NVIDIA’s Shanee Ben-Zur can’t tell you how to make a viral video — nobody can — but she can tell you how to make a very successful video.
In her BlogWell case study, Ben-Zur walked us through NVIDIA’s recent project using two videos to promote the launch of a product. One was wildly successful, one less so — and she was generous enough to share the lessons and big ideas from each.
- Make it easy for media to share it. Journalists are busy — so if you do all of the legwork, they’re much more likely to post your story. NVIDIA put its video on YouTube as unlisted, gave media the link and got on the phone to walk them through it. The company followed that up with a draft blog post and included the embedded video.
- Keep your content focused and simple. NVIDIA created two videos to announce the launch of a product. The company found that its first video was much more successful because it was a focused message and was the only thing NVIDIA was promoting to media. By the time the second video came out, NVIDIA had blog content and other videos it was also promoting. This proved confusing to the media and customers.
- Plan early and coordinate. Ben-Zur said that after the success of NVIDIA’s first video, people came out of the woodwork to get involved in making the second. The collaboration was great, but more teams meant more room for mixed messaging. The chance to make a hit YouTube video can be a great way to unite departments on a project — but it takes extra planning and coordination.
Watch Ben-Zur’s presentation. Slides are available.