Does Your Lack of Creativity in Packaging Reduce Profits?

In theory, marketingis about the science that builds brands, but in practice, it is often something simpler—getting the packaging right. In a grocery store, a customer is unlikely to be aware of a company’s latest promotional events, but he or she will be acutely aware if the company’s product appears to be attractive and affordable as it sits on the shelf.

Sometimes marketing is more about humble common sense than exciting theories about emerging trends. Consumer interests are often stirred by simple questions.

Describing A Product
Seth Godin once described marketing as “a contest for people’s attention.” Good packaging can make it easier to win that contest.

The questions consumers have about the value of a product on a shelf can often be answered by the package the product is in.

Packaging is much more than putting products in the right-size box and sticking on a label. Packaging should not be underestimated. Sometimes good packaging may be responsible for millions of dollars in sales figures. You can get entrepreneurial and creative even in your use of cardboard boxes. In fact, it would be quite easy to develop a full semester’s worth of information about the best practices around highly-attractive packaging.

3 Common Features

Here are the common features behind good packaging.

1. The package protects the product. Before the product reaches the consumer, it passes through many hands and stops at many destinations as it travels by air, sea, or land to get to the store or the customer’s mailbox. Damaged products will not result in repeat business or referrals.

2. It should make a good impression. For instance, through the careful use of shapes, colors, images, and copy an ordinary box of crayons can fill a child with instant delight at the possibilities of art. Packaging has the power to excite the needs, interests, and desires of the buyer.

3. It should differentiate itself from products provided by competitors.It makes a difference to the consumer if their package comes in a plain cardboard box or one with a few design elements. For some products, plain boxes without printing will suffice—for example, it is a waste of money to have a colorful box for computer printing paper because customers are unlikely to get excited about reams of paper. For others, packaging is very important. For instance, in MLM shipments, consumers always look forward to their monthly shipment of health care products.

An Art and Science
Remember the words of SethGodin: marketing is “a contest for people’s attention.” Good packaging can make it easier to win that contest. In some ways, packaging is a science. Packages have to have the right blend of size, strength, and weight for product protection and reduced storage and distribution costs. Manufacturers are also able to offer direct printing and a choice of one color, two colors, or lots of colors. In other ways, packaging is a science. A box of cereals, for example, in an attractive design will outsell another brand of cereals on the shelf right next to it many times better even if the contents are similar. 

5 Creative Marketing Uses for Swag

In theory, “swag” is a great way to get a brand or company out there. Receiving anything for free often leaves a memorable impression on consumers, regardless of whether the swag is in the form of a pen, t-shirt or memorable token. 

Marketing tactics lose their influence over time though. People get used to ignoring radio ads, billboards just become part of the blurry scenery, and Internet banner ads become something we avoid clicking. So is swag still a valid marketing tactic?

Just like social media, it depends on your audience. But overall, recent marketing tactics involving swag still make a big splash with consumers. Companies just have to use it in new remarkable ways.

Bookmarks Instead of Business Cards

Everyone has business cards, so how is your’s going to stand out? Get creative! A substitute in the form of a bookmark actually has a purpose beyond sitting in someone’s wallet. Big enough to cram whatever contact information you need, a bookmark contact card will also remind people of you and your business every time they open and close the book they are reading.

Stylish T-Shirts

T-shirts can be one of the most effective forms of swag, since people wear them around town and essentially become a low-cost source of effective advertising for a brand. T-shirts are certainly one of the costlier swag items to produce, though, so it’s important to use a genuinely good design. 

I’ve received t-shirt swag for a variety of reasons from purchasing products as a bonus, similar to what National Abrasives offers, to getting a well-designed t-shirt from Short Stack for talking about their brand in one of my previous articles. 

People may accept a free t-shirt, but they won’t wear it if it’s dull or ugly. Avoid basic white tees and go for something more visually appealing, with a relative fashion sense, instead; it’ll be costly, but worth it if designed properly.

Digital Content

Offering free “digital swag” - in the form of things like a free wallpaper, app, eBook, or digital coupon - usually costs little to nothing to produce, yet can still prove beneficial in exposing your brand. Offer digital swag via social media to increase your following on there, as well. Social media followers and free content often results in higher engagement.

The most important part of digital swag is it must offer real value to your consumer. 
Digital swag is an excellent investment because of its low cost production and high return on investment. Since it’s online, loyal customers and fanatic fans can share your swag and do the work of distribution for you.

Think Outside of Swag

Giving swag isn’t the only option. Take a lesson from the startup Medallia who at this year’s SXSW made a big brand impact by collecting everyone’s swag for the homeless. It was a unique idea that got a lot of media attention for the new company while also doing something good for those in need.

Care Packages

If you want to go all-out, create care packages with consumers’ well-being in mind. A small, brand-laden bag with items like a small water bottle, aspirin, and apple inside will be perceived as a healthy and welcome surprise by consumers, perhaps even elevating their mood. Care package swag may be time-consuming to create, but it will certainly make for a striking impression among consumers.

Swag certainly still works for businesses and brands as a great means of exposure. They can be effectively implemented into most business plans, as long as the swag is creative, interesting and fresh, as the five aforementioned examples are.

Special thanks to Ali Lawrence for today's post. Ali Lawrence is a content specialist for a web design company and blogs in her free time at MarCom Land. Her articles have been published by Hot in Social Media, Yahoo! Small Business, and Business2Community.

Nostalgia Marketing: Did We Just Kill Advertising?

If you thought the nostalgia marketing bubble was due to burst any time now, keep thinking. Reputable ad firms are producing more “remember this” campaigns than ever, leading some to wonder whether this is now a permanent part of advertising.

Recently, AutoTrader.com launched a series of ads featuring the original Dukes of Hazard stars--not the actors who played those characters in the big budget reboot from a few years back. AutoTrader’s campaign is fun and memorable, and plays off themes Dukes fans will love, but you have to wonder: Have we broken the industry?

Hollywood Syndrome

When was the last time a major film studio backed an exciting new franchise? Godzilla, Star Trek, Josie and her Pussycats…you’ve seen it all before. And it’s not just the pulp! Studio execs haven’t met a Shakespeare or Jane Austen rewrite or spin-off they couldn't throw a huge budget and a pile of A-listers at.

Be honest: Every time you see a new trailer for an upcoming I dream of Jeannie or Voltron reboot, you worry nothing new will ever be funded. Hollywood has dusted off and propped up all the good ol’ days favorites, and we all know it’s just plain laziness.

If we all agree this strategy is sub-par, why are we marketers relying on lazy appeals to the characters and products we outgrew decades ago?  

Nostalgia Sells

The short answer is nostalgia has worked pretty well for many brands. Sure, there are some disaster stories, like Nintendo’s downward spiral, propelled by appeals to people who love characters created 20 years ago.

For the most part, though, we love seeing our old favorites re-imagined and sporting the latest brands. Blame it on whatever suits you:

• Wistful longing for better days
• Regret over the loss of our 9/11 or pre American Idol innocence
• Acceptance of  the fact Hannah-Barbera is relevant in any context

As long as our audience keeps rewarding our efforts to associate everything new with anything old, there seems to be no reason for the marketing industry to move on from lazy, cloying sentiment. We've become reliable machines, chugging along and doing the same things we've done for 20 years. 

Remember Creativity?

It’s a sign of the times that even consumers are nostalgic for the marketers of old. Remember when an ad manager would have responded to your pitch with: 

“Dukes of Hazard? That’s been done twice already, show me something fresh!” Then he would have lit up a Marlboro, backhanded you in front of your peers and tossed back a fifth of gin.

Is it time to give creativity a second chance? If you’re afraid you’ve forgotten how to think outside the Nick at Night box, here are some exercises to jumpstart your marketing General Lee:

• Read a book

Shaking up your mental imagery can kick-start your brainstorming. Some of the most original imagery and ideas are being published in literary fiction and graphic novels. Take a break from your favorite marketing blogs and HBO movies for a few nights and earn some paper cuts.

• Resurrect the classics

Read up on marketing strategies people used prior to the television age to rediscover what used to get attention and influence people, and how to apply that to your audience. If you’re stuck in a reinvention rut, you can at least reinvent the classics.

• Remember why you outgrew all that stuff you outgrew

Change the way you think about the things consumers are supposed to feel sentimental toward. You stopped watching Two and a Half Men and ThunderCats for very good reasons, and so did your audience. Just because it used to be popular doesn't mean you need to subject the next generation to it.

What we do isn't rocket science, it’s persuasion. Shouldn't we have more in our toolbox than The Jetsons and Apollo 13?

Scalp Med Reputation Management

I've been working with a client for some time to improve their online reputation.  Some people don't feel that reputation matters, but it does.  One area that most companies ignore is what content is already available online for further promotion and optimization.  For example, the following URLs are on page 2 of Google results as of this post.  However, they should be moving to page one shortly due to their authority and focus:

www.prweb.com/releases/2013/6/prweb10835047.htm
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Scalpmed/427265147327786
www.linkedin.com/company/scalpmed
https://twitter.com/ScalpMed1

In order to fully promote these URLs, we are adding new content, link building, and continuing to optimize based on the metrics we see through our search crawler tools.  The key is patience.  When you're dealing with a company like Scalp Med, or any online retailers, it's important to remember that slow and steady wins the race.

If results happen too quickly, then it's possible that Google will penalize the websites and page one rankings will never happen.  However, when you have sites with a positive page rank and a variety of other factors that indicate authority, it's just a matter of time until rankings improve and the assets you want on page one not only "arrive", but stay there over the long term.

I'll be updating everyone on our progress.  Over the next two months we will again be building quality links into the above mentioned sites to continue building authority. 

Interview with Kevin Madison

Yesterday I had the honor and privilege of interviewing Kevin Madison, founder of the KGM group, on business, marketing, and entrepreneurship.  Kevin's company helps businesses get to the next level by taking new approaches to common problems and thinking differently about their business.

During the interview, Kevin shares not only his business approach but mindset for success as well.  I've learned that having the right mindset and beliefs can radically transform anyone's business.  During this interview, Kevin shares his personal struggles, triumphs, and what they have taught him.

If you'd like to improve your outlook, business, or achieve a specific goal, Kevin's advice will have you thinking differently.  Not only was this interview fun and informational, but transformational.  Don't waste another minute thinking about how you're going to achieve success, live it.  Listen to this exclusive interview with Kevin and you'll see why he has been a positive force for so many so often.

Click here for more information about Kevin's interview.

Special thanks to Kevin and other Internet marketing related experts who have offered their time for interviews and sharing their expertise!   

Social Networks: How Many Is Too Many?

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Getting Your Boss to Invest in Content Marketing

A man by the name of Dr. August Oetker developed his Backin baking powder in the late 1800s. In order to set his product apart from others, he would print recipes on the back. Eventually, Oetker sold cookbooks that included various recipes, all of which involved the use of his baking powder in some way.

What Oetker was doing was an early form of content marketing. This is when someone creates a form of media or published content in order to attract the attention of customers. What differentiates content marketing from other forms of marketing is that you aren’t directly approaching consumers from the point of view of “I intend to sell you something”. 

With content marketing, you are connecting to your customers in other ways. Your boss may be skeptical about an approach that moves away from more obvious marketing campaigns (and costs money that could be spent in other ways), but there are good reasons to consider content marketing a sound investment.

Making Your Brand Useful and Relevant in Different Contexts

Oetker understood that his baking powder was essential to the cooking process. Rather than simply convince his customers of how useful his product was, he demonstrated it with recipes. If you can, consider all the ways your product may be connected to the lives of your customers.

Say for instance you are a provider of construction software that is used for making estimations, project managing, accounting and other related needs. Content marketing could include options such as infographics about the construction industry or sensible project management tips. The content you produce is relevant to the needs of your customers and so you are helping them. You are also linking your company with information that they need.

When you engage in content marketing, you don’t simply stop at discussing your product. You play to all the strengths of your product and how it fits into the lives and businesses of customers.

Content Marketing Can Move You Outside the Box

While content marketing can involve images and ebooks that relate to your customer’s needs, you can also release media that isn’t directly tied to your company’s area of business. For instance, you could create a Smartphone app that allows customers to keep track of their day or even a game. The purpose of the app isn’t directly related to your company...but your company’s logo is prominently displayed.

Some companies attempting to engage younger consumers will opt for games or they may even release music.

In actuality there is no rule for how you engage in content marketing, except that you are engaging customers. You aren’t actively trying to sell at them with the content provided, but you are putting your name in the back of their mind.

Why Content Marketing Can Be the Way to Go

Today many customers have a negative reaction to being bombarded with advertising, especially on the web. Directly engaging customers in an “I’m trying to sell you something” way, particularly through forced ads, has resulted in a negative backlash. Many people even make use of ad-blocking software.

Imagine paying so much money for ads that consumers you want to reach won’t even see? With content marketing, you are able to engage consumers in a way where you’re being useful, helpful and providing them with useful information, services or even a fun game. And as the content is generally free, they’ll already associate you with a bargain.

Content marketing lets you reach out to customers and build a rapport through indirect references to your brand. When positive feelings are established in a way, it can really help customers decide that they want to see what your brand is about and bring their business to you. As this is the ultimate goal, and it has proven successful for a number of businesses, it’s definitely an approach more businesses would be wise to consider.

Special thanks to Ali Lawrence for today's post. Ali Lawrence is a content specialist for a web design company and blogs in her free time at MarCom Land. Her articles have been published by Hot in Social Media, Yahoo! Small Business, and Business2Community.

Online Reputation - Protecting Your Children

The majority of the work I do is helping companies manage and market their online reputation.  But today, I'd like to take a slightly different look at the audience we serve.  Having seen just about everything in this industry (online reputation), I know the most emotionally charged issues are those having to do with us personally or our children.

When it comes to protecting the reputations of those you love, it's hard not to worry about their safety and well being.  I'm sure many of you have had the same conversations that we've had with our children, "Don't post anything online that you wouldn't show us" or "The internet is permanent, think twice before you post pictures" or "Don't have online relationships - you never know who's at the other end", so on and so forth.  And this is all good advice.  However, there's much more you can do to ensure the safety and security of your children online that giving them some general advice.

Here are just a few thing I touch on in my latest ebook which you can download for free, 15 Ways to Protect Your Online Reputation.  The advice that follows is specifically for children who need even more protection:

1.  Register a website name (URL) on their behalf.  Imagine your child being in his teens and making a bad decision.  Maybe he went to a party and had something to drink or his pants fell down and someone took a picture (yes, these things do happy). The next day, some of his friends think it would be funny to share the photo.  But instead of spreading the word via Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, they decide to buy the url with contains his name. Okay, now you're in trouble.  They own the domain and are free to post anything they want... pictures, comments , etc.  Before long, all the kids at school know about it and are visiting the website in large numbers.  You think the world is over.  Well, it gets worse.  The more a website is visited, the more popular it becomes, and the more weight Google gives it in search results.  Now you're really screwed.  I won't get into freedom of speech and the legality of getting the site removed, but it will take time and the damage has already be done.  Do yourself a favor, buy a domain name that includes your son's or daughter's full name or nickname if the one you want is not available.

2.  Help your child build an optimized set of social media accounts.  When kids log on to social media, they are more concerned with the tweeting or posting than setting up a well rounded profile.  And that profile stays with them for a very long time.  For example, even though MySpace hasn't been used in forever, many individual's profiles are posted and have remained unchanged despite the fact they are working and others are searching for them online.  If you take the right approach when your kids begin using social media, they'll be following best practices for years to come.  Work with your teen or child to set up popular social media accounts like Google+, Facebook, and Twitter that position them in a positive light.

3.  Deliberately post pictures of your student when appropriate.  Do you have a Facebook account?  Then you probably know quite a bit about tagging people in pictures.  Tagging can be applied in various ways so it's important to make sure that you are publishing images that meet your criteria for "appropriate".  Google image search will pick up images that are properly tagged and you can protect unwanted photos from showing by building a positive repository of images that are okay to be seen.

4. Monitor search results.  Every so often, go to the web and Google your child's name.  This may seem a bit creepy, but monitoring is one of the best ways to nip issues in the bud.  When searching for your child's name, don't bother with quotation marks or any other delimiters.  Instead, take note of what appears.  Are you finding negative information or inappropriate content... or no content at all?  Monitor results, it's your responsibility.

Protecting your child's online reputation is essential. Don't wait for someone else mention tell you when a child's image has been compromised because of what someone said or did online.  It's much more important to be proactive and protect your child.  Reacting once the damage is done can be expensive and time consuming.  Start today.

5 Reasons Digital Marketing is Overtaking Traditional

As the conventional consumer has become the digital consumer constantly connected via their smartphones and tablets, marketing departments and firms have had to adjust how they reach out to their customers. Over the years this has resulted in a hybrid form of marketing with marketers still using traditional methods, such as TV advertisements, newspapers and trade magazines along with digital media from email mailing lists to social media and digital advertising.

In a survey completed in 2012, traditional media still made up the majority of marketing budgets, but 50 percent of marketers planned on increasing their paid digital marketing efforts and two-thirds planned to increase their budget for earned digital media. On the other hand, only 22 percent of marketers planned to increase their budget for traditional marketing with 38 percent actually planning to decrease their investment in traditional media. While there will always be a place for some amount of traditional marketing, especially since it’s been found beneficial to use a combination of the two in certain cases (such as following up a digital campaign with TV ads), digital is quickly becoming a major if not the main medium for marketers. What has caused this major shift to digital? There are several factors.

1. The Empowered Consumer
The consumer has been the major driving force behind the shift to digital. The Internet and social media have given the consumer a powerful voice to express how they feel about individual companies, and given the consumer access to thousands of businesses to pick and choose from. This has forced companies to adopt social media and digital tools in order to cater to this new type of customer that has a bigger voice and more choices than ever before.

2. Better Messaging
The Internet also provides unique opportunities for marketers to better segment and target the consumer. Platforms such as Google and Facebook create huge amounts of data about what each individual likes, clicks on and is talking about. This data is incredibly valuable for marketers trying to better understand their consumer, so they can use better messaging and stand out in what has become a highly competitive market.

3. Rise of Mobile
The increase of mobile devices has also provided greater incentive to switch to digital, because it allows marketers to incorporate location data to seamlessly reach the consumer at any time and when the messages will be most relevant to where the consumer happens to be. A revealing statistic shows that 64% of people with a smart phone use their mobile device for online purchases.

4. Better Measurement
Measuring the success of a TV advertisement or billboard campaign is difficult and inaccurate, and it can be difficult to pinpoint why, exactly, that the campaign was successful and where it could be improved. The digital space makes it easier to test messaging, measure results and adapt campaigns quickly in order to get the best results possible, because there is more data available for marketers to access and analyze.

5. Build a Relationship
Finally, digital gives businesses the opportunity to become more human in the eyes of the consumer and develop relationships with the consumer based off of friendly conversations, better customer service and providing added value through blogs and other social media posts.

Marketing Experts - 7 Common Omissions from Social Strategies

When it comes to devising your brand’s social media strategy, the devil is in the detail. Small mistakes and basic omissions can leave your efforts falling short, potentially impacting your online presence. There are numerous, simple mistakes that business owners are still making on social media, so here are 7 critical elements that often get neglected: 

1.) Email is NOT Dead
It may be the oldest online social network, but don’t go writing email off just yet. It is still a great and powerful way of connecting with your clients, and has the added bonus of being cheap. The majority of businesses check their inbox regularly throughout the day, and research by Zapier suggests that customers who receive their emails are more likely to share important information across other networking platforms too. 

2.) Link Back to your Website
So many brands invest time and effort into creating great content for their Facebook or Twitter pages, however trying to find a link back to their website is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Your website should be your priority, and your social media channels should drive traffic back to your site. Make it super easy for those who are interested in finding out more about your services to find your site. 

3.) Focus, Focus, Focus
With a plethora of networks now available, keeping a cohesive social media strategy can seem like a full time job in itself. A lot of business owners may feel that they have to be active on all social media channels, all the time. In reality, it’s far more valuable to focus on one or two sites and use them really well. Do some research into what sites your target audience are using and focus your efforts there. You should be able to see higher engagement and conversions at a lower cost.

4.) Make your Employees your Advocates
Bring your brand back to even more customers by utilising one of your greatest assets - your employees. Make them advocates for your business by including them in your social media brand-building efforts and welcome their strategic input. Not only will it build the brand amongst employees, but it will foster greater employee advocates too, creating a strong all-round presence. 

5.) Don’t be Afraid of Retargeting 
If done right, retargeting can be a very powerful marketing tactic. By using past social media campaigns and specific URLs, it is possible to track specific leads around the web from a simple tweet or Facebook post. Following on from this, you can target your potential customers the ads that are most likely get them to convert, as well as being able to quantify this data to see how much of an impact your social media is actually having on sales.

6.) Use Facebook Targeting 
So many businesses forget to capitalise on Facebook’s targeting software. With this tool, certain posts only reach a certain demographic to strengthen the appeal in one without turning off another. The targeting function can be found on the Facebook admin pages and could make an impressive difference to your marketing strategy. 

7.) Use YouTube!
YouTube is often forgotten in social media strategy because it is often not thought of as a social network. In reality, it is one of the most powerful sites you have in your tool kit. Users tend to browse the site, and the related video suggestions YouTube shows users in the sidebar are almost as good as buying ads on the page. 

Make videos that are either useful (e.g., expert how-to's), which potential customers are likely to come across when searching for information on their own or that are entertaining (e.g., funny commercials). Ultimately, make something that people would share amongst themselves. Search results featuring videos have a higher click-through rate, so not having a video presence could mean missing out on potential customers from organic search traffic.

Special thanks to Madeleine Hammond for today's guest post. Madeleine is a marketing executive at Skeleton Productions - one of the UK's leading video production companies with Skeleton Productions

Bridging the Gap between Traditional and Digital Marketing

Inbound marketing has been a real game-changer for the world of advertising. Brands and agencies are realizing that traditional marketing tactics are no longer enough on their own: while traditional methods still play a significant role in any brand's marketing strategy, it's important to bridge the gap between traditional and digital marketing. On the surface, it may not seem easy to tie the two together, but it's actually possible to create a synergistic approach where your online and offline methods lead into each other to stimulate conversions. Incorporating digital strategies into your overall marketing solution can help your company increase brand awareness, expand your customer base, and retain your existing customers. Let's take a look at the differences between traditional and digital marketing, and see how they can work together to create a cohesive marketing strategy.

Traditional Marketing

Traditional marketing efforts are conducted through offline channels, such as television, radio, print, telemarketing, and direct mail. These campaigns generally require a high degree of planning, involving detailed demographic research. They revolve around the well-known "4 Ps" of marketing: price, product, placement, and promotion. Traditional marketing usually has a longer time frame for execution than digital efforts, and are more expensive overall.

Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing efforts are quite different from their traditional counterparts. With a short life cycle and nearly instantaneous feedback, they can give marketers a targeted, detailed look at consumer behavior, demographics, purchasing habits, and interests. Messaging can be executed on a real-time, one-to-one basis, creating a level of engagement that's impossible with traditional methods. These inbound strategies are invaluable to marketers as a tool to attract, engage, and ultimately convert customers.

Creating Synergy

Traditional and digital (inbound) marketing efforts can work in tandem to create a powerful conversion cycle. For example, QR codes can serve as an effective bridge between traditional and digital campaigns. These codes can be added to print advertising, business cards, and even product packaging. Accessible to anyone with a smartphone and a barcode-scanning app, they can link to your website, blog, product videos, or contact information. Linking them to any of your company's social media properties is an easy way to increase your following.

Even direct mail, a staple of traditional marketing, can make the leap into the digital realm. Companies can use email mailing lists to enhance, or even replace, their existing direct mail efforts. Email boasts multiple advantages over traditional mail for marketing purposes:

--It's easier to respond to
--It's a better choice for brief messages, like follow-ups and confirmations
--It's a better choice for sending reminders

No matter what methods you use to integrate traditional and inbound marketing strategies, it's important to keep a few things in mind. Your traditional and inbound campaigns will work best if launched simultaneously, so that they can support and lead into each other. As your campaign progresses, you can reduce your costly traditional media schedules while continuing to draw visitors through your more budget-friendly inbound marketing efforts. Remember to keep your brand's message, as well as the look and feel of the materials, consistent between both mediums. As you receive and analyze feedback on your inbound efforts, be sure to make the appropriate adjustments to your web-based tactics.

It's clear that traditional and digital marketing methods might appear quite different in their tactics, but they share the same goal: to attract leads, create conversions, and increase brand awareness. Integrated correctly, these two types of marketing can seamlessly lead into each other and streamline the conversion process. Try bridging the gap in your own company's marketing strategy, and watch your bottom line grow.

Special thanks to our guest post writer Rick Delgado. Rick is a technology enthusiast and former direct mail marketer. He's recently taken a step back from a successful career to pursue his passion for writing.

How psychology drove some of 2013’s Top 10 videos to the top

YouTube recently revealed the top ten viral videos of 2013. Since marketing videos are my business, here is a critique four of them to give you an idea of how the psychology of sharing helped them reach the top. 

#4 Miley Cyrus - Wrecking Ball (Chatroulette Version) by Steve Kardynal

• Humor

This takes Tom Cruise dancing in his underwear in Risky Business to a whole new level. The scraggly beard and super tight tighty whities send us over the top as he gyrates on the couch and hangs from an inflatable wrecking ball. And singing along to Miley Cyrus is way funnier than to Bob Seger. Hilarious.

• Public

The raw authenticity from the guy’s webcam makes us feel like we’ve accidentally dropped in on the wrong conference call – very wrong. And seeing real people in the left pane experiencing the video lends credibility; just like a sit-com laugh-track, their laughter causes us to laugh. 

• Unexpectedness

Seeing a grown man dancing in his underwear, licking a hammer and swinging on a rubber ball hanging from a rope is shocking, to say the least.

#6 Volvo Trucks “Live test” 

• Awe

A guy (an old guy at that!) doing the splits between two large semi trucks travelling backwards is highly unusual, dangerous, and awesome. While it may have been faked (even though the makers swear it isn’t), the drama that Volvo manufactured is real. Judging from the comments, it was faked but that didn’t seem to stop millions from sharing it.

• Celebrity

Unfortunately for Volvo, I’m afraid using Jean-Claude Van Damme for this spectacle discounts the possibility that it’s real. How old is the guy anyway? Using someone more nimble, such as an acrobat from Cirque du Soleil, might have made it more believable. Plus, he’s been out of circulation for so long I don’t think his inclusion provides much of a boost. 

• Unexpectedness

For those who think such a stunt is possible, this is truly mind-blowing. People might examine it for evidence of a green screen down the road. But the immediate impact is truly incredible. 

Additional note: Given that this video is from a major truck manufacturer, the virality was most likely boosted with advertising. The company doesn’t give any stats on how much money they spent to promote it so we don’t know for sure how viral it really was. Perhaps a small budget was devoted to get the word out then it took off on it’s own.

#7 YOLO (feat. Adam Levine & Kendrick Lamar)

• Celebrity

Adam Levine and Kendrick Lamar are both serious A-list musical talent so we sit up and take notice. We wouldn’t love this video nearly as much as we do were it not for the performers who deliver it.

• Humor

Wearing ear protection in a nightclub is just the beginning of a hysterical poke at trying to curb youthful indiscretion. Don’t ever travel, just live in a titanium bomb shelter. In fact, make a titanium suit in case a piano falls on you. Great stuff.

• Tastemakers

Adam Levine, Kendrick Lamar, and Andy Samberg likely aided the initial distribution using their own social networks. And it originally aired on Saturday Night Live so millions saw it before it hit the web.

• Unexpectedness

Adam Levine and Kendrick Lamar advising young adults to be careful is just as unexpected (and funny) as Christopher Walken needing to hear more cowbell.

#8 Telekinetic Coffee Shop Surprise

• Awe

Seeing a young woman slamming a grown man up against the wall using her telekinetic powers leaves a lasting impression. Even better, the awe we feel upon seeing the expressions on the uninformed is even more powerful.

• Humor

Even though Candid Camera pioneered the concept more than 60 years ago, this clever video shows that hidden camera stunts can still work. We enjoy being in on the secret, and love to laugh at the poor sucker who isn’t.

• Story

Even though the two are not perfectly intertwined, telling friends about the video easily parlays into a discussion about the sponsoring product, the movie Carrie.

Additional note: Given that this video is from a major movie studio, the virality was most likely boosted with advertising. The company doesn’t give any stats on how much money they spent to promote it so we don’t know for sure how viral it really was. Perhaps a small budget was devoted to get the word out then it took off on it’s own. 

Were these videos just lucky? Hardly. Thanks to groundbreaking research, we now know that getting something to go viral takes much more than mere luck. There are several traits that companies can bake into their marketing content to leverage the psychology of sharing. And we also know that socialized content can deliver far better customer engagement than advertising. To learn more about the psychology of sharing, visit InterplayAgency.com.

Special thanks to Dan Clark for today's post. Dan Clark is the owner and Creative Director of Interplay Agency, a leading content marketing consultancy based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Contact information below:

InterplayAgency.com  

@InterplayAgent  

http://www.linkedin.com/in/kdanclark

4 Tips to Strengthen your YouTube Presence

Each year YouTube seems to grow in terms of number of videos posted as well as pervasiveness across the web.  This year is no exception.  As content and content development becomes more important in the age of post hummingbird Google updates, optimizing your YouTube channel and videos is absolutely essential.  Here are some tips for improving your YouTube results.

1.               Remember the Branding of your Channel

Get into the mindset of thinking of your YouTube channel as a profile for your brand, or as an extension of your website. You want it to look as sleek and professional as possible, suited to your niche and interests. You need to convince browsers that your content is worth checking and your channel worth subscribing. You always want to optimize your channels SEO. Give your Internet videos titles, tags, closed captions, descriptions etc with rich keywords and phrases for the best chance of turning up on the Page 1 search results of Google and YouTube. 

2.               Interact With the YouTube Community

Whereas Twitter & Facebook lend themselves instantly to communication, most people seem to forget about YouTube’s social features, yet it is one of the easiest ways of establishing a solid presence on the site. These users are just like any other social media user, they enjoy engagement and activity. Comment and Like/Dislike other users content and where possible Friend and Subscriber to their Internet videos. If you have the means to create Video Responses frequently then use that facility to your advantage too. Never underestimate how being an engaged YouTuber can benefit your channel.

3.               Know your Friends

YouTube novices beware: A friend and subscriber are two different things! An overly common pitfall is confusing the two.  A ‘Friend’ is a user who likes you as a contact, someone who enjoys social engagements with you and follows your on site activity. A ‘Friend’ will not want to get inundated with your latest content. A ‘Subscriber’ on the other hand is a user who enjoys just your online video content and have opted to find out about when you have new video content available. Remember to SOCIALISE with friends and to SHARE with your subscribers to ensure a strong YouTube presence in the eyes of both sections of users.

4.               Utilise all Your Social Media Profiles

One of the (many) reasons YouTube is the undisputed ruler of online video is down to it’s ability to integrate itself with the other dominant social medias, such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. These sites allow you to share your online video content as frequently as you wish and can really benefit your YouTube presence.  Post your content on your Profile, share it on Pages and in Groups that are relevant to your niche and your video content and you and your channel will reap the rewards.

Madeleine Hammond is a marketing executive at Skeleton Productions - one of the UK's leading video production companies.