Posted on Jun 17, 2013

5 Key Ingredients in Creating a Viral Video

Is marketing a strategic tool or simply a promotional outlet?

To me, marketing has always been a strategic matter. It’s what sets the direction for an organization or brand. It identifies the reason an organization or brand exists. It determines where to invest limited resources.

But to many people, marketing represents the fun, promotional stuff that is an ideal outlet for those with a creative bent. It’s all about grabbing people’s attention in an unexpected way. Sometimes, it’s simply about being outlandish.

As a differentiating value, Outlandishness means strikingly out of the ordinary; bizarre; or conspicuously unconventional or unusual.

Many entrepreneurs and smaller marketers have tried to use video as a way to so something outlandish. There’s a belief that if they can create a video that goes viral, it will be like finding the Holy Grail for their business.

Yet, only a few marketers manage to create an effective viral video. So what’s their secret?

Being Outlandish in Video

Outlandishness garners attention. Since the advent of YouTube, there are lots of outlandish videos that went viral. Some were start-ups, and some are big, well-known brands.

A few examples:

Blendtec achieved great success with their “Will It Blend” videos, especially after blending an iPhone.
Orabrush created an entertaining video on how to cure bad breath.
Old Spice created a series of successful viral videos with Isaiah Mustafa.
McDonalds tapped into the dynamic duo of Rhett and Link, after they proved they could garner lots of attention online.
Kmart grabbed a ton of attention with the their “Ship My Pants” video and TV ad.

What’s common to all of these videos? They all embraced the value of outlandishness, each in their own way. Is it possible for other smaller, entrepreneurial companies to do this too?

Here’s one that took outlandishness to a whole new level.

An Outlandish way to Shave Time and Shave Money

Mark Levine and Michael Dubin started Dollar Shave Club in 2011. Their business model is delivering high quality razors right to your door for a small monthly fee, starting at $1/month. Their tagline is “Shave Time. Shave Money.”

In March 2012, they re-launched the company with an outlandish video that quickly went viral (over 10 million views in a year). With a bizarre sense of humor, the video features co-founder Michael Dubin as the star, taking the viewer on a tour of the Dollar Shave Club warehouse, asking the question: “Do you like spending $20/month on brand-name razors?” He goes on displaying conspicuously unconventional ideas including: the prime use of a swear word; showing a young child holding a razor ready to shave a man’s head; the use of a machete to cut packaging tape in the shipping department; someone dressed up in a bear suit; and a big party throwing around money.

Interestingly, Dubin wrote the script himself and filmed it at his warehouse with a director-friend. Total cost was only about $4,500 and it was completed in one day.

The video was so successful it crashed the company’s server the first hour. Within 48 hours (after they got it working again), they received 12,000 orders. The business grew so fast that by October they had landed $9.8 Million in venture capital. Since then, they have launched two additional products.

The Dollar Shave Club appears to be on a solid road to success, and it all started with a video.

5 Ingredients in Creating a Viral Video

Why was the first video so successful? I believe there were 5 key ingredients:

Clarity. The message is really clear: buy your disposable razors significantly cheaper using their monthly plan.
Authenticity. You’re hearing directly from the co-founder. Even with the humor, he comes across as legitimate and sincere.
Transparency. You see the warehouse and how they work. You can imagine exactly how they ship your razors to you.
Attention. While longer than a traditional 30 or 60 second TV spot, the video kept your attention all the way through the total 1:34 minutes.
Outlandishness. It’s so out of the ordinary, it not only grabs your attention, you want to share it with others. And ideally, you also want to test the product just to experience it.

If you want to garner a lot of attention fast, you would do well to incorporate these five ingredients into a short, fun video. And don’t hold back. Be as outlandish as you can be. Maybe you’ll be the next YouTube star!