Viral marketing campaigns are strategic initiatives designed to generate a contagious buzz that triggers rapid and expansive growth in brand recognition, audience interaction, and, ultimately, sales. Such campaigns transcend channels and surpass boundaries, across various social media, online communities, and word-of-mouth. 

What makes social media campaigns go viral?

While there is no one size fits all answer, there is research and thinking you need to put in to ensure you get clarity around the strategy to follow in the chase for a viral campaign. Research and understand your target audience – who they are, where do they live, how much do they spend, and under what circumstance they do so. Every little detail counts. 

6 Types of Viral Marketing Strategies for Your Brand

Let’s explore the kinds of campaigns you can experiment with, for your brand:

1. Creative and Shareable Content

Funny memes, humorous content, or emotion-raising creative content that is shareable often helps brands spread their brand essence across a large audience base. Good quality shareable content has the potential to spread rapidly across social media platforms, generating organic user engagement and building brand loyalty. Much like the Milind Soman ‘Mantastic’ campaign for Old Spice, which was a play on an old popular ad, and became viral for its quirkiness.

2. User-Generated Content (UGC) Campaigns

Such campaigns promote authentic interactions between the brand and its customers and tap into the power of peer recommendations, as people trust content created by their peers. However, most of the time getting users to generate content needs a push, a sort of incentive or an initial nudge, which is where celebrity influencers have a role to play. Campaigns like the Lays’s Chips ‘Smile Deke Dekho’ are excellent examples of where influencers were used to create a buzz and showcase how users can generate content. Content strategy, the timing of the campaign, and seasonality are extremely important aspects for the success of any UGC.

3. Contests and Challenges

Competitions and contests serve as effective methods for boosting engagement, nurturing a sense of belonging, and inspiring individuals to propagate the message by bringing in others, thereby initiating a contagious viral effect. The Swiggy “Voice of Hunger” challenge ​​is one such unique viral campaign where users were asked to recreate food shapes in hilarious ways to win food vouchers for a year. The relatable and humorous videos struck a chord with people, leading to widespread sharing and engagement. The campaign demonstrated Swiggy’s deep understanding of the emotional aspect of food, making it a viral success.

4. Touch an Emotional Chord

Making people realise an emotion or helping them understand something, encourages others to do the same. Busting a myth, or causing self-realizations are often great planks for such campaigns. One such super successful campaign was Dove’s “You are more beautiful than you think” campaign. It showcased how women perceieved their looks, as opposed to how the world did – and encouraged others to do the same.

5. Appeals and Social Causes

Campaigns that seek to promote social issues and causes gain a lot from viral campaigns. In light of COVID-19 the World Health Organisation (WHO) created the #SafeHands challenge campaign to encourage people to practice the correct techniques when washing their hands, to prevent the transmission of disease. Millions of users, including celebrities, uploaded videos across their social media accounts, making the campaign viral.

6. Controversial Content

Creating controversies and emerging victorious is an art. And even if you don’t emerge victorious, at least the brand gets spoken about! Several brands tow the fine line between controversy and social messaging in order to get the audience talking about the brand, this way or that. Tanishq’s Ekatvam Ad, for instance, meant to promote the ‘Ekatvam’ jewellery line, shows a Muslim family celebrating the baby shower of their Hindu daughter-in-law. 

7. Topical In-Trend Content

Putting out content on topical and time-sensitive content often is a great way to start conversations. Amul, the dairy cooperative, has mastered the art of viral marketing through its witty and timely topical advertisements. These ads comment on current events, trends, and social issues with a touch of humor and creativity. By staying relevant and leveraging cultural moments, Amul’s ads consistently go viral on social media platforms, sparking discussions and cementing their brand identity.

Conclusion

Viral marketing is a powerful tool that Indian brands have harnessed to build brand awareness, create emotional connections, and spark conversations. The examples mentioned above demonstrate the diversity and creativity of viral campaigns in India, ranging from witty advertisements to inclusive messaging and relatable content. By staying attuned to cultural nuances, understanding consumer behaviour, and leveraging the digital landscape, these brands have successfully crafted campaigns that resonate with audiences and drive their business objectives.

Want to create a genius social media campaign of your own? 

If you wish to grow your brand by leaps and bounds, engage Quello to identify your target audience, and create engaging marketing campaigns, Strategy-to-Execution. Start a discussion at Hello@Quello.com.