How some global brands did it

With the rise of social media in the past few years "create a viral video" is one of the most dreaded briefs that the agency receives. It stands for something that people will share and talk about - created at close to zero cost. It may not be possible to create something like "the first kiss" with 82 million views on YouTube on a budget, but it is definitely possible to create online buzz on a budget. Here are some notable buzz case studies:

WINNER 1 Ben & Jerry's: Donate your extra tweet
In 2011, Ben & Jerry's launched 'Fair Tweets', a Twitter campaign to show its support for the World Fair Trade Day. Through an application, it allowed users to "donate" their spare Twitter characters to spread awareness and promote a good cause. The campaign cost nearly $30,000 and Ben & Jerry's reported more almost 500,000 donated tweets, which proved the point that creating online buzz on a budget is possible.

There are three lessons you can learn from the campaign: First you can hitch a ride on the 'Epic Meaning' trend: 'Epic Meaning' is a gamification mechanic used to influence behaviour by generating a belief that people are working to achieve something bigger than them. Second using Twitter to promote a worthy cause allowed Ben & Jerry's to talk to the early adopters and enable them to embed a more authentic and human message. Third, native advertising works: By providing content in the context of the user experience, it made the campaign less intrusive and more likely to get noticed and shared.

WINNER 2 SFBatKid: Be part of the (branded) conversation
In November 2013, eyes around the world were glued on to Twitter and other social media platforms as the #SFBatKid's journey to save San Francisco unfolded. According to The Wall Street Journal, there were 500,000 unique tweets around #sfbatkid and #batkid, generating 1.7 billion impressions. How does this apply to your brand? Even if your business is small or you think your tweet or post won't matter, take time to be a part of major conversations. Monitor trending topics and daily headlines, and encourage your marketing teams to join the conversation

WINNER 3 OCBC: Reward your followers and fans
With organic reach of brands on Facebook dropping to below five per cent, and rumoured to drop to less then 1 per cent in the near future, brands need to spend more time finding opportunities to engage with their most loyal followers. In Singapore, OCBC Bank was able to capitalise on the peak Christmas shopping period with a series of posts and giveaways in the months leading up to Christmas and New Year, tying back to a theme of "Love, OCBC". This resulted in over 40,000 new fans being added over the campaign period, a 35 per cent increase in average monthly engagement, and over 25,000 social interactions with a brand Facebook page.

WINNER 4 Nature Valley: Let the community lead you
No one in Nature Valley, the maker of crunchy granola bars, especially not the community manager, expected to have "anime" as a theme of social engagement. Picking up on a tweet by a teen talking about eating granola bars, anime and non-existent friends, the brand's community engagement specialist tweeted back saying, "We have met a lot of #anime friends who do not exist right here in Twitter sphere. Befriend them." The anime community thought it was pretty cool for a brand to talk about anime and caught onto it. The brand began to create content to marry the granola bars to anime themes.

Sometimes letting a community lead you is a cost-effective way of not just creating buzz but generating shareable content that a brand on its own may never have been able to create.

WINNER 5 Sony Pictures: Refreshing social content
For Spiderman II, Sony Pictures was working on a tight budget to get the word out on social media before the launch of movie. The brand had loyal bloggers who have their own fan base on the Facebook. To the bloggers, the brand gave exclusive access to Spiderman miniature toys, and creatively challenged them to Instagram them. Some of the bloggers created up to 40 pieces of exciting content for the brand. On its Facebook page, the brand created a series of branded posts, which crowdsourced fan power to help Spiderman defeat the villain. With the chance of winning movie tickets and memorabilia, fans of the movie liked, shared and tweeted Spiderman to victory against the villain.

Looking to loyal fans and bloggers is a great first stop for content, especially when the subject evokes great passion, like Spiderman.

To sum up, creating such online buzz requires the humility to know that we need to listen to, to be led, to have the right team to latch on to trends. It's when we dare to experiment, learn and course correct that we will be able to produce a user trend that will coincide with our business objectives.

Tripti Lochan
CEO, VML Qais Asia