THE SECRET RECIPE OF VIRALITY

WHETHER IT’S A QUIRKY SOCIAL MEDIA CHALLENGE OR THE WINK SENSATION, THE LIST OF VIRAL CONTENT GOES ON. IS IT POSSIBLE TO DECODE VIRALITY?

What makes content go viral anyway? It might be difficult to define virality, but does it surprise you that a few people on the Internet are able to craft contagious content every single time?

A new piece of viral content is born every day. What was ‘oh-so-rib-tickling’, ‘inspiring’ or ‘hilarious’ yesterday, might not even be deemed ‘share-worthy’ today. The lifespan of a viral content has reduced to a day. Creators who want to target us with their binge-worthy content need to time it within the critical short window of a day or two. Millions of content creators, brands, and influencers work around the clock to churn out that one piece of content that can make them overnight stars — to become the most viral video and cross over cultural and social boundaries.

Unless you are living in a cave, you must have come across the viral dance challenge dominating the social media space, ‘Dame

Tu Cosita Challenge’. All you need to do is match the dance steps of the green alien, Popoy, and post your video online. If it goes viral, you might wake up to thousands of followers. Earlier this year, a new Internet sensation, Priya Varrier, created ripples with her wink in a Malayalam song. Her popularity broke national boundaries as her memes took over the Internet globally — it even reached the Oscars!

So, is it easy to make it big in today’s digital landscape with the right moves?

We spoke to Karthik Srinivasan, national lead, Social@Ogilvy, Ogilvy India, to understand. “Hardly,” says Srinivasan quickly. “First, finding the ‘right moves’ is equal to filmmakers assuming a ‘hit formula’. Second, if it were a formula, then a lot more people would make it big. But, the Internet is littered with more failures than successes simply because we’re living with an overdose of content — more content than what we can meaningfully consume. Very few things bubble up to the top of the viral pile,” he shares.

Scrutinising viral content for a fortnight has led us to conclude that anything that evokes emotions — whether positive or negative — will go viral than content sans emotions. And ‘all is not lost in the world’ as the positive content is more sought out than negative ones. Needless to say, videos with ‘surprise and fun’ elements are here to stay.

What’s been your favourite so far?