Guest Post by: Monica Shaw
The success of IKEA’s kitty-themed viral ad is as much about conversation as it is about cute furry animals.
It’s been just over a week since IKEA’s Happy Inside cat advert was first aired in the middle of The X Factor. Since then, the ad has been viewed on YouTube over 800,000 times while the making-of-the-ad documentary has had over 2 million views and counting.
And so, IKEA joins the ranks of the Old Spice Man (>20m views), Cadbury’s Drumming Gorilla (>4m views), Tipp-Ex’s Hunter Shoots a Bear (>8m views), and countless other brands which have shirked the statistics to produce viral successes.
Writer and ad man Leo Benedictus reviewed the IKEA ad in yesterday’s Guardian, and in doing so explained the general theory behind creating a viral wonder:
Do not produce overt propaganda…just spend your budget doing something really spectacular, and film it…If you please people, you’ll win their admiration, and have a viral hit on your hands.
IKEA, Cadbury, Old Spice and others have demonstrated the truth of this statement through creativity and content, all of which prompted viewers to ask “how did they do it?” In fact, it’s that very question that points to the real secret behind the success of viral videos like these:
Viral videos create conversations.
These conversations are especially important (and hard to achieve) for big brands like IKEA, Cadbury, and Old Spice, all of which could easily become faceless due to sheer quantity of production. Instead, conversations build trust and intimacy:
- They humanise the brand and give it a personality that people can relate to
- They allow customers to interact with the brand
- They demonstrate creativity and forward thinking, even if the product itself doesn’t change
- They curb people’s cynicism about the brand and allows them to connect with tangible values (often silly, always highly creative) rather than meaningless jargon
And perhaps most importantly:
Conversations shape the consumer’s definition of the brand.
After all, in the digital world, brands are no longer defined by marketers and ad men – they’re defined by what other people say about them (aren’t we all?). That doesn’t mean companies don’t have a say in who they are, it just means they need to adjust their old school approach branding.
A good viral ad is more than a way to generate positive conversation; it’s a way to shape those conversations by contributing valuable content to the mix. And when you listen to those conversations, you can better understand how consumer’s define your brand. Because it’s not about you – it’s about what people say about you. And given the response to their ad, I’m sure the folks at IKEA are feeling pretty warm and fuzzy about that right now.
Original Post: http://www.marketsentinel.com/blog/2010/09/beyond-cat-porn-viral-videos-as-conversation-makers/
