MasterClass for businesses teaches that four elements are needed for a good commercial: A good (and simple) story: A good storyline has a beginning, a middle, and an end with tension and resolution. The right tone: It’s easy to think that a great video is always the one with the best entertainment value—for instance, a hilarious video ad with a catchy jingle—but if it’s not the right tone for the brand, it still may not succeed. A recurring theme: The best commercials aren’t just standalone ideas; they’re full-on ad campaigns that include followup commercials to continue the story and develop the theme or characters. A call to action: It’s vital to know exactly what your marketing video’s call to action is before you ever start drafting.
This is expert advice from some of the most successful people in their fields. In 2018, all of that was tossed aside for what became a defining ad campaign for the year, the Lucidchart videos.
The value of word-of-mouth and repeat viewings for internet advertising is well known, and every business wants to have the next viral video. Because everyone is competing for the same views and often using the same techniques, it’s far easier said than done.
Lucidchart had already been making ads using the long-established principles detailed above, trying to convince people to buy their web-based software which allows collaborators to create interactive flow charts and organizational models. They’d been moderately successful. In 2017, the staff had to create a product demo – a quick example of how their software worked – for a client presentation, and one of the design engineers suggested that it might be inoffensively funny to make one about internet dog memes.
After making the presentation, the chief marketing officer decided to put it out for views on Youtube, hoping that a few people might see it and possibly even decide to purchase their software. It was a hit, with word-of-mouth, imbedded links and forwarded e-mails quickly driving it into millions of views.
The company wasn’t foolish. They produced another one. And then another. And another. Chart after chart, video after video, focused on animals and Star Wars and Fortnite and anything else that popped to mind. Eventually, the steam faded, but not before they’d racked up more than three dozen videos, all with more views than the average high-dollar video designed to chase viral status. Not bad for an ad campaign that didn’t even start out to be an ad campaign.
So, here’s the first of them:
And here are the rest, via link:
Doggo 2 / Doggo 3 / Doggo 4 / Doggo 5 / Doggos in Costooms / Catto / Catto 2 / Birbs / Birbs & Sneks / Nope Ropes / Sneks 2 / Goats / Cat Snakes / Spiky Floofs / Cheese Bois / Furry Potatoes / Bunnos / Kentucky Derpy & Clip Clop Neigh Doggos / Bugs / Furry Nopes / Muppet Claws / Nopes (Spooders) / Aqua Animals / Moar Animals / Internet Aninmals / Internet Aninmals 2 / Aninmal Memes / Hybrid Animals (memes) / Hybrid Animals 2 / Dinosaurs / Halloween / Doggos do the Super Bowl / Doggos do Winter Olympics / Sandwiches / Bitcoin / Fortnite / Emojis / Internet Slang / Star Wars relationships / Tech Jargon
It’s been a year since any new entries, so it’s safe to assume the campaign, if not dead, is at least shelved indefinitely. At roughly a minute each and with enough topics to touch on at least one interest of most people who regularly spend time on the internet, which has in turn generated tens of millions of total views of what remain, ultimately, the same ads that people normally avoid whenever possible.
Question of the night: Is there any video series (Youtube, Tiktok, etc…) you regularly forward to friends and family?
