GoPro's Viral Video Sucess

What makes a video "go viral?" 

According to Ilya Pozin of Forbes, there are 6 qualities that help drive an online video’s success. Viral videos are:

1. Short
2. Upbeat
3. Timely
4. Engaging
5. Informative
6. Inspiring

As a prime example, take GoPro. No brand has done a better job of making online videos as essential to their marketing program than the San Francisco-based camera manufacturer. Viral videos are so intertwined with the company that they even utilized YouTube to announce their IPO in June. 

And most of all, they do so on a (relatively) small dime. As of this post, GoPro's YouTube Channel has over 589 million views and almost 2.5 million channel subscribers. 

In 2013 GoPro increased their marketing expenses by only $41,000 and made $28 million more in net income.

GoPro initially paid professional stuntmen and extreme athletes to film their activities using their cameras. But as more people learned about the cameras and began to generate their own content, they also started uploading to YouTube and calling out the company proudly in the descriptions. Today, over 6,000 videos are posted each day (about 100 hours worth of video per minute) by GoPro users. 

To sift through the potential gold mine of content, GoPro recently created a team of 30 people whose job it is to search through user-uploaded content. This team is tasked with identifying the best content that the company could repackage and utilize under its own name. When user content makes it onto the official channel, the company pays $1,000 those who reach over 1 Million views, but money doesn't seem to be the object. 

The chance to win a spot on the official channel is a source of pride amongst GoPro users. Extreme sports still dominate the GoPro YouTube channel, but a fare representation is made by videos documenting other human and animal moments - emotionally charged and inspiring in their simplicity or intensity.

For a great example of a user-generated GoPro video gone viral, check out the following video which won Advertising Age's "Best User-Created Viral Ad" in 2014.