I happened to read from here and here about this, a ‘viral’ from makaan.com. As said on WATblog, it rehashes the Lagaan mixture of two of India’s most influential properties- cricket and bollywood, and not exactly in an earth shattering new take either. So, what’s it about virals that seems to have forced Brand Managers across categories to make it part of their regular campaign ‘things to do’.
A good viral can definitely do the trick for your brand, there are many examples, most of them are of international brands though. I think the problem starts when we try to force a viral. If its supposed to work as a viral, through Word of Mouse, i wonder how much of force feeding can be done. All you can do, if you’re the brand manager, is to take a good idea, and seed it. I, for one, when reviewing any proposal sent to me, use two conditions to check whether it can work – one, does it somehow connect with what my brand represents, and two, is it good enough for me to forward it to my friends, and not necessarily in that order. I think it has worked for me, because i have junked all the ‘viral’ ideas that have come to me.
More importantly, i think the reason why good virals are so tough to find is because of the non-adherence to the entire philosophy of the way these things work. Its based on a good idea, true, but more importantly its based on the brand’s willingness to lose control, which is something i see very rarely. For word -of -mouth to truly succeed, the brand has to trust its user, and the more brands think of their user as an end game, and not as a collbarator, the lesser chances for this philosophy to succeed.
On a sidenote, i rather liked this viral effort from ICICI Prudential and this TVC, from 99 acres, the link being that one is a viral, and the other operating in the same vertical as makaan.
until next time, lets hope you catch it right