Viral Marketing

It is difficult to put a finger on what exactly makes a successful viral marketing campaign. Usually advertising campaigns that set out with the intention of going viral are over the top and do not achieve success at anything but irritating people, although they do still stick in people's minds. Advertisements that successfully go viral don't seem to have been made with such force, they just have an interesting or unusual content, which often does not seem to relate heavily to the product being advertised. I think the key to a good campaign is to have an advertisement that will keep an audience captivated, without giving away too much until the product is shown at the end. As such, my initial idea may have been to obvious in having the car visible from the beginning.

Cadbury's seem to be one of  the most successful companies in terms of viral marketing. They have released multiple advertisements that have gone viral, and people still remember what the ads were for. They begin their advertisements with a card reading "A glass and a half full production", so if you have already seen one, you will know the advertisement is for Cadbury's. The advertisements themselves seem disconnected from the product, but the main colour associated with Cadbury's, purple, always dominates the scene, and then the chocolate bar is shown at the end. They seem to have a handle on what captures people's attentions, and balance it well with linking the ad to their own brand.