Going Viral in 2019

Viral marketing techniques for the postmodernist era

Viral advertising is probably the purest form of native advertising: some people don’t even realize the things they share on their own free will is actually an ad. They believe it’s a meme with some pop culture references or just some crazy stuff.

Of course, even the most seasoned native ad expert will hardly ever give a 100% guarantee that the ad will go viral, and that’s probably the biggest catch found in this area. Trying yourself at viral advertising is always a bit risky. But it actually pays in the end.

So, how can one create a viral advertisement in our hazy era when everything is postmodernist, post-ironic, and even post-truth? The answer is, easily. This is actually the golden age for viral marketing.

Memes

Have you ever noticed that, say, memes about the Avengers pop up like 4 months before the next movie is scheduled for release? Or that strange coincidence that jokes about Toy Story 4 show up not long before the film’s premiere? And shortly afterwards all those memes just go somewhere leaving everything to user generated content which is way more scarce.

If it never hit you that it was not a coincidence, it is quite likely their native ad memes worked on you. Indeed, they were funny enough and full of pop culture references to be shared throughout hundreds of thousands of people, or even more. Their actual goal was to drive up the anticipation of the upcoming movie, and they worked perfectly.

Insanity

Another kind of content that easily goes viral is some totally batshit crazy stuff. It could be some silly video depicting a weird person entwining their speech with some made-up words of an imaginary language they believe their Hindu-Atlantis grandmother spoke to naked mole rats to get rid of the Illuminati. It could be some crazy televangelist who built up their fervor so high they don’t even notice they preach Lady Gaga’s lyrics. And their audience is so exalted they cry “Alejandro!” all together every time they hear the preacher yell “Don’t call my name!”

Those examples were purely fictional but I guess you got the general idea. Such madness is very likely to be shared. A crazy Hindu-Atlantis person from Nibiru might stand in front of a clearly visible billboard that reads the actual promotional text. Or it might be Lady Gaga’s cunning attempt to build up the anticipation before her new album is released. In any case, the commercial message will reach everyone who watches those videos.

Postmodernism

I’m a proud postmodernist myself, so this stuff is actually my personal favourite. Post-ironically, though. It is a viral native ad that poses as a direct in-your-face ad. My postmodernist glands just shiver at this very thought. Sorry.

Of course, you have to have a good share of cynicism to make such ads, so it’s not for everyone. All those ads are based on a blatant controversy that stirs social media, makes late night show hosts make fun of it, and causes innumerable user-generated jokes to pop up across the whole wide internet.

It could be Fanta’s ad that revealed the drink’s historical ties to Nazi Germany (which are real, by the way). It could be that famous Burger King’s proposal of providing a life-long supply of whoppers to any Russian woman who gets pregnant from a foreign soccer player during the recent World Cup. There are actually quite a few examples of such risky moves that created instant buzz across social media and forced major media outlets to write a feature about it. All for free, at the users’ (and the media’s) own discretion.

Conclusion

Understanding that what you see is not a funny meme, a silly video, or an advertiser’s slap in the face of the general public, but actually a thought-out and borderline Macchiavellian move to increase brand awareness and sell you things possibly requires one’s idealistic views to wither away.

The more people ignore direct ads like banners, the more cunning advertisers have to be in order to deliver their message to the target audience. And when you’re in marketing yourself, you get used to never taking things at face value. That’s a sort of professional deformation we all have to endure. Thankfully, it allows us to tell a meme from a native ad that mimics it in nearly all cases. That’s a very useful skill, I know.

That’s all for today. Stay tuned.