Few things are guaranteed to capture the public imagination more than a celebrity performing a death-defying stunt. It is little wonder, then, that The Epic Split for Volvo Trucks featuring Jean-Claude Van Damme has become a runaway viral success – peaking at the 60.5 million view mark at time of writing.
The video was produced to showcase a new precision steering feature on Volvo’s big boys and there’s no doubt that this is a slick, brave and huge-budget production.
If Volvo was seeking to create a buzz, then it has certainly done so. The number of views, social shares and resoundingly positive commentary suggest all the ingredients of a viral success. Another key signifier of a viral hit is the spawning of YouTube parodies.
In summary, if Volvo’s objectives were to drive awareness and traffic then it definitely justified the dollars spent. It is interesting now to see what Volvo will do with the attention. A quick review of Twitter activity around #VolvoTrucks suggests the conversation still has traction. Over on Facebook, Volvo Trucks used its company page to announce the 60 million view milestone, keeping the buzz going.
From a marketing perspective, the killer questions are whether the campaign has put any concrete leads in the pipeline and if those millions of eyeballs included the right ones: the intended target audience.
Every marketer dreams of achieving a viral hit, but B2B marketing in particular doesn’t work when focused on random volume. Video has to be produced and distributed with precise targeting. The motive? To provoke some form of intentional behaviour from prospects, always.
In terms of online strategy, we need to connect the dots between achieving random attention and the more ‘useful’ attention of our target audience. Most important, video marketing needs to effectively redirect interested parties to further information that will build on the relationship.
There are different approaches we can take to achieve this. One is to feature the video on a dedicated web page offering further information about the specific product or service it relates to. We can also use a call to action at the end of the video. The idea is to lead the viewer on a journey towards the next level of interaction.
So, next time you’re considering what you want to achieve from online video, think towards the end goal. Going viral is an attractive prospect (and it certainly makes for a great starting point!) – but think long term to how content can build valuable relationships with targeted audiences.
