What's More Important In Viral Video ROI?

I've been thinking a lot lately about viral video metrics and what companies really should want or focus on when thinking about adding viral video to their marketing mix.

Traditional thinking/approach has been to create a video that will "go viral" or at least that is the hope. This approach is marked by the creation of a single or maybe a small batch of viral videos. These are then seeded on major video hosting sites, etc., and the brand hopes for the best.

In most cases, this fails. With an average of 24 hours of videos being uploaded every minute on YouTube, you have to ask yourself, is it any wonder? That's a ton of noise and variety that is in direct competition with your video.

Thus, viral video seems to be a fairly high risk, high reward kind of thing. Sure you can build viral videos for a fairly low price point, but if you factor in the human cost (labor) even the cheapest video has significant cost.

But I've been wondering if there isn't a better way to do viral video. Instead of placing a few big bets, would it not be better to place lots say 10, 20, 50, 100 smaller bets? Maybe the videos wouldn't be about your brand but sponsored by your brand. Or maybe you'd be part of a small group of brands that came together to underwrite the creation and distribution of a series of videos.

This would obviously lower your risk/cost as in a shared environment no one brand would foot the bill for the entire series of videos. Let's assume for a minute that the series had 20-50 videos. That gives you a lot of chances to attach your brand (even partially) to a pretty wide variety of video types, content, and chances to go viral. Further, depending on the publishing schedule, you'd be keeping your brand alive in the digital conversation for anywhere from a half to a full year, versus the few weeks a traditional viral campaign lasts. Add in custom tracking URLs on each video and you not only get click data but maybe a bit of insight into the mind of your consumer what kinds of content your audience likes and dislikes. Would that be helpful?

So this morning I'm sitting here wondering, is there something of value in the partial sponsor, long-term approach? I do know I have been involved in a few really interesting conversations about this approach lately and I'd love to hear what you think on the subject.

Ready? Go.

And hey, if you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing so you can have posts from this blog sent directly to your eMail in box. And don't worry, I'll never share your email with anyone and I don't send anything but blog posts... because that's not what your here for right?