Viral Advertising

Viral advertising means that a product, service or website etc. is made known through already existing social networks such as Twitter and Facebook, i.e. people who know and communicate with each other and spread the message. The concept is that the marketing efforts start small by making a product known to a small number of people and every one of them passes it on to others therefore getting the word around. However, if there is already a pre-established fan base then the word gets around a lot quicker. In today's society of social networking, it is unpredictable what will go viral but many advertisements become viral and are still remembered months and years later.


The Dark Night Rises viral marketing campaign
One example of a popular viral advertising campaign, which already had an established fan base, would be the white bats graffiti used to advertise Batman: The Dark Knight Rises. White bats were placed in public places all around the world and fans had to find the bats and post them on twitter with a hashtag. When enough bats were found and posted online a trailer was released, fans managed to achieve this in less than 24 hours. The hashtag used also trended on twitter which helped get the word around about the film. Here, technological convergence helped with this advertising campaign because many people now have a smartphone which has a camera and interest access. Proliferation also helped with this because we live in a digital age where more people can afford smartphones.

Orange is the New Black Season 3 Trailer
As listed in an article of 'The 12 Most Viral Ads of 2015', this trailer of Orange is the New Black received 1,283,721 shares. OITNB is a popular Netflix original series on Netflix which is the most popular online streaming subscription for TV shows and films, and as this is the trailer for season 3 there is already an established fan base. The trailer shows clips of all the main characters, who the target audience already knows, along with new characters to keep the audience intrigued for this new season. All of the clips are quick and short so that not much of the storyline is made obvious therefore again keeping the audience intrigued yet excited. The clips also show some hints at the relationships between the new and old characters which gives the audience some questions which will therefore want to make them want to watch the new series more. Many of these clips are shown through a close up shot perhaps to keep the audience from seeing most of the background to keep them intrigued and to welcome the audience back to the characters as well as making them focus on the characters. The trailer ends with an orange screen and writing saying '#sorrynotsorry' which is a hashtag for fans to use on twitter to get the message around about the new release of OITNB. The screen then says the title of the show 'Orange is the New Black' and then the date of the release '12 June', all of the information the audience needs to be aware of the show and to help promote the show on social media.  Orange is the New Black Season 3 Trailer

John Lewis Christmas Ad
With 1,949,387 shares the John Lewis Christmas trailer of 2016 was one of the most popular trailers in 2016. Every Christmas John Lewis bring out a memorable advertisement with a different theme each year which everyone looks forward to and talks about on the run up to Christmas. In the trailer a man puts up a trampoline in the garden whilst his daughter is in bed, ready for her to see the next day as it's her Christmas present. During the night two foxes and other woodland animals start jumping on the trampoline whilst the family's pet dog watches them from the window. The next morning the young girl wakes up and runs outside to use her trampoline, the pet dog overtakes her and jumps on the trampoline happily. The words 'Gifts everyone will love' fades onto the screen and then fades out to reveal 'John Lewis' with '#BusterTheBoxer'. This hashtag is again to be used on twitter to promote the heartwarming trailer. John Lewis Christmas 2016 Trailer

In conclusion today's advertisements often include a hashtag for viewers to use on twitter which can trend worldwide therefore spreading the message to a worldwide audience, increasing the demographic. This can be used by both small and big companies. I believe that for our advertisement of our short film we should include a hashtag to attract a young audience and also to increase our demographic. With the power of social media anything has the chance to become popular at a very low cost.