I found the above video ad recorded and released by the author of ‘Fast Cheap & Viral‘ – Aashish Chopra on Instagram and purchased the book almost instantly after reading the blurb. I did another unexpected thing – I finished reading the entire book within a couple of days in spite of the fact that I don’t read books nowadays – I only listen to audiobooks or using text-to-speech.
First off, Content Marketing interests me a lot. Second, Content Marketing through Videos that are affordably produced interests me even more. Third, the fact that someone successful in that art decided to write a book about it – is a rarity.
Those are the reasons why I bought this book and I should say I was not let down!
The author’s primary advise if you want to create branded content and you expect it to go viral is – DON’T MAKE AN AD FOR YOUR PRODUCT OR SERVICE. CREATE CONTENT THAT IS USEFUL and/or ENGAGING to YOUR PROSPECTIVE CUSTOMERS. They’ll take care of the distribution in this social media-obsessed world!
The humbleness of the author when he says that he had to shoot his videos on his mobile phone initially because buying a DSLR camera was not (yet) approved by his management strikes a chord. When you read that posts that had thousands of shares and millions of views were produced with a shoe-string budget, just on the strength of its content and the way in which it was presented, makes you sit and take notes!
He gives some interesting case studies of videos he created that went viral. Most of these are out-of-the-box ideas that resonated with viewers because they were different.
For example. he pays the toll fee for the car behind his and records their reaction. He drops a few duplicate currencies around campus with a note on the other side saying “It takes the same effort to pick up trash”. He even makes a video with all the strange things that Indians take with them while traveling abroad.
One of his unexecuted ideas is to tie a cell phone to a helium balloon, switch on the camera, and show the ariel view it captures to everyone on FB/Youtube LIVE. Interesting idea for a video to go viral, don’t you think? 🙂
Is there a method (an easy way or formula) to create viral videos? Unfortunately NO. That comes only with experimentation, persistence, and experience.
However, the author conveys the principles he used to create videos that went viral – in a concise and effective manner in this book.
You don’t expect all the tricks of the trade to be revealed in a single book, that too for a couple of hundred rupees, do you? But what you get in this book is more than what you pay for.
Like me, you too probably need to try and create your own formula for getting our videos to go viral. Resources like these will enable us to focus on the path required for content marketing excellence through videos.