Advertising business

The internet has changed just about ever facet of our lives, we communicate differently and more rapidly that we ever had before. We find love online, we write to family online, we order our groceries online, and we research every manner of interest online. The internet has become a pastime that consumes a large portion of our free time. TV has taken a back seat to the internet so advertisers have had to change the way they advertise. The ‘viral campaign’ is one of the newest technologies in use today. Very basically it is a short video clip that is compelling enough to get the receiver to forward it on to all of their friends and then that group to their friends and so on. A completely new industry was born that is dedicated to understanding what makes viral ads ‘infectious’ and creating ads that lend themselves to this mode of ad transportation.

The newly created viral ad is then seeded on the web in locations where it’s likely to be found and repopulated into other venues. The top ads are getting more than 50 million views globally. Nike is one such viral ad success story, they produced a clip that had people questioning of it was real or computer produced. The clip ranged like wild fire all over the web as it drew attention globally and won Nike two Gold Lions during the Cannes Lions Festival. .

Another very successful viral ad was produced by Agent Provocateur. It features Kylie Minogue riding a velvet bucking bronco, which by itself would be considered provocative, ad sexy lingerie from Agent Provocateur and you have an internet storm. This clip garnered over 360 million views and is still climbing since its release five years ago.

John West Salmon came up with an entertaining clip where one of their employees fights a grizzly bear in order to land a salmon, their message; we go that extra mile for quality. This clip garnered more than 300 million views so far and has won ten awards.

Quicksilver Dynamite Surfing came up with a comedic clip that has so far been viewed by 20 million people. The gist of the story is a group of men living in a country without waves, throw a bundle of dynamite into a lake, the explosions caused waves that they were then able to surf. The question people keep asking as they pass the link around is; is it real? A telltale sign of success; four days after it’s introduction to the web, it was linked to approximately ninety-five percent of all surfer related websites. This site won a Silver award at the Cannes Lions.

As time pushes forward, and TV becomes less the dominant home entertainment, advertisers are having to become more and more creative in order to get their products in the public eye. Viral ad producers are outdoing themselves and they’re only going to get better.