Reality or Not?

There has been a lot of chatter recently about brands/agencies creating formulaic "viral" videos - yesterday it was Coors Light and Levis. Each video has a similar look at feel to it, both filmed with a hand-held camera, both have a grainy compression/filter. I'll admit they are a bit cheesy, especially when the guy from the Coors Light video calls out the brand and its "better wide-mouth can" (their selling point).

In general, the term "viral video" makes me a little queezy. Wikipedia have defined the term "viral marketing" as a strategy that "facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message voluntarily". The very fact that the word voluntarily is used should explain to marketers/advertisers there is no formula to this process. You cannot force web users to share content. At the end of the day if the content produced makes you laugh or the content is new and original people don't care what its promoting who created it and will share it with their friends.

The Nintendo Wii's April Fools video is a great example...