Going Viral: Embracing Risk and Uncertainty in Online Communications

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By Ravi Singh

In my previous work, and from regularly speaking to those in professions like communications, advertising, and public relations, it’s become clear that “viral” has become a fixation. It’s not unusual for a team to come to the table and hold a brainstorming session to devise a marketing campaign that will “go viral.”

The goal is no longer just to craft an effective message or branding strategy for a product or service, though that certainly remains vital. Rather, it is an express purpose of professionals in these fields that whatever mode of promotion they employ (video, mass email, animation, etc.), it will organically spread like wildfire across the web, not only reaching an unprecedented number of users, but entirely new constituencies as well.

It’s hard to blame any one in the field for having these goals, especially given the phenomenal success of recent campaigns that went viral. If we are to trust Wikipedia, the “Old Spice Guy,” who responded directly to viewer queries on social networks, attracted 23 million views in only 36 hours upon release. The whole campaign is now nothing short of a pop-culture phenomenon, “I’m on a horse!” having officially entered the lexicon.

There’s no question that “going viral” is a great goal and has major rewards not only for organizations who reach new audiences, but also for users who discover new and engaging content that may be informative, moving, or humorous, among many other things. It’s one of the wonderful things about the web and online marketing in general that one never knows quite what they’ll find.

What I think emerges from this phenomenon, however, and what’s most important for those in fields such as communications, public relations, and advertising, is that “going viral” is not an exact science and that the user is ultimately in control. No matter how much research and effort is put into creating a campaign that will “go viral,” communicators must always be aware that they are taking a risk in deploying their campaign.

For every campaign that catches on, countless others simply flounder in the wide expanse known as the web. The diversity and eclectic nature of campaigns and other items that have achieved viral status tells us that there is no one essential component or formula that guarantees viral success.

I’m willing to bet that even Old Spice could not have anticipated the magnitude of success that their campaign would attain, but their approach was sound. They created something original and actually engaged users, and it paid off big time. I won’t say that the success of the campaign was accidental or a fluke, but that Old Spice had only so much control over the campaign’s success, which was ultimately a collaborative effort with users who took it and ran with it.

The takeaway from the above is that while there is no guarantee of success in the pursuit of “going viral,” the process nonetheless allows an opportunity for creativity and risk among communicators. This is something that should be embraced. Certainly, companies and organizations need to protect their brand and avoid public relations disasters, but the promise of viral success should not deter creative professionals, communicators included, from trying something different and risky, understanding that the payoff may or may not be as anticipated.

Ravi Singh is on the cusp of completing his master’s degree in political studies at Queen’s University with hopes of entering the communications profession. He has worked as a technical writer for a software startup and a copywriter for a small public relations firm in Toronto, where he developed and managed social media strategies and profiles and helped with online ad campaigns.

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