Wait at least half an hour to swim after eating. It will upset your stomach, right? Almost everyone has heard this from either their mother or grandmother when they were a child. If you’ve ever tried it, the answer is no. I’ve done it many times and been completely fine. And I take my friends with me and there is no difference between five minutes and half an hour. No one is sick or dying. So why has this myth been passed down from generation to generation?
The answer can help marketers craft effective viral campaigns. Viral marketing maintains many of the same principles as many myths, right? To begin, it’s about creating an emotion. Often times in myths, it’s about fear (don’t flash your lights at a car that doesn’t have their headlights on–it could be a gang!). It doesn’t have to be. Consider the viral sensations of YouTube. They do not instill fear–rather joy and awe.
It is those things that create a strong emotion that we want to talk about. Whether they’re viral videos or urban legends, we want to help people. Warn for danger or pass the joy, we want to share our experiences with others.
Consider Ray Ban’s viral video (viewed over 4M times). Or Levis. Something as simple as getting into a pair of Levis can be worth sharing if someone can to a backflip into them. How can you brand connect to an emotion?
Tags: Viral