How Much You Should Spend on Creating Viral Marketing Videos
Spend as much as you comfortably can, or as little as you’ve got.
When determining your video budget, consider the size of the market you might be able to capture. Very finite markets may warrant smaller budgets - global markets, which are more competitive may require more money.
Examples of Low Budget Viral Videos
There are many examples of low-budget videos that have gone viral. Consumers do not care how much money you spent, they care about the “pass-it-along-to-others” value. Is it funny? Freakish? Inspiring? Does it reveal some new secret?
Check any major video publishing site or "top 10" video reports and you will see a mixture of million dollar ads and 50-cent ads.
- AARP “Lost Generation.” The simple reading of a poem forwards and then backwards lends a powerful message about life. This video probably took less than an hour to create (not counting the time it took to write the clever message.) It contains no actors, no graphics, no music. Cheap - but powerful.
- Will it Blend? This company has made its mark in the world of blenders by taking unusual items and grinding them up in their blenders. Items have included iPods (at the request of YouTube fans), air soft guns, glow sticks, golf balls, cameras, and even a ski.
Aside from the cost of products they destroy, their videos are very low budget and very impressive.
- OK Go on Treadmills: This low-budget video "Here We Go Again," is so much fun to watch it captured a staggering 1 million views on YouTube in the first 6 days it went live in 2006. Today, the video has been viewed more than 50 million times, rocketing album sales, and earning the band a Grammy award for "Best Short-Form Music Video" in 2006. Unique, yet simple choreography sets this video apart from the traditional music video format of sex, drugs, drama, and more sex. (This would have been a phenomenal ad for a treadmill company.)
