Virality isn’t born, it’s made.
― Jonah Berger
Do you really need virality for your business?
Most probably that’s what everybody wants – low budget video that will reach huge audience and create viral success on social media.
First of all it is really hard to achieve virality and nobody can guarantee it. Nobody! If someone is promising you that your project is going to be a viral hit, he is either lying or has no idea what is doing!
And although virality is really attractive it is not always what you need because it won’t necessary lead to sales brand recognition or any other kind of conversion or desired marketing results.
However in the “Kasaba project” all of those things happened! But before I tell you more on that and how we achieved it here is the video on social media so you can see for yourself
It generated:
85K+ views
1,1k engagements
360+ shares
60+ comments
And all of this organic and for a few days. 
Cool right? Now let’s make one for you?
Hey, we told you – nobody can promise you such thing!
How to achieve virality?
Jonah Berger, the man I quoted in the beginning has written an amazing book on virality called “Contagious” where he goes really in depth on how ideas spread in the online and offline world.
In his study he points that if you want to build a viral piece of content you need to follow the STEPPS.
S – Social Currency
T – Triggers
E – Emotion
P – Public
P – Practical value
S – Stories
Let’s see how we have covered some of the them in our video.
The initial idea for this short video came from the founder of Kasaba – Iliyan Pavlov.
He basically called me with the words “hey do you know that they are demilishing this building tomorrow, maybe we can come up with something for the rakia*?”
At first I was not very excited because I knew there would be like a 100 drone operators trying to make some cool shots and drain attention to their profiles but then I realised that we have the chance to create something totally different and unexpected.
I had already read the book a few years ago and told to myself: “maybe now is the time”!
So yes – we went for viral!
Let me give you some more context.
The Kasaba rakia is made of dates and during this time in Bulgaria there was a political scandal related to some dates import scheme from OAE.
So far we have two main pillars of the video:
there is a popular building which is being demolished
the product is made of something that is currently in the news
Going back to the STEPPS
Social Currency – usually described as something that a person would share with friends because it makes him look cool or smart.
Destroying the building is definitely a social currency and the product itself being made by dates which is super untypical for the rakia drink has even a bigger exchange value.
Triggers
Both the building and the dates scandal were in the news for a few days. We used this.
Emotions
Watching a building being destroyed definitely sparks emotions. Would you argue?
Music also adds on but we will get to it later.
Public
This happened in one of the main boulevards in the capital of Bulgaria. Traffic was blocked for more than an hour. Everybody knew about it.
Practical value
No other but getting drunk on rakia.
Some people would say that everything above is irrelevant because this is a clear “news hijacking” strategy. They are wrong! Because what you can see next in the video is that we used the demolishing of the building purely to provoke emotions and only as a background for our Story.
Story
The sixth element is definitely our most favourite. But what’s the story here.
With its almost apocalyptical background in combination with the balkan music and the birds that obviously don’t care the video presents the product as something which is endure enough to withstand everything that comes on its way.
And guess what this applies also tho the so called “target audience” for the Kasaba rakia.
30 – 50 years old men, who grew in Buglaria during or shortly after the fall of the communism regime. Those people know what “tough times” means, because their own childhood was tough. Also their fathers have most probably produced their own rakia – and that leads to nostalgia, which is other very popular and often used emotional trigger in storytelling.
Combining all those elements is what led to the viral effect of this video. Or at least that’s what I want to believe in. (:
Soon after the brand got enough recognition and started selling in some of the best liquor shops in the country. But No, that’s not only because of this video, it sure helped, but it is because the product itself is great and I strongly believe that we can categorise it as a Purple Cow**! (but that’s another story)
Aaand a birdie also told me that it has been used as an example in a few leading marketing courses in Bulgaria. What a great privilege!!!
Enough bragging.
In the end I would like to point out that nothing will ever get viral if it’s not created from the heart and if it’s not somehow making someone’s life a little bit better. So don’t be solely ego driven, try to impact in a positive way.
I really hope that this little case study will help you in your marketing strategy or storytelling skills. Thanks for reading. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.
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*Rakia is a traditional Bulgarian alcohol distilled from different kinds of fruits.
**A reference to Seth Godin’s book “Purple Cow”