Toyota does the hard yards

This ad for Toyota is an excellent argument for making commercials that will create momentum - where people will do some of the marketer's work for them. There was a time when people who bought LandCruisers would have talked up their choice (post purchase dissonance), but now people like me (I don't have a Toyota Landcruiser) will happily embed the commercial on my blog - see above and then point people to it through Twitter - and a host of other social platforms.

It may cause a renaissance in advertising creativity, the sort of messages that were more common in the 70's and 80's, such as the classic Benson & Hedges ads (I'm not encouraging anyone to smoke) or John Smith's bitter. The commercials that people would discuss around the proverbial water cooler.

The Toyota commercial also demonstrates that advertisers are beginning to understand that 'viral' messages don't have to be low budget emulations of You Tube user's style of presentation (of which the recent V energy drink commercial is a good example - chap with rocket pack places road cone on the top of the Auckland Sky Tower).

Brightcove, the video platform recently published a study of online video conducted by Dynamic Content detailing the kind of content that is more likely to go viral:

Laugh-Out-Loud Funny
Videos that are laugh-out-loud funny get passed along to friends.

Edgy
Content that crosses some boundaries and challenges people gets good pass-along.

Gripping
If the video captures your attention and holds it for the duration, it’s more likely that it will get passed along to friends.

Sexual
Content with some non-pornographic sexual angle to it tends to go viral.

"The videos that get the widest viral distribution have these characteristics, but even with only one or two you’ll get more distribution than if the video does not have any of these elements. In niche markets, you’ll also see interest from fans and bloggers who may be motivated specifically by the topic."

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