Spreading the virus

Last week, I wrote about my top takeaways from the Content Marketing Workshop hosted by OpenView Venture Partners. I ended the post with a point about being cognizant of your company’s brand when developing new marketing strategies, especially around content such as videos.  

I’d like to reiterate. Videos can and should be a component of a software company’s overall marketing strategy and fit within its brand. Videos can be educational, informative, or purely entertaining.

I have worked on several projects for our portfolio companies in which I researched what makes videos successful during my tenure at this Boston venture capital firm. Our expansion stage companies are very interested in creating videos that could potentially go viral as a means to generate buzz, create brand awareness, or generate leads. Unfortunately, a marketer is more likely to catch the bug going around the office than have a video take off. The things to keep in mind are the following: there is no silver bullet and there is a huge chance that your videos will fail more times than you will bear to witness. The key is to commit to the “content promise” and keep making videos.

Nonetheless, I wanted to highlight a few videos from some well-known software companies that have been wildly successful (that is, if you define success by one simple metric such as number of views). Here is the top 10 list according to Viral Video Chart and Unruly Media: Check out its website to view the full list.

  1. Microsoft Project Natal
  2. Apple Macintosh 1984 Superbowl Commercial
  3. Apple – IRack
  4. Microsoft Surface Parody
  5. Megawoosh
  6. Linus Baby Rocker
  7. Nokia Booklet 3G first video
  8. Apple Macbook Air – Envelope
  9. Microsoft Surface – the Possibilities
10. Windows Vista Aero vs Linux Ubuntu Beryl

Enjoy!