Viral Marketing - Kony

So if you haven't seen this at all during 2012, you're clearly missing out on some intense marketing, and this video gets shut down on December 31. I'm not sure how they can do this, given how many users have reposted it on youtube, so it'll probably still be available after that, but here it is now.




I'm not going to talk to you about Kony. Not about deployment of the troops vs. saving Ugandan children, not about Republican vs. Democrat or anything like that, because I don't believe in shoving my opinions down peoples' throats, and I gauge that you can make your own opinion on this video.

What I'm going to talk about is the marketing of this video. The viral marketing. It has over 94,000,000 views. Ninety-four MILLION views. Want to know the total views? Over 213 million. 213,000,000. How did this happen? A few people made it, and they made it well. They put together moving images and clips, and explained their plan in about the same amount of time of a short lecture.

Then they posted it, they shared it with their friends, their family, each other. Then they passed it on to facebook, who watched it and saw these moving images, this cute kid, this intense issue in Uganda. Then they shared it.

Then they were moved by the attempt to explain this massive issue to a child. So they shared it on Twitter.

Then they were moved by the thought of losing their child/future children because of a war, about not being safe. About having their own kids shoot them.

Then they shared it.

Soon, the number hit 94 million.

I must say, this has to be the most intense viral marketing campaign ever. I'm sure it didn't cost much - certainly not near as much as it made. I'd be curious to know how much money they made from Tri, and how many of those little boxes they sent out. I'm sure the number would blow me away, and I'm sure we've all seen the posters about. I can't say if it was April 21st with I saw them all, or when or where it was when I first noticed, but even I, secluded on my college campus and in my hometown, saw enough for me to be curious.

This sets a completely new standard for viral marketing. It was parkour, or some crazy stunt, it was a tragic issue happening in a country on another continent, and the world took it and ran with it. Whatever this Kony 2012 campaign did, it did it right and it needs others to follow it's example. If I had to guess? One thing:

Dedication.

These aren't people who just sort of care about this in their spare time. No, these people CARE about this in all their time, and I'm sure each person who helped make that video or was in that video probably shared it on their facebooks and twitters about 100 times, at least. Who knows exactly when it took hold, but they chipped away by posting it so often, by being so dedication and persevering and persistent, until they couldn't be ignored.

This is a hugely successful marketing campaign, but not because of the campaign itself, but because of the people behind it I think. If only everyone were as dedicated to their campaigns as that, we'd have a lot more viral marketing out there.


Until next time
-MG