We have been doing a lot of tracking looking at traffic numbers, comments, and ratings for viral videos.   The results are often disappointing.   Most “virals” don’t go viral.  A common characteristic in virals is that they are commissioned, scripted, shot and even released without any testing.  Given the nature of the internet, this is nuts.

YouTube, Vimeo, Daily Motion don’t charge you to post a video.   The client can easily send a link to a few dozen testers to see if they like it.  Even before that stage companies like Unruly Media (who specialise in viral seeding) can take a look at your script and tell you if it satisfies key criteria.  It should be (according to them) Funny or Sexy or Shocking or Spectacular or Original or Moving or Illuminating.

In short the internet lowers the barrier to testing an idea, to see if it really works.  Then you can commission more of a great idea and quietly forget about a bad one.

Really good creative – of course – can do a fantastic job for a brand.  Little Gordon – the campaign for the website caterer.com – has had an extraordinary 2.7m views – only 75,000 were paid for with viral “seeding”.  [Thanks to Steve Filler - of Unruly Media - for the stats]