a single source, nothing corroborates it

Hire comedians and keep one person deciding

If the ad needs to be funny, pay people who already know how to make people laugh instead of writing it in house, and keep the creative call with one person, because the spots that travel are the ones a group approval process would have killed. Skip the script: at an animal shelter a volunteer's brother spent half an hour improvising with the animals and the cut of that reached the front page of a large forum, national media and six million views. A man who wrote a song about his own flea market got played by local radio, ended up on a national talk show and passed twelve million views.

The method

1. 01

   Hire comedians who already know how to make people laugh instead of trying to write the funny ad in-house.

2. 02

   Keep the creative call with one person, because the ads that travel are the ones that would have been killed in a group approval process.

3. 03

   Let someone improvise on camera with the real subject for half an hour and cut the best material, instead of scripting the spot.

4. 04

   Write and record a song about your business, since a catchy jingle can get picked up and replayed by media you never pitched.

What it returned

• 2006

  Sammy Stephens' 2006 flea market song in Montgomery, Alabama: local DJs played it, he ended up on The Ellen Show, 12M views

• Rhett and Link made a spot for Roller Kingdom in Reno; 13M views after Complex News and Andy Richter shared it

• At the Furkids shelter a volunteer's brother spent half an hour ad-libbing with the animals; the result hit Reddit's front page and national media, 6M views

Sources

• My favourite low-budget viral adsHarry Dry · Marketing Examples · 2) Say NO to Crack, Say YES! to Roller Skating — 13M views · undated