Knowing your viral potential is key to marketing success

It’s been over 90 years since Fred Barnard of Printers Ink said, “A picture is worth a thousand words”. Barnard would probably be blown away by the power of video and its ability to deliver a message. Several research projects report that video has a 135% greater reach than a static image. And, according to Unruly, videos increase purchase intent by 97% and brand association by 139%. Priscilla Kennedy, founder of Piehole.tv, a video production company, says that now is the time to experiment and embrace video within a business environment.

A native African strategist and creative director, Kennedy says they started Piehole.tv and then made a strategic decision to locate it in the Karoo, South Africa: “We decided to open our creative office in South Africa to expand the business. Our location, diverse talent, cost structure and approach makes us one of the burgeoning video-makers globally.” She says that Piehole.tv is like no other video production company, not only is their location and heritage unique as a creative agency, video is its lifeblood and they work in animation, live action and everything in-between.

Going ‘viral’ is video nirvana. Everyone is looking to stand out, be noticed, seen and heard. “Video content has tripled over the past three years. In a rapidly growing digital environment, video has the potential to cut through the noise and initiate conversations. 2018 is the time take your audience on a viral test run. But be aware that although true virability can be hard to achieve for a business, you can still aim to go viral within your audience even if not across the whole internet.”

She says that your content should tap into the audiences’ hopes, fears and even their sense of fun to successfully deliver the message: “A video that gets shared and seen a lot within your target audience is worth gold,” says Kennedy. “What we’ve noticed are really engaging videos that get shared through a target company. They can spread like a proverbial ‘wild fire’ across the organisation and even through its extended network of customers and service providers, using internal chat apps and email, and suddenly your organisation is widely supported.”  Kennedy say this approach ties into a popular trend of Account-based Marketing.

In today’s potentially skeptical world where consumers no longer impartially trust brands, and decision-makers are over-marketed to, video enables organisations to build emotional connections.