By Olivia Solon, Wired UK
For musical artists seeking to raise their profile, having a video that goes viral can telescope their career in a matter of weeks. Some bands, such as OK Go, have made a career out of creating viral videos -- using them as leverage for live-ticket sales and to generate sponsorship.
Wired.co.uk attended an event run by MusicTank last week, titled "It Started With a Click: How to Spawn a Viral Hit." Chaired by MusicTank's Keith Harris, the panel included Beggars Group's head of digital marketing, David Emery; The Viral Factory's strategy director, Matt Smith; PIAS Entertainment Group's head of digital marketing, Darren Hemmings; Muzu TV's European head of marketing, Rob Gotlieb; and filmmaker Dan Nixon. They discussed how best to ensure that your music video achieves viral success.
Here are five key pieces of advice from the event:
Have a Strong Creative Idea
Unless you already have a huge fan base (in which case your videos will get huge numbers anyway), the key to a successful viral video is to make a really entertaining film to accompany your track. Online you aren't just competing with other music artists, but with Charlie Sheen, sneezing pandas and skating babies.
'Never underestimate the power of kittens.'Forget about focus groups or your core demographic. Just come up with a great piece of content. It doesn't have to have high production values, but it needs to be something that people will actively choose to watch and share.
The Viral Factory's Matt Smith says: "Make it fun and shareable. Don't make it too intellectually demanding ... and never underestimate the power of kittens."
Make It as Accessible as Possible
Use the most-popular technology that's available to upload your video, i.e., YouTube. It might not be as artistic as Vimeo or Muzu, but it has the broadest reach (although that's not to say that you shouldn't also upload it to those other sites). Record label marketer David Emery explains that sometimes being taken down from YouTube due to complaints -- as happened with M.I.A.'s Born Free video (above) about the targeted massacre of people with red hair -- can also boost a video's viral spread.
Get Influencer Endorsement
While it is possible that a video can go viral completely organically, seeding the content to influencers can boost this process. Target relevant bloggers or news sites that might be interested in the content of the video.
This doesn't necessarily mean music blogs. Filmmaker Dan Nixon described how the video for Echo Lake's "Young Silence" was seeded onto tech sites, because it was created using only a hacked Kinect camera .
Make sure you only target those influencers who you know would be interested in the content and be extremely respectful and nice to them. If you are remotely pushy, ignorant of their raison d'être or unfriendly, they could post about you for the wrong reasons, leading to negative publicity.
Don't Assume a Viral Hit Means Download or CD Sales
Truly successful viral videos often transcend the tracks that accompany them. Like it or not, they spread because they are funny, elaborate, beautiful or cute -- not necessarily because the viewer likes the song. However, as in the case of OK Go, great viral videos can lead to strong live-ticket sales (because it looks like their shows would be really entertaining) or sponsorship opportunities. They can also bring you mass awareness very quickly, allowing you to save on traditional marketing costs.
Offer Your Track as an Accompaniment to Someone Else's Viral Video
Big brands are really investing in viral videos to cut down their spending on media placement and to cut through to increasingly fragmented audiences. They often use viral agencies to create and seed their content: Think Samsung's LED sheep or Ikea's cats or Tipp-Ex's bear hunter (below).
The viral agencies are looking for music they can use to accompany the videos. These agencies will often pay independent music labels a small fee to feature the music of an unknown artist. While the fee might be small, the marketing value can be enormous.
See Also:- How OK Go's Amazing Rube Goldberg Machine Was Built
