Chasing Viral Videos

Although it has died down a little bit, there is a question that Hamil Bros Studios has been asked frequently over the years and it’s absolutely the wrong question to ask in nearly every single instance.

What is the question?

What are Viral Videos?

Simply put, a viral video is video content that, over a period of a few days, reaches hundreds of thousands, if not millions of views.

Have we ever made viral videos?

On a single occasion, Ross did, in fact, make a viral video that, in less than a week, received over 7 million views just on his channels. This did not account for all of the TikTok thieves and others who screencapped it and reuploaded it as their original content. 

Truth be told, he just did something he thought was funny and it was totally an accident that it spread like it did completely organically.

How Do So Many People Go Viral?

I’m sure you can buy a “Viral Videos for Dummies” book (do they still make those?) and that will give you great insight that’s probably useless in the real world. 

However, in our experience it’s one of two ways.

First, as was Ross’ case, is completely by accident and 100% organic.

Second, is spending months/years learning and working at beating the algorithm at its own game. 

The second is the reason you see so many people becoming viral influencers, which sounds more like the type of person who is averse to using soap…

What’s the Benefit of Going Viral?

Assuming you’re not talking about getting sick, the benefits are very slim, unless you have the proper infrastructure.

Most of the time, you just get to look at your metrics and smile and say, “wow… I did that.”

If a product goes viral, you really have to be ready to back it all up and be able to deliver.

So, why do so many small business owners want to go opt for that viral sensation?

Because, oftentimes, the illusion is that the last viral product was an overnight success.

Some of the time this is a get-rich-quick attempt. Other times this is the ever elusive “lucky break”. Yet, other times are a desire to reach a broader market or audience.

Nearly all of the time, it is a waste of time and resources. 

In the last 6 years, Hamil Bros Studios has had two jobs that grossed 6 figures each. 

When discussing these projects, we would tell our audience that it took us over a decade to become an overnight success.

Let’s assume that you’ve done your due diligence and you are simply trying to reach the broader market.

The first question you must ask yourself is, “why?”

Why do you need a bigger market share?

More sales? More money?

That’s totally fine. That’s why most of us are in business; to make money doing something we love or we’re good at (not necessarily the same thing).

Spaceballs 2: The Search for More Money

We love that we’re getting a Spaceballs 2 movie. Why it wasn’t named after the joke in the first movie? We don’t know. We’re sure that Mel Brooks has addressed that, but you can look that up on your own.

Why did we bring it up? Because, that is often where we look to grow in business. There is no real limit to success.

We, at Hamil Bros Studios, are always looking for opportunities to help our clients make more money and do the same ourselves.

But, is a larger market share really the answer?

One of my favorite stories about this comes from a book called From Poop to Gold, written about the Harmon Brothers (not to be confused with the Hamil Brothers).

Now, it’s been a while since I read the book, but the gist of the story is that one of their cousins was in a marketing class at whatever university they were attending and a dental professional came in with an idea for a product. He made his pitch and the class was to decide whether the product was marketable to a large demographic or not.

The majority of the class decided it was not. The Harmon cousin in the story, after doing the research, recognized something that many business owners do not recognize. 

Yes, the product wasn’t going to reach a broad audience. However, the audience it would appeal to was still significantly larger than the audience they had, which meant larger profits and more sustainability. 

From there the Harmon Brothers advertising and marketing agency was born; taking products that were seemingly too niche and creating what would become viral ad campaigns. 

Their primary method? Long form video production.

Their aim wasn’t to create viral videos. It was to create videos that would speak to the intended audience.

Starting off, this was through crude humor (remember the Squatty Potty with the Unicorn that poops softserve icecream?)

If you remember it, you are evidence of how effective it was. 

What’s the Point?

If you’ve followed this far, congratulations and welcome to your next steps. 

The point of all of this was to demonstrate that viral videos are not the answer. They are often a symptom of great marketing. 

Build a campaign that will speak to the people who are going to buy your product. Don’t waste time aiming at an audience that, no matter what, won’t be interested. If you strike the right way, they may become interested, but that’s just a benefit of having a good game plan. 

What’s the Pitch?

Fair question. We would be foolish not to mention that having good video production is essential to success.

And, if you’re in Lubbock, West Texas, or beyond, why not start with Hamil Bros Studios as your first and best option for video production?

In 2024, one of our mid six-figure jobs got their returns on the production budget within weeks of launching the campaign. 

Is this guaranteed? No. They had a really good plan and we all stuck to it and it paid dividends. But the production quality was such that they knew the investment was good.

Will your project cost six figures? It doesn’t have to. We aim to work within all reasonable budgets.

But it is up to you to look at this as an investment, rather than a cost. 

Who knows? Maybe your campaign will go viral. But, if it doesn’t, and you played your cards correctly, it won’t have to.