Why 2015 Has a Lot to Live Up to For Content Marketeers
Content marketeers always set out to produce the most amazing content in the hope of winning worldwide shareability and global chatter for their work.
But some examples just seem to rise above the norm, to naturally own more substance and enjoy an enhanced impact envied by everyone else around them.
What sets these golden examples of content aside from their peers is their ability to tap deeply and instantly into our emotional consciousness.
In short, they become viral; so in tune with our humanity, our ability to wonder, to laugh, to be offended, to be amazed or astounded that we can’t help but share them with friends.
And so it was in 2014 when, by the year’s end, every man and his content marketing spiderdog was happily proclaiming 2014 as the Year of the Viral.
Looking back, it was an unparalleled 12 months of exceptional content production. And the global audience reacted the only way it could, by sharing and talking about these exceptional examples of the content art through every channel available.
2015 has a lot to live up to doesn’t it? The bar has been significantly raised and the challenge is to meet then surpass that hugely high standard.
Check out some of the best virals of the last 12 months here.
In March, the world became obsessed with the No Make-up Selfie. The phenomenon raised a supposed £8million for Cancer Research but meant our social network feeds were gridlocked by thousands of pictures of uber-plain faces without make-up on and nominations that challenged others to do the same. The Selfie became the buzzword of the year – indeed, the infamous Oscars Selfie featuring Ellen DeGeneres, Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt and a glut of other Hollywood royalty became the most shared photograph of the year.
May saw the entire UK simultaneously focussed on the inspirational story of one man. The incredibly brave Stephen Sutton.
Stephen was a cancer sufferer whose infectious enthusiasm and refusal to let his deteriorating condition hamper his work ethic touched the hearts of everyone in Britain and beyond and turned that tidal wave of sympathy, empathy and sheer admiration into millions of pounds of money donated to his charity.
Stephen, who died later in May, was aged just 15 when he was diagnosed and vowed to raise £10,000 for charity. When he died four years later, a monumental £3.2m had been donated in his name.
In June, the world’s attention was diverted from the mundane slog of day-to-day business by the mugshot of an American criminal. Jeremy Meeks, 30, from California had been arrested for a gun-related crime.
But it wasn’t his despicable deed that attracted all the attention. It was his film-star good-looks that got the globe all hot and bothered. It turned out that Meeks was rather handsome. And his mugshot attracted 70,000 likes on Facebook and countless memes posted across thousands of social network feeds.
Who could possibly forget the biggest (and on some days, the most annoying) viral of the year – The Ice Bucket Challenge. You weren’t anyone last July, unless you were covered in ice and the reluctant star of your own frosty Facebook video. If this viral – cover yourself in ice-cold water and nominate three friends to copy you – proved anything it is that the most shared, most popular content is often the result of the most simple premise.
The pay-off for all this icy viral fun was that the ALS Charity, which helps sufferers of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, got a very cool £64.2m in donations from the stunt and sparked millions more charity cash gifts to other charities around the world.
But, possibly illustrating the internet at its very best, the year’s most trending video featured a dog dressed as a spider.
Spider Dog topped the YouTube “most trending” chart for 2014 and almost broke the internet in the process.
The short video clip, made by a Polish filmmaker, focused on numerous occasions when the cute-but-terrifying Spider Dog scared the pants off unsuspecting members of the public who thought they were about to be consumed by an oversized eight-legged freak. A massive 120 million views later and it’s now part of YouTube history.
Finally, November gave us Kim Kardashian’s posterior.
Concerned that her TV show and frequent double-page spreads in the celebrity glossies may not be enough to fuel the globe’s curiosity, curvy Kim attempted to “break the internet” with a picture of her substantial rear-end. She nearly did too.
The best bit was that we discovered lots of other people not called Kardashian also have backsides – and they took it upon themselves to hilariously emulate Kim’s effort.
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