Every video producer dreams of having their marketing videos going viral (that dream may also involve supermodels and a garage full of Lamborghinis). Theres no magic OR scientific formula to follow to create a viral video hit, but most viral videos have a few things in common.
This post isnt about how to make a viral video. That particular combination of content, skill, timing, and luck cant be boiled down into a simple how-to list. However, you can take some lessons learned from the webs most famous viral videos, and use them to make your marketing videos infinitely more interesting and shareable.
Well look at examples of each, and tell you what you can take away from these viral videos to help create marketing masterpieces of your own.
1. It Contains Insider Information If you scroll through your Facebook feed right now and pay attention to posts containing videos (exclude funny videos for now), many of them will have a sentence like this:
Did you know ?
What do you guys think ?
I already knew, but
People love to share information to be helpful, to provoke discussion, or to prove theyre knowledgeable about a certain topic.
Example: Squatty Potty Unicorn
Marketing a product designed to help people go to the bathroom doesnt sound like the most glamorous task. But Squatty Potty knew they created an advantage of knowledge for their customers going number two in a certain position does, in fact, they claim, lead to a superior evacuation. Now, buying the Squatty Potty isnt something to be embarrassed about. Customers equate the use of this product with superior scientific knowledge about the mechanics of something as commonplace as going to the bathroom.
Put It To Work: Does your product or service create an advantage for your customers? You can bet theyll want to tell their friends and networks about it. Make your customers look smart, and theyll make you look like a genius.
2. It Causes An Emotional Response Your video doesnt have to be a tearjerker to cause an emotional response. It can be funny (humor can be a hard target to hit because its so subjective), inspiring or even frightening. People tend to share videos that cause an emotional response because when we feel an emotion, we want others to feel it, too.
Example: Jill and Kevins Wedding Entrance Dance
Theres an ocean of elaborate proposal and adorable wedding videos on the web, but Jill and Kevin have a special place in everyones hearts. They danced down the aisle six years ago, and their choreographed entrance has been viewed over 90 million times.
Whether youre a sucker for weddings, get goosebumps when you see a perfectly executed piece of choreography, or just like music, this video probably elicits an emotional response when you watch it and thats why its so shareable.
It may not be a marketing video, but it did motivate people to do something. Jill and Kevin urged everyone who watched their video to donate to the Sheila Wellstone Foundation, which works to prevent domestic violence, and their efforts raised over $50,000 for the charity.
Put It To Work: People tend to equate spending money with positive emotions (unless the electric bill is due), so make them feel good about your product. Use your marketing video to illustrate how using your product or service makes your customers lives better or more enjoyable. Tell a story with a happy ending. Those good vibes will be way more shareable than a straight-up sales pitch.
3. Its Timely If asked to name a popular viral video ad, how many of you would instantly think of the Smell Like A Man Old Spice commercial? It was a huge hit (and for good reason), but would you try to parody or reference it now, over five years after its release? No, of course not. Its old news. Theres nothing wrong with piggybacking on current events, trends, or popular memes in fact; it can help get hundreds (or thousands) more eyeballs on your video. Just make sure theyre still current by the time your video is produced and released.
Example: Keyboard Cats Wonderful Pistachios Commercial The Keyboard Cat video was uploaded to YouTube in 2007 but didnt become wildly popular until referenced by Stephen Colbert in 2009. Wonderful Pistachios hopped on the bandwagon with this timely ad in 2010 short, relevant, and memorable.
Put It To Work: You dont need to create a 5-minute masterpiece of a video to hook on to the popularity of a meme or cultural moment. Keep trendy videos short (the Wonderful Pistachios commercial is only 16 seconds long), and make sure you have a finger on the pulse of whats popular. Check Twitters trending topics or the front page of Reddit daily for inspiration.
4. It Gives Viewers Something To Do Creating engagement is more complicated than simply slapping a CTA on the end of your marketing video. A video that viewers want to share is great. A video that viewers want to participate in is awesome (and will get you even more shares)!
Example: The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge
Again, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge wasnt a marketing video per se, but it raised well over $100 million for the ALS Association. Why was it so successful?
Other than the fact that its incredibly fun to watch your favorite celebrities get ice water dumped on their heads, people participated because: it was easy, it was time-limited, and it was designed to spread. Each person had to nominate three other people to take the challenge within 24 hours. You dont have to be a mathematician to see how it spread like wildfire.
Put It To Work: Youre probably not going to make $100 million off of your first marketing video but if you make your videos engagement-friendly, you might see an increase in conversions and sales.
You can create a contest, ask for photo or video submissions, direct people to a landing page where they have to enter a code from the v
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Every video producer dreams of having their marketing videos going viral (that dream may also involve supermodels and a garage full of Lamborghinis). Theres no magic OR scientific formula to follow to create a viral video hit, but most viral videos have a few things in common.
