Successful Viral Campaigns

Viral campaigns differ from adverts in their underlying message. Adverts are all about getting you to buy something or pay for a particular service so that the company behind the advert profits. Campaigns however are all about spreading a message. Because of this, the content of a viral campaign can differ quite greatly from a viral advert, despite the fact that they're fundamentally the same thing in that they get spread from person to person. Adverts are about making the company look good, whereas campaigns are about making people show each other the campaign. This means that whilst the content of an advert has to be at least somewhat relevant to the company, the content of a campaign doesn't necessarily have to, as long as it captures the attention of the audience and delivers the message in a way that makes the audience want to pass it on.

The Melbourne Metro system created the “Dumb Ways To Die” video in an attempt to improve peoples awareness of safety when using trains. Their video was very catchy and has got over 72,500,000 views on YouTube due to its unique nature and comedic value. It’s a great example of how humour can be used to capture peoples interest and then use the interest for good as opposed to financial gain. 2 months after the videos release, the Melbourne Metro announced a 30% cut in the number of incidents occurring on the train lines. I personally feel the campaign is very successful due to how it appeals to a younger audience, which is the audience that are more than likely going to be the ones stupid enough to prat around by train lines. This is only backed up further by the campaign having a game available to download as an app for smartphones. I feel however that the game opens up the campaign to criticism as it has little or no value due to how it doesn't give any more train-relevant safety tips, or any more safety tips at all for that matter. If anything it seems to be encouraging using forks to get toast out of toasters etc. This was a problem which was raised by some with the initial video, showing these stupid acts is only going to glorify them, as is the nature of the internet today. Unfortunately, there are always going to be people stupid enough to make YouTube videos titled "Dumb Ways 2 Die - Real Life" and, even more worryingly "Dumb Ways 2 Die - Real Life (WARNING: Graphic)", and any attempts to stop this sort of stupidity will always be futile. Personally I think that all the causes of death in the video that aren't train related are so obviously stupid things to do that anyone doing those things on YouTube and anyone replicating those videos is just contributing to natural selection. The train-related ones, whilst being obvious, are seemingly less obvious, as the drop in incidents shows, so I feel that the Melbourne Metro system can justify their campaign quite easily.

For many things in life, there are two ways to do things, the right way and the wrong way. The Rainforest Alliance shows how you can support its cause by showing what happens when you choose the wrong option. This viral campaign is clever in how it encourages you to do the simple things by discouraging you to do the extravagant and complicated things. It allows the viewer to lower any guards they may have up to receiving the message, and the end result is that this charity can get their message across and build a positive connection with their viewer. I think more charities should consider using more positive methods when promoting themselves such as inspiration and humour because your stereotypical charity advert generally tries to guilt-trip people. In September 2012 the video was posted on YouTube and to the Rainforest Alliance's 30,000 followers on Twitter. That number has since risen to 67,000, which is a measure of the success it's had. 

Perhaps the most famous viral campaign of all time is Kony 2012. The charity Invisible Children released a 30 minute video with the intent of making Joseph Kony famous in an attempt to cause action to be taken against him. Kony is the leader of the Lords Resistance Army, which was initially set-up to free north Uganda from government oppression in 1986. Kony kidnapped children to fill his army, with the boys being given guns to fight with and the girls being kept as sex slaves. It is estimated that the LRA have abducted over 30,000 children and killed over 100,000 people. The campaign against Kony went viral so quickly that within one week of the video being posted, there were over 5 million tweets talking about it, as well as over 100 million views on YouTube. At the time I knew what the basic message behind Kony 2012 was, and I knew there was some controversy around it, although I wasn't sure what it was. Looking back on it now it seems that the controversy was about the intentions of the charity, Invisible Children. It seems to me that a lot of people were criticising them for their financial management and advertising methods. It seems ludicrous to me that the financial management of a charity gets called into question in a case like this given how serious the campaign was, but that just goes some way to explaining the scrutiny viral campaigns come under.