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Authors: Stephen Voltz and Fritz Grobe

Stars: ★★★★★

McGraw Hill
226 pages
Marketing

Summary: In 2006, Stephen and Fritz dropped 500 Mentos mints into 100 bottles of Coke in front of a video camera and uploaded it. The video went viral (SUPER popular – fast) in a matter of hours and were on TV about it as well. More than 100 million people have watched The Extreme Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments. In this book, they explain how you can make a video guaranteed to “pack a punch” by following the four core principles.

Includes Mores than 100 QR Codes

This is the first book I’ve seen that makes use of QR codes on more than just the back of the book.

Know what a QR code is? Skip this paragraph. If you don’t know what a QR code, it’s a little graphic (see right) that can be scanned by a Smartphone and instantly calls up a webpage or video. Scanning might give you a coupon to use for the product, or show a video of how something works or connect directly to a company’s website or Facebook page. If you have a QR code reader, go ahead and scan that one to the right to see SMS Nonfiction Book Reviews on Facebook.

Since the book is about viral videos, it naturally has to talk about other viral videos and videos that tried to viral but flopped. Reading about them is good but it’s hard to understand what they are talking about if you haven’t seen the video. So each time a video is mentioned, there is an accompanying QR code you can scan to go to a website that has the video ready to view. You can see the Viral Video Manifesto video list anytime you want.

This is a great feature but also meant that it took me longer to read this book than it normally would since I had to keep watching funny and interesting videos after a few paragraphs.

I’d like to share some of my favourites and what I learned from them.

Torn by Johann Lippowitz with Natalie Imbruglia (Mime Interpretation of a Pop Song)

What I Learned: Get right to the action, no long boring intros. Be unforgettable (rule 3). This was something never done before when it was made. Be yourself, people like to see REAL people.

Sony Bravia (Balls)

What I Learned: People want cool videos, not obvious advertisements. Don’t add product shots or logos everywhere. One note to the sponsoring company at the end is perfect and memorable.

Photo Booth Pranks

What I Learned: The reason why Candid Camera is so popular is because its captures a moment that happens quickly and we often wouldn’t see. Staged reactions are okay, but real reactions are golden.

LIBDUB – I Gotta Feeling

What I Learned: One constant shot or edits made only to move us forward in time are best. Multiple cameras and camera angles are more professional, but that’s not usually what goes viral. The camera should move so that it seems like we are really there.

There were so many more that I loved but it wasn’t just watching the videos I loved. It was reading about why they went viral compared to others that might be similar but didn’t go viral. I found it all very interesting and yet at the same time, everything I learned just made sense. Viral Video Manifesto was a great read.

The Four Principles:

Be True… Don’t fake it. Make it real.
Don’t Waste My Time… Get down to business right away.
Be Unforgettable.. Show us something we’ve never seen before.
It’s All About Humanity.. An emotional connection is the key to sharing.

*I or a member of my review team received product from a company or PR agency for evaluation purposes. Some links above may be affiliate links. All review are honest.