avril

Read this article. It’s a fascinating insight into how Avril Lavigne’s ‘Girlfriend‘ became the number 1 most viewed video in history – beating ‘Evolution of Dance‘ with over 100m views.

Here’s a quick precis:

1. Avril’s fan club set a goal of making ‘Girlfriend’ the #1 Youtube vid of all time.
2. They put a YouTube video player on their site that reloaded the video every 15 secs.
3. Popular digital media publications (WIred, Entertainment Tonight and a host of others) cried ‘Foul!’ without realising that a video launched every 15 seconds wouldn’t really make a dent in the video rankings.
4. The public caught onto the story, and, wondering what the fuss was about, went on to check out the vid in their millions.
5. Voila! History.

Lesson: controversy helps when trying to make a video go viral.

Read more posts by Fred Roed

Fred is the CEO of digital marketing agency World Wide Creative. Fred co-founded The Heavy Chef Project, as well as Ideate, a forum for African entrepreneurs. Fred focuses on online brand building, marketing strategy and loud Hawaiian shirts. Fred is famous for his sartorial excellence, long diatribes about music and fanatical attention to detail when making pizza. Follow Fred on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Fred_Roed

Related posts:

1. How to make a Viral Video: You don’t!
2. The first viral video in South Africa?
3. Rugby World Cup 2007: England vs South Africa tonight, baby!
4. Great Viral Marketing
5. Do The Test