Knowing what makes a video “Viral” is important. Knowing “who” can be more important. A lesson to learn for Carl’s Jr.
Some experts claim it is the content that is king. And others the brand/product. In the case of Carl’s Jr. Super Bowl XXIX advertisement, “Au Naturel” featuring Charlotte McKinney and the restaurant’s introduction to the All-Natural burger, it appears to be a toss-up on what created the viral spread of the commercial?
Aired in Super Bowl XXIX, 2015 TV broadcast as a western regional commercial, the spot was only seen by a portion of the U.S. audience during the game. While limited in broadcast distribution, the :30 commercial received notoriety in its online share and reach as one of many TV spots reviewed as a part of the big game. Shift Communication, a leading social media PR firm and contributor toAdweek's special article on the Carl's Jr. ad placed it third for its share among social media outlets.
Was it the content? The director or producer for the spot? Was it the widely acclaimed advertising agency 72andSunny? It must have been the lead actress Charlotte McKinney and her assumed naked presence. Maybe even @CharlotteMcKinney tweeting it herself like many other fashion models starring in Super Bowl ads. All of these could be contributing factors to the viral success of the spot. The idea, the acting and even the product/brand play a role, but without the right influencer sharing it across their network, the video cannot become a viral sensation. So who tweeted the video to the largest number of followers? Who created the viral effect Carl’s Jr. loved to tell over and over again in the media? Do they even know?
While the YouTube video of the Carl’s Jr. commercial amassed 9+ million views within a week of its release, the total network reach tracked by VizSense spread across more than 3+ million potential Twitter viewers. That’s 3+ million more than was recorded and reported by social media firm Shift Communication in national coverage for this specific video. No-one even reported the viral sharing was started by one Mexico City based tweeter as the key influencer. Over 50% of the Twitter reach for this video was across Mexico where Carl’s Jr. only has restaurant presence in two northern cities that are not the home of the key influencer. So the sexy model might have captured his attention, but this key influencer started the cascade of shares across Mexico.
This visual ‘Bloom’ * below illustrates the major contributors to the network reach across Twitter, highlighting the organic spread of the video, along with the resonance created by the retweets.
Carl’s Jr. was referenced in several articles about this year’s Super Bowl commercial as its most successful in creating attention among YouTube viewers. They continued to congratulate Ms. Charlotte McKinney for her role and applaud their commercial creators, but they never thanked one of the largest contributors that helped drive close to a third of the views. Probably because they didn’t know who @Antonio_Rosique was. At VizSense, we do.
When next year’s Super Bowl videos hit YouTube we can help agencies and brands identify the key influencers. In fact, we have data on over 75 videos for 59 different products/brands from Super Bowl XXIX, 2015 accounting for 368,212,214 video views. Of the 75 videos, we can identify each #KeyInfluencerand their respective network. This is a jump start on individualized engagement for Super Bowl 50, 2016.
VizSense is a new breed of online video analytics tracking the results of online video and the viral trajectory once a video is posted on YouTube. Already tracking over 300 videos, measuring various attributes (beyond likes, views and comments) and constructing a visualization of the viral growth VizSense helps identify the patterns, resonance and the hidden ecosystem of the video sharing. The visualization and detailed data points enable identification of key influencers and the point at which a video becomes viral.
You can create a video with sex appeal that is finely tuned and targeted to your core audience, but success comes from the key influencers that join the movement and share the video with their network who then share it with their network and so-on. VizSense helps easily identify key influencers so you can engage and grow your video’s trajectory and accomplish what you set out to design and create – a viral video. It’s known a viral marketing campaign requires both excellent planning and sheer luck. With VizSense, we go beyond the design and luck to identify the most powerful contributors to create viral movement.
*Visual Bloom based on Twitter shares of stated YouTube video at time of data pull. Data for Carl’s Jr. “Au Naturel” video captured by VizSense on August 15, 2015 at 1:00 pm CDT.
To learn more about how VizSense helps marketers and content creators find and harness the power of fans and credible voices to help improve revenue and profit, visit us here.
