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After seeing Parry Gripp’s latest viral hit, , I realized that he’s gotten really good at two key elements of viral hits:  cute animals and catchy music.  So what are the others, you ask?  I’ll detail each of them with examples below.  While I’d love to see (or create) a video that contains all ten, most “hits” only feature a perfect execution of one of these components.
Note:  This list is for viral videos in general, not specific to branded efforts.

Cute Animals

YouTube was created to share pet videos, and they consistently remain one of the site’s top categories (PetCharts say thank you).  All it takes is a brief “awwww”-inspiring moment from an animal to get moms all over the world forwarding the video to you 3 times.  Some prime examples are , , and Sleepy Spudgy:

Catchy Music

A brainhog of a tune that matches the visuals can do wonders for a video’s popularity. As , not everyone gets it right. Some good examples are and Parry Gripp’s biggest hit, Hamster On A Piano:

Celebrity

Celebrities often contribute to viral hits by either creating content especially for the web or by being all hip and internetty. Custom web content = Will Ferrell’s The Landlord. Hip and internetty = Will.i.am’s Yes We Can:

Hot Chicks

If you visit the Internet TV Charts on occasion, you’ll always find one of the following: a pointless video featuring scantily clad women or a video you were tricked into clicking due to a misleading thumbnail. When amateur film editors across the world discovered that a YouTube video’s default thumbnail was taken from the video’s midpoint, they got smart and seduced people with puppies and women, even if their video was about Tetris.

Anywho, little explanation is needed to describe why videos with hot chicks make popular videos. It’s the world we live in. I would, however, like to point out that it is possible to fail in this category. Below is Remington’s “viral” ad featuring Marissa Miller and the Brewers’ Ryan Braun. Painful. Feel free to watch the legendary to make yourself feel better.

Sexual Innuendo

This theme has played a major role in bringing Saturday Night Live back to relevance. For proof, see or .

Mash Up

Mash up and remix videos are a good way for a person to show off how much free time they have on their hands. Regardless, their creative vision for bringing multiple things together or putting a new spin on an old favorite can deliver the reward of a digital ego boost of a half million views. A separate article could be written on what makes a good mash up, so just enjoy this video of Hitler being banned from World of Warcraft:

Nostalgic Re-enactment

We (internally) have talked a lot about nostalgia being a large part of what interests people online. In this case, it’s a matter of bringing those moments to life instead of just writing about “remember when” type moments. A few examples of this are College Humor’s Minesweeper and the recent Mario Kart:

Unexpected

A viral hit in this category is part bizarre, part intriguing. That’s not an easy recipe to follow, and doing so may often lead to confused viewers and wasted money. Cadbury struck gold with their random combination of a gorilla, a drum set, and Phil Collins.

Complete Originality

Since YouTube has become mainstream, everyone with a camcorder and a backyard think that thousands will want to view their videos. As I’ve learned with Pet Charts, the majority of these videos have no business being shared with the world. One way to get people to take notice, however, is by introducing a video concept that hasn’t been done before. Dancing Matt (below) traveled around the world and video taped himself dancing with locals everywhere he went. The video has been viewed over 14MM times this year. The Shiba Inu Live Puppy Cam took the Cute Puppies component and combined it with a live streaming webcam. This gave cutness-seekers worldwide a channel to stare at all day, hoping for some puppy action. It has also accumulated nearly 14MM views in just a few months.

Cute Babies

The “Charlie Bit Me” video, with its 68MM views and hundreds of remakes, is the golden standard for baby videos. Please note that this does not include Charlie talking with a man’s voice into a webcam.