If You Want a Good Virus, Find the Carriers

After a lot of years doing digital, I am certain that the toughest thing to do is make a good viral video or application. How do you find the idea that will spawn millions and millions of people to view or participate AND send it to friends? You can’t research your way to it. Nor is it possible to write a viral idea spec. It’s kinda like what Justice Potter Stewart said about hard core porn in 1964 – “I can’t define it but I know it when I see it.”

By now you may have heard of XLNT Ads ( www.xlntads.com ), the fascinating start-up that connects marketers to video producers. No, not like Select Resources or Pyle. This is a service that helps brands get consumer generated advertising developed through a vast network of video producers. Some of these video makers are seasoned pros, while others are more modest outfits.

But for a truly affordable price, you can get a great video made – or throw a jump ball contest in which a group of video producers compete for a prize of a few thousand bucks.

The people of the web are making the video of the web. That’s what I mean about going to the carriers for viral.

What I love about XLNT Ads is that it opens up the creative field to a remarkable range of voices – let me say that again, a REMARKABLE range of voices. I just wandered through the entries for a Slim Fast contest (http://www.xlntads.com/assignments/slimfast/)and the different takes on the assignment were mind bogglingly wide ranging. People were given the “finding your own slim” idea of getting to the weight that’s right for you, and then told to run with it.

And run they did. Several vids were the sort of things that give you that gooseflesh feeling that, before digital, used to only happen very occasionally in creative meetings.

I am not for a moment saying this sort of approach means agencies are dead. For one thing, this kind of video is, in my opinion, web appropriate but not TV appropriate. I’m sure that there are people who would disagree with that. But this is MY blog, so I’ll say what I want. ;-)

For another, it appears that in many cases the video producers are taking a concept developed and executed by an agency for TV, and providing interpretations on the idea for the web. That’s OK for agencies, I think, because it demonstrates how real ideas have legs. And because as video production gets more and more cheap and commoditized, it’s the selling of ideas and concepts that will differentiate a great agency. Not making “beautiful film.”

One sad fact of advertising is that too many great ideas get thrown out after a few executions. I really think that agency produced ads combined with citizen generated executions can demonstrate the raw power of a great idea and keep it sold for years.

But if I am wrong there, don’t sell the immediate value of citizen generated video short. These producers may just be the key to making YOUR message viral.

There is no ulterior motive in this flagrant plug. I just think XLNT Ads is XLNT.

Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to write.