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26 February 2010

Adding Science To The Art Of Viral Videos

by Bryan Boettger, Chief Creative Officer

Increasingly, businesses and corporations are seeking to create viral videos. However, true viral videos are not typically “created,” rather they “happen.” So, in order to better “create” a viral video, we sought to better understand how these videos in fact “happened.” The outcome was The Buddy Group’s Viral Barometer, a tool to help gauge a video’s viral potential. In this post, we break down the Viral Barometer’s methodology so you can better understand and use the tool.

(You might wish to visit the Viral Barometer at ViralBarometer.com before continuing.)

SOURCES
In order to reverse engineer viral videos, we first needed a set of viral videos to analyze. Searching online for Top Online Videos and Top Viral Videos lists, two rose to the top as both comprehensive and somewhat objective in their selection process:
• Mashable’s Top YouTube Videos All Time — May 25, 2009
• Videogum’s Top Videos 2009 — Dec. 25, 2009

These two lists provided a total of 39 videos from which to gain insights. After (re)watching, analyzing, breaking down and comparing the 39 videos, a combination of 10 traits emerged as indicators for a video’s viral potential. These 10 traits fuel the calculations for the Viral Barometer.

BEFORE YOU START
There are four important facts that are imperative for properly using the Viral Barometer.

1) Accurate assessments require divesting yourself from the video.
It takes a personal investment of passion and energy to make a compelling video, but it takes a personal divestment to properly assess the video. Think of it like home movies of your kids — you find them so amazing you can watch for hours, but an honest assessment tells you your neighbors are likely to gnaw a limb off to escape more than 15 minutes.

2) Like a true virus, viral videos need good hosts to spread.
You might have the funniest, most unique video in the world. But, if it only sits on your own blog and you don’t actively share the video, get others to share the video and put it on sites where people can discover it… (more…)

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Engage

23 February 2010

The Buddy Group is now more famous-er.

We’re so happy to be loved for our content. And this month, when REELZCHANNEL approached us wanting to buy the rights to one of our digital productions, we couldn’t be more proud. Another one of our babies has made it! HollywoodPressTV.com has arrived!

When we developed HollywoodPressTV.com with our client in 2007, the idea was to create a unique comedic and satirical site for Hollywood movies, TV and events. The host, Steve Patterson, would interview A-list celebrities on the red carpet and on-location. The result is entertaining; the spots are unique—and needless to say, HollywoodPressTV.com has become a hot ticket item, drawing a huge and growing fan base of more than 2 million followers.

At the end of the day, we couldn’t be happier about getting our clients’ content to the masses. We’ve got a lot more “big” projects in the works. Stay tuned for more news about The Buddy Group digital productions.

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