Today in my Writing Design Concepts class, Professor Stadler said "Don't try to make stuff that's viral, make stuff that's interesting." I think he has a really valid point there. And it touches on things I've mentioned in previous posts, specifically about the Old Spice ads. When Old Spice aired their ads and put them on Youtube, they weren't necessarily trying to go viral, as much of the ad world was trying to do. They were just trying to make an interesting ad, something people want to watch and want to show off. And from there, it went viral. I think followers, like Dairy Queen, tried to imitate Old Spice's social presence and relevance. They wanted to go viral. However, they didn't follow the same formula or have the same goal as Old Spice.
Which brings me to the purpose of this post: bring interesting. Ad makers and researchers for the last few years have been frantically and strategically trying to figure out a successful method to go viral. They know that the best way to spread a message is through word of mouth, and going viral means that an ad or campaign is successful. But sometimes what they think will be interesting turns out to be a shameless plug for their product. And what I think they forget is that most audiences start out bored and require the right piece of entertainment to divert their attention. Audiences can see through the mediocre and sniff out the lame. Being interesting can't get too entangled with the product. They need to connect but not be welded together. I still think that success could be measured by the number of views if the goal was to go viral, but I think a better goal is number of shares and retweets because that means that people like it and want other people to see it and like it, too.
Since you read that whole post, here's a video that illustrates my point. It's a viral video from VW, although you don't really find that out til the end.
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