like the completion of the story, so long as it’s not rammed down their throat.
Thinkmodo’s simple strategy works because it benefits everybody, “a win-win-win.” Branded content delivers huge amounts of earned media without a media buy, which delights their clients. News media receives content, and audiences are entertained.
[Image courtesy of Westchester Magazine]
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