病毒式影片的關鍵成功因素–尋出內在病毒潛力的藍圖

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(1)國立臺灣師範大學管理學院全球經營與策略研究所碩士論文 Graduate Institute of Global Business and Strategy College of Management National Taiwan Normal University Master Thesis. 病毒式影片的關鍵成功因素–尋出內在病毒潛力的藍圖 Common success factors of viral videos – Finding the blueprint for Innate Virality Potential. 研究生：賀少俠 Student：Sascha Heusermann. 指導教授：陳文華博士、施人英博士 Advisors：Chen Wun-Hwa Ph.D., Shih Jen-Ying Ph.D.. 中華民國 103 年 1 月 January, 2014.

(2) ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to express my gratitude toward Professor Wun-Hwa Chen (陳文華) and Professor Jen-Ying Shih (施人英) for supporting me in the writing of this thesis. Furthermore, I would especially like to thank my fellow student Robert Liu (劉柏辰) for sacrificing his precious time to assist me with conducting the statistical analysis of the survey data.. I.

(3) ABSTRACT With more and more people gaining fast and stable internet access all over the world and the rise of websites like Youtube, it becomes very lucrative for marketers to use online video content to spread marketing messages. Using video streaming websites for marketing can have many advantages compared using traditional TV advertisements; for instance, much lower costs and vaster reach. Although viral marketing and social media have been hot topics in social science and marketing research for several years, little research has been conducted to analyze the quality of the content that becomes popular on social networking sites and video streaming websites. While most prior studies have discussed the environmental circumstances that play a role in creating a successful viral marketing campaign, this research tries to shed a light on the quality of content that is shared through social media and Youtube in particular. By analyzing viewer reaction to six highly successful viral videos, this paper aims to find what properties determine a video’s audience appeal. With this knowledge, we may find common success factors that could possibly be vital for the creation of viral videos in general – a checklist of things marketers or individuals should do to achieve high innate virality potential.. Keywords: viral marketing, virality, viral potential, video sharing, Youtube. II.

(4) TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS........................................................................................... I ABSTRACT................................................................................................................. II TABLE OF CONTENTS............................................................................................ III LIST OF FIGURES..................................................................................................... IV LIST OF TABLES........................................................................................................ V CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION................................................................................. 1 1.1 Word-of-mouth and viral marketing.................................................................. 1 1.2 Virality and the significance of Youtube……................................................... 5 CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK....................................................... 12 2.1 Prior research................................................................................................... 12 2.2 Hypotheses...................................................................................................... 19 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY......................................................... 24 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS OF STATISTICAL ANALYSIS......................................... 29 CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS................................................ 39 REFERENCES............................................................................................................ 44 APPENDIX................................................................................................................. 47. III.

(5) LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1-1: Relationship between word of mouth and viral marketing........................ 3 Figure 1-2: The three basic conditions for creating a viral marketing epidemic........ 10 Figure 2-1: Motivations to forward online content..................................................... 16 Figure 2-2: Simplicity, Sensory Impact and Novelty influencing Emotional Impact...................................................................................................... 19 Figure 2-3: Novelty, Sensory and Emotional Impact influencing Provocative Power....................................................................................................... 20 Figure 2-4: Degree of User Involvement and Simplicity influencing Provocative Power....................................................................................................... 21 Figure 2-5: Staying Power influencing Provocative Power........................................ 22 Figure 2-6: The proposed Model of Innate Virality Potential..................................... 23 Figure 4-1: Ease of Understanding.............................................................................. 30 Figure 4-2: Visual stimulus grouped by gender........................................................... 30 Figure 4-3: User Involvement..................................................................................... 31 Figure 4-4: Positive Emotional Impact....................................................................... 32 Figure 4-5: Negative Emotional Impact...................................................................... 32 Figure 4-6: Provocative Power grouped by participants’ native languages................ 33 Figure 4-7: The adjusted model of Innate Virality Potential....................................... 38 Figure 5-1: Provocative Power, outside factors and sharing....................................... 42. IV.

(6) LIST OF TABLES Table 4-1: Correlation analysis.................................................................................... 34 Table 4-2: Regression Analysis of Ease of Understanding, Sensory Impact, and Novelty in relation with emotional impact............................................. 35 Table 4-3: Regression Analysis of Ease of Understanding, Sensory Impact, and Novelty in relation with emotional impact.............................................. 36 Table 4-4: Regression Analysis of Ease of Understanding, Sensory Impact, and Novelty in relation with emotional impact.............................................. 36 Table 4-5: Regression analysis of Provocative power................................................. 37 Table 4-6: Regression analysis of Provocative power................................................. 37 Table 4-7: Regression analysis of Provocative power................................................. 37. V.

(7) CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION This chapter aims to give some background information to the topic of this thesis and will introduce to the reader the terminology, established concepts and recent developments that are relevant for this research. To start, I will explain what we understand as word-of-mouth and viral marketing. Then I will discuss several cases that will help clarify the use and the significance of viral marketing and virality in general. Furthermore, the cases show why video-sharing websites such as Youtube play a significant role for businesses and marketing in particular.. 1.1. Word-of-mouth and viral marketing. Word of mouth (WOM) in the traditional sense simply is the sharing of information from one person to another by oral communication. Although word of mouth is an age-old phenomenon, Katz and Lazarsfeld (1955) were the first to scientifically research WOM’s influence on mass communication. With their book they set the stage for many other academics to further understand the phenomenon and its importance for marketing. Some of Katz and Lazarsfeld’s most significant findings were that WOM was seven times as effective as newspapers and magazines, four times as effective as personal selling, and twice as effective as radio advertising in convincing customers to buy certain products. Although television was not a common medium back then and the internet did not yet exist, later research found that WOM still plays a big role today.. People share information for many reasons and there are various concepts 1.

(8) proposed by different authors that try to explain the motivations for people to interact. According to Schutz (1966), people engage in interpersonal communication for three main reasons: inclusion, affection and control. Human beings have a natural desire to be part of a group, show their affection to members of that group, but also to control the group.. In that sense, word of mouth has some altruistic and some egoistic motives (Ho and Dempsey, 2009); helping others is a desirable action not just for the receiver but also for the giver (Smith, Coyle, Lightfoot, & Scott, 2007), because it helps the individual be included in the group and improve his or her confidence and their standing in the group (Phelps, Lewis, Mobilio, Perry, & Raman, 2004).. The reason why WOM is so effective in marketing is that it reduces decision-making time as well as risk (Chiu, Hsieh, Kao, & Lee, 2007) because a potential customer regards a friend’s opinion as more reliable than that of a salesperson (Smith et al., 2007).. Traditional WOM has - with the rise of the internet – transformed into electronic word of mouth (eWOM; also called word of mouse), which now has a huge influence on marketing strategies. Some important differences between eWOM and traditional WOM are: -. eWOM can be spread faster and to larger audience.. -. eWOM can take on a bigger variety of forms with various degrees of visual and verbal stimuli. -. In eWOM it is easier to monitor the nature and content of the message. -. WOM usually involves two-way communication with an immediate exchange, 2.

(9) while in eWOM messages can be delivered and received at different points in time (Beckmann & Bell, 2000; Kaplan & Haenlein, 2011).. Nowadays, with the ubiquity of internet and mass media, eWOM is used in the field that is known as viral marketing. Kaplan and Haenlein (2011) define Viral marketing as “electronic word-of-mouth whereby some form of marketing message related to a company, brand, or product is transmitted in an exponentially growing way, often through the use of social media applications” (see Figure 1-1).. Figure 1-1: Relationship between word of mouth and viral marketing (retrieved from Kaplan & Haenlein, 2011, p. 254). Steve Jurvetson and Tim Draper coined the term “viral marketing” in 1996 to describe the marketing strategy they developed for the Hotmail e-mail service. In order to help popularize Hotmail, each e-mail sent by a user of that service was appended with the tag line “Get your private, free e-mail from Hotmail at 3.

(10) http://www.hotmail.com” (Swanepoel, Lye, & Rugimbana, 2009). The recipients of those emails were thereby encouraged to join and if they did, their e-mails would also contain the message; the process would repeat, spreading the word like a virus.. In the Hotmail case viral marketing happened in the form of customers passively endorsing the brand instead of the company having to pay large amounts of money on corporate advertising campaigns. Thus the company saves time and money and the user or customer assumes that “cost”. In other viral marketing cases, like the one of Yahoo messenger for example, the initial user even actively lobbies for and spreads the software, because he or she needs other people to join the service in order for it to be useful. “The value of the virus for the person who originally spreads it is directly related to the number of other users the virus attracts”, according to Modzelewski (2000), which is why users will try to convince as many people in their social network as possible to join the service.. The strategy to leverage viral spreading is not just used by corporations, though. Since social networking websites like Facebook and video sharing sites like Youtube have become popular, many people use the power of virality (the characteristic to be spread by others, rapidly and on a large scale) to get their personal ideas, stories or videos to be received by audiences of millions.. 4.

(11) 1.2. Virality and the significance of Youtube. The concept of viral marketing is comparable to the viral phenomenon of a disease in nature. However, many people are “immune” to certain viruses and focusing on immune individuals or groups is futile. Trying to make a message go viral is useless if the audience cannot get “infected”. In this sense, the initial positioning of the content that is supposed to go viral matters (Godin, 2000). In the early stages a virus has to find some “hosts” that are able to pass it on. For this reason, it is important to place the video where it is very likely to be seen by the audience that we deem likely to spread the video.. Youtube may be such a place because it is the world’s most popular video sharing website (http://www.alexa.com/topsites), is easily accessible, and has a search function. An advantage of spreading a message via Youtube (in the form of uploads, not through paid-for commercials) is that this form of advertisement is less intrusive and thus has a higher chance of being accepted than TV ads, banner ads or email spam (Shankar & Hollinger, 2007).. Before a video has attained a certain viral status, early viewers predominantly initiate the first contact with it, in the way that they search for key-words of a certain topic or browse news outlets, magazines or blogs. In the process they come across the message or video. In later stages, many viewers get to know about the video not through active searching but by being the receivers of viral sharing. A mix of these two ways of contact arises when a video or article achieves such a level of popularity (within social circles) that it will be specifically referenced in conversations with 5.

(12) friends or in news media. When this happens, people who were previously oblivious to it may actively look for the viral video in order to be in the know or to be part of the group. In any case, the messages do not interrupt the receiver during what he is doing, contrary to the intrusive effect that TV or banner ads have.. Creators of content have to keep in mind though that spreading of ideas or trends does not necessarily happen in the same form or using the same medium as the original content. An example for this is the Werther-Effect, an incidence in the 18th century in which men dressed up like the protagonist of Goethe’s novel “The sorrows of young Werther” and thus created a fashion trend (Paul Marsden, 2000). This example of imitating, embodying or passing on an idea or trend in different form or using a different medium than the original, or even spreading an idea or concept that originally was not necessarily intended to be spread – like young Werther’s fashion sense – shows the incredible potential of media.. Considering the “Werther-Effect”, one can think of many new ways of how to approach a viral marketing strategy. Managers should not expect their messages to be spread in only the medium or in the way that was used by them. They can encourage users to not restrict themselves to the medium of the original message during the process of passing on the idea. For instance, a Youtube video has the potential to not just entice viewers to share it or post their own takes on the relevant topic via Youtube, it can also presumably lead people to take the idea and spread it by discussing it in blog posts or make a fictional situation become real like it did in the story of the Werther-Effect.. When ideas, behaviors or styles spread like a fad, especially via internet, they are 6.

(13) often called memes. Memes are interactive creations in which a specific idea is not just shared through various media, but where it can also be transformed into something entirely different. People might then spread a new or even contrasting message. This happened to the apparel company Abercrombie & Fitch.. Youtuber Greg Karber launched a campaign that in its core intended to sabotage Abercrombie and Fitch’s marketing strategy of only targeting “cool, good-looking people” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O95DBxnXiSo). Karber was against the company’s exclusionary attitude and posted a Youtube video that called for everyone to help give A&F clothes to homeless people – going against what the company’s goal was. The video was posted on May 13, 2013, and was viewed more than 4 million times within the first three days (it had more than 8 million views as of December 2013). On May 16, 2013 Abercrombie & Fitch published a statement from CEO Mike Jeffries on Facebook apologizing for his choice of words and trying to clarify that the brand did not discriminate against any groups or people. While several news outlets such as Salon, Business Insider and ABC News (Denizet-Lewis, 2006; Lutz, 2013) had reported the news before Karber published his viral video, many people found out through Karber’s Youtube video, which was also mentioned in many other news stories and blog entries.. Since Mike Jeffries felt the need to offer a public apology, we can assume that Karber’s viral video (along with other news reports) was estimated to have a negative impact on the overall brand image by drawing attention to the perceived discrimination, and thus might have led to future losses for the company.. In fact, many Facebook users wrote highly critical comments to Jeffries’ 7.

(14) Facebook post. For instance, one 15 year old female with a slim figure who fits into A&F’s target group, wrote “The fact that you said you only want 'cool attractive kids' wearing your clothes kind of makes me sick.” Eventually, in an attempt to save their image and for revenue damage control, A&F decided to sell larger sizes (http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/11/11/abercrombie-fitch-students/3 499721/).. Witnessing this backlash shows us that positive as well as negative connotations can spread rapidly through social media and alter a marketing campaign. Therefore companies have to be aware that their statements, marketing strategies or mishaps can go viral when they were not even intended to do so.. After Youtube started off as a small video sharing website whose purpose was to give people an opportunity to share their home videos with family and friends, it has gone on to help some of today’s most famous musicians get world-wide recognition, such as Justin Bieber and Psy. Bieber was discovered and offered his first record label deal after a marketing execute saw his personal Youtube videos; Psy had already had a music career in South Korea, but was not well-known internationally until his hit “Gangnam Style” went viral on Youtube. The music video to Gangnam Style has been watched more than 1.8 billion times on Youtube (as of December 2013). The clicks alone have generated revenue of more than US$ 8 million as of January 2013 (http://www.businessinsider.com/google-psys-gangnam-style-has-earned-8-million-on -youtube-alone-2013-1). Kevin Nalts (2010) wrote an article on the website willvideoforfood.com, roughly explaining how Youtube calculates advertising revenues for videos and channels and how that revenue is shared with video content providers (called Youtube partners). According to his website, there is a growing 8.

(15) number of Youtube partners who make over one million dollars annually by uploading videos that attract audiences of millions of viewers.. But not just individuals take advantage of Youtube. One prime example of a company that understood how to leverage the website’s popularity is Procter & Gamble. In 2010, P&G produced an entertaining TV commercial called “The man your man could smell like” and then added an interactive marketing campaign on Youtube, encouraging viewers to send in questions that the handsome and funny star of the commercial, Isaiah Mustafa, would answer in highly personalized video responses. Within a few weeks the commercials and their responses altogether were viewed more than 100 million times on Youtube (Learmonth, 2010).. As one can see, Youtube lends itself very well to individuals and businesses alike if they want to grow their audience. Not only is the uploading of Youtube videos free (unlike paying for TV commercials, newspaper ads etc.), but one can even earn money by doing so and involve the audience.. Although video streaming has immense potential researchers have mostly ignored this new medium. Prior research has mainly discussed the reasons for people’s willingness or desire to share information in studies using newspaper or e-mails. Furthermore the focus has been on understanding the psyche of customers when dealing with content, often disregarding the quality of the content itself. There is much less research on what kind of information people are inclined to share. Many studies have been done to illuminate why people share online content, but this knowledge in itself does not help a marketer understand what the content should preferably be like in order to entice the customer to share it (I disregard the obvious 9.

(16) beneficial effects of monetary incentives or other additional strategies used in combination with the pure marketing message in order to make customers want to share content; the point is to understand the viral quality of a video on its own).. Therefore, I think it is important to investigate the quality of viral content and not just the exterior environment which “makes” the content viral. There have been many cases in which the efforts of companies or audiences to make a message go viral failed, while, on the other hand, other messages went viral without any intention or effort from either side (Gangnam Style). Some research blames the mixed results partly on luck or the lack thereof (Meerman Scott, 2008; Kaplan & Haenlein, 2011). Although I cannot deny that this may be the case, I suggest that we try to find more tangible reasons for such “unexpected” outcomes and instead of looking at what went well or wrong behind the scenes during the distribution of certain messages we may want to look at the messages themselves (Figure 1-2).. Figure 1-2: The three basic conditions for creating a viral marketing epidemic (retrieved from Kaplan & Haenlein, 2011, p. 256) 10.

(17) My approach to this task starts with looking at the allegory of a virus in nature – human beings do not make a disease go viral; diseases rather have an innate virality that simply uses human beings as hosts.. Considering this phenomenon, I want to propose that a video’s virality could be innate and that the person sharing it may simply be a “host” - the action of participating in the meme or the sharing of it may be much less intentional or controlled by the user than it is induced by the viral video itself. In other words, my proposition is that people do not make a video go viral but that viral potential is an innate quality of a video that must first be accomplished.. If high innate virality can be achieved, doing so could then lead to the audience’s positive response. A video with a high virality factor may trigger certain “receptors” in audience members and thus cause them to react a certain way. If this is the case, then the task for marketers is to find out how to achieve a high Innate Virality Potential (IVP). Once a high IVP is accomplished, a video or message is much more likely to be spread and consequently seen, reposted, discussed or remade by connectors, mavens and salesmen. For this purpose, my study aims to conceptualize a model of Innate Virality Potential.. 11.

(18) CHAPTER 2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 2.1 Prior Research. The Theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1991) and other studies (Flynn & Goldsmith, 1993; and Shih, 2004) have shown that an individual’s behavioral decisions - for instance, the purchase or recommendation of a product at an online store such as Amazon - depend on that individual’s attitude towards the behavior, partially formed by the social environment and its norms, and the perceived benefits that come with it. Dobele, Toleman, & Beverland (2005) noted that “Successful viral marketing depends on consumers perceiving value in the transmission and deeming it worthy of passing on to others without feeling as though they are being used in the process.” This observation shows that the sharing of viral videos underlies some of the same psychological foundations and motivations as, for instance, recommending a product on Amazon.com. It seems that one of the core factors that influence sharing is the usefulness of the message.. The factor of usefulness reminds us of the Technology Acceptance Model (Davis, 1993). In fact, the TAM is cited in some of the aforementioned studies and in many others dealing with user attitude and acceptance of online content (Childers, Carr, Peck, & Carson, 2001). Some parts of the TAM may be transferrable to and serve in understanding the phenomenon of viral messages, such as the constructs of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use.. To some extent the perceived usefulness of a video depends on the emotional 12.

(19) impact it has on its viewer. Prior studies have shown emotional response to be one of the vital factors that influence human interactions, the desire of human beings to help one another, and the sharing of information that occurs in viral marketing or memes. According to Rimé, Philippot, Boca, and Mesquita (1992), up to 90% of an individual’s emotional experiences are shared with his social surroundings. Not all emotions are shared with each person the individual is in contact with, but adding up all interactions between the individual and his social network, one can say that humans share most of their experiences to some degree. Furthermore, the research of Rimé, Finkenhauer, Luminet, Zech, and Philippot (1998) shows that the intensity of an emotion that is felt during an experience influences how fast and how frequently the event is shared with others. If a message can touch the viewer emotionally it is more likely to be shared quickly and frequently. For these reasons, the potential to impact audiences emotionally is a factor that should be targeted when creating viral messages (see Figure 2-3 in Section 2.2 Hypotheses, p. 20).. Berger and Milkman (2012) agree that people share stories because they can be useful in several ways, for example by helping inform another person of a good product or news or by evoking an emotional response in the receiver - a result that may be desired, especially when the emotion has a positive valence. Valence is a term that describes the attractiveness of an event or emotion, being either perceived as positive (joy, amusement, etc.) or negative (anger, fear, etc.). Besides valence, the level of physiological arousal also plays a role in sharing (Berger and Milkman, 2012). Emotions of the same valence may have different effects on arousal. Anger for example has an arousing, activating effect on the individual, making him or her feel a desire to act, while sadness has a deactivating effect that may lead to inaction.. 13.

(20) Dobele, Lindgreen, Beverland, Vanhamme, and van Wijk (2007) evaluated participants’ responses to a list of marketing campaigns using the six “primary emotions” surprise, fear, sadness, joy, disgust, and anger - citing Oatley & Jenkins, (1996) and Plutchik, (1980) - and found that surprise was the most important factor, being relevant in every campaign. In addition, at least one other emotion always accompanies surprise (see Figures 2-2 and 2-3 in Section 2.2 Hypotheses, pp. 19-20).. A report by Hirsh (2001), cited by Dobele et al. (2007), also mentioned that viral campaigns should be unique, intriguing, fun, and possibly even interactive by including games that the audience can play, share and compete in. If a viral campaign can encourage its audience to share a message based on its fun factor or in the form of a game, it can seem less intrusive and more inviting.. Emotional response is not enough to encourage sharing though. Targeting the right audience is important as well, since “marketers must achieve fit between a key emotion and their brand or viral marketing campaign because this will ensure increased chance of forwarding” (Dobele et al., 2007, p. 301). The chance of forwarding is also heavily influenced by a factor that Seth Godin (2000) calls “smoothness”. He uses the word to describe the ease with which a message is shared. If a video is not easily shareable, even though it touches the viewer emotionally, it has low potential to go viral. The ease of sharing depends on a multitude of factors, many of which are outside factors not really related to the video content itself, for example finding the right people to share the message (maybe even paying people to do so), or to publish the video on a popular website.. The medium through which a message is shared is very important, but it is not 14.

(21) focus of this study. The smoothness factor does matter for this research; however, I want to call it “simplicity” because it describes attributes of the video itself more than the environment. For the purpose of this research, simplicity is the ease with which a message can be understood by the viewer and the expected ease with which receivers will understand it. The logic behind this concept is easily illustrated with an example: a simple German voice message may rate high in “ease of understanding” for a German individual, but it would have very low ratings in “ease of sharing” if that individual lived in Taiwan and wanted to share the message with his Taiwanese friends. This further implies that an emotional response also relies on the simplicity of the message. If that is the case, simplicity may play a moderating role for several factors instead of being a stand-alone factor in sharing (see Figures 2-2 and 2-4 in Section 2.2 Hypotheses, pp. 19-22). This goes hand in hand with the findings of the TAM-related studies, in which ease of use influences the perceived usefulness of a product. Better “smoothness”, a stronger emotional response and more usefulness might be achieved if a video’s message is delivered via images, music and facial expressions in addition to language if one wants to target a global audience.. The importance of shared language as a prerequisite for knowledge sharing has also been discussed by Nahapiet and Ghoshal (1998) in their research on social capital, the value of social networks. Social networking sites can help build or create the foundation for interaction or knowledge exchange, and social media can be a stimulating factor to drive interaction and increase social capital. A person’s desire to aid the creation of social capital stems from altruistic needs of wanting to be part of a group and help the group, but also from the desire to exert influence on it.. Furthermore, people prefer to pass on information that gives them a status of 15.

(22) individuation (see Figure 2-1). Viral messages can take advantage of these human traits by providing opportunities for people to fulfill the aforementioned desires. For instance, viral videos can implicitly encourage the user to get involved in adding content to a video’s meme (Harlem Shake) or directly encourage the user to get involved in a cause (Greg Karber’s #Fitchthehomeless). The viewer can use a multitude of methods to spread the message in their own way (see Figure 2-4 in Section 2.2 Hypotheses, p. 21).. Figure 2-1: Motivations to forward online content (retrieved from Ho and Dempsey, 2009, p. 1003). The desire to share may be strengthened if the individual feels he can distinguish himself from others by sharing and have a sense of personal growth (see Figure 2-1). As explained in chapter 1, a message does not necessarily have to be shared in the 16.

(23) form in which it is received. It may be beneficial for the sharing process if a message could entice the viewer to have their personal input or to display some of their individuation as part of the sharing process.. The options of creating a new version of the original video or of writing a blog essay about it enhance the individuation and feeling of control for the individual who does the sharing. Furthermore, if a person feels that the needs for altruism and control can be satisfied through adding value to a social network, they will participate in the creation of social capital by sharing or recreation.. A marketing campaign with a high degree of user involvement is the one of the Old Spice brand. Users not only shared the initial commercial because it was funny, but they also helped make the campaign more entertaining. Old Spice encouraged viewers to send in their questions and then answered them with funny videos, giving the audience a feeling of being part of content creation. The participants liked the feeling of involvement and were not aware they were doing the advertising for the company.. Music videos are another example in which people may get involved in the viral process and unintentionally (yet not reluctantly) help spread a viral message. Music videos generally have a high degree of user involvement because the viewer can participate in the distribution of the video itself or in popularizing the song or artist advertised in it in a variety of ways. Just to name a few, the viewer can sing the song, practice the dance choreography or simply buy the song and play it around friends or family. In all of these cases the dissemination of the video’s message is accomplished and the video’s purpose as an advertisement fulfilled without the viewer feeling used 17.

(24) as a marketing puppet. High degree of user involvement makes the viewer feel more in control, less used, and enjoy the process of sharing. However, the ways in which a user can be involved in the sharing process may be limited depending on the video content (compare “Gangnam style” and a traditional TV commercial).. Other than emotional impact and simplicity, the perceived usefulness of a video or its message might also depend on its influence in changing certain circumstances. A question we may have to ask is whether people consider a message more important if it has long lasting effects instead of fleeting effects. Is a message considered more worthy of sharing if it has a big influence on related events? Although I could not find any answers to these questions in literature, I want to include them in this study anyway. Admittedly, finding a word to describe this concept is not an easy task. So for now, I want to call a video’s ability to have long lasting impact on an issue (person, product or idea) “Staying Power”. A video’s staying power may hinge on how significant its message is perceived to be by the viewer. Considering that people want to share useful information and exert influence in doing so, may a video which is perceived as more significant short-term and especially long-term have more potential to fulfill those desires and give stronger incentives for sharing than a video that is ‘just for fun’ (see Figure 2-5 in Section 2.2 Hypotheses, p. 22)?. 18.

(25) 2.2 Hypotheses. The observations discussed in the first part of chapter 2 can be combined into a model I want to call the Model of Innate Virality Potential (see Figures 2-2 to 2-6). One goal of this study is to describe the characteristics of viral videos. The constructs that describe the videos’ attributes must be derived from the effect they have on audience reaction. The respective hypotheses are written under each Figure.. Figure 2-2: Ease of Understanding, Sensory Impact and Novelty influencing Emotional Impact 1. “Emotional impact” is a video’s ability to evoke emotions (of any kind) in the viewer. 2. “Sensory impact” (consisting of visual and auditory stimuli) influences “Emotional Impact” on the basis that a message has a stronger impact on a person’s emotions (and memory) when it is accompanied by auditory and visual stimuli. 3. “Novelty” (which can also be described as originality or uniqueness) is responsible for the primary emotion of surprise and may have a compounding 19.

(26) effect on the other emotions. 4. “Ease of Understanding”: A video that is not understood by its audience will not fulfill its potential to emotionally impact the audience. An example for this is that a message using images is more easily understood than a message solely using words, especially internationally where different languages come into play.. H1: Emotional Impact (the strength of a person’s emotional response to a video) is positively correlated to Ease of understanding H2: Emotional Impact is positively correlated to Novelty H3: Emotional Impact is positively correlated to Sensory Impact. Figure 2-3: Novelty, Sensory and Emotional Impact influencing Provocative Power. 1. “Provocative Power” is a video’s ability to entice a viewer to share the video or the ideas or products advertised in or by the video. The higher the provocative power of a video the stronger the viewers’ desire to share it. 20.

(27) 2. “Sensory impact”: Sensory stimulus has a direct impact on the video’s provocative power, because a stimulating experience is more likely to be shared. 3. The “Novelty” factor of a video may have a direct influence on whether viewers want to share it, with the purpose being the sharing of new information. It is measured by the emotion of “Surprise”. 4. “Emotional Impact” (here shown as an intervening variable based on Figure 2-2) has an influence on the provocative power of a video.. H4: Provocative Power is positively correlated to Sensory Impact H5: Provocative power is positively correlated to Novelty H6: Provocative Power is positively correlated to Emotional Impact. Figure 2-4: Degree of User Involvement and Simplicity influencing Provocative Power. 1. “Degree of User Involvement” is the extent to which the video allows and encourages the viewer to participate in the popularization of the video or the idea or product advertised in or by the video. 2. Simplicity in this model acts as a moderating variable and consists of two factors: -. Ease of understanding for receivers of the shared video (people other than the 21.

(28) viewer who makes the decision to share) -. Ease of sharing: Ease of sharing might be impeded by the lack of an appropriate target audience, by technical difficulties (incompatibility) or bad video placement. A low simplicity factor may restrict the ways in which the audience can get involved in the video’s popularization and thus diminish a video’s provocative power.. H7: Provocative Power is positively correlated to Degree of User Involvement H8: Ease of sharing has a moderating effect on the correlation between Provocative Power and Degree of User Involvement. Figure 2-5: Staying Power influencing Provocative Power. The staying power of a video (based on its significance for the people, ideas or products related to it) directly influences whether or not the viewer wants to share it. Ideas or messages that are potentially relevant long-term are more likely to be shared.. H9: Provocative Power is positively correlated to Staying Power. Combining Figures 2-2 to 2-5 into one model (Figure 2-6) should give us a blueprint of the interrelations of factors that determine the innate viral potential of a video. In other words, the potential of a video to entice its viewer to share it could presumably be calculated with the help of this model. 22.

(29) Figure 2-6: The proposed Model of Innate Virality Potential. 23.

(30) CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY In order to test the validity of the constructs in the proposed model of innate viral potential and to understand the interrelation of those constructs, I wanted collect data on the characteristics that were common in viral videos. The gathered data should allow the use of confirmatory data analysis of the variables.. Although the assessment of a video’s content quality can never be completely objective (because it is done by human beings and not by a computer), it is possible to make reasonable judgments regarding clear concepts such as happiness or sadness, on a video’s ability to stimulate the senses, or its ability to involve the viewer, if we base our judgment on the reactions of a large heterogenic test group. Generally speaking, human beings share certain attitudes and behaviors no matter what their background is, such as the need to be social (by varying degrees) or to share information. Therefore, this research uses an analysis of viewer responses on selected videos in an effort to evaluate the seven variables proposed in the model of innate viral potential.. The selection of the videos to be tested depended on three main criteria: number of views, viral status, and diversity. Since the goal was to find common success factors of viral videos, the selected videos would firstly have to be considered viral, meaning that they should have been viewed many times and attained the large number of views through sharing. Furthermore, I wanted to select a diverse set of videos.. Although “many times” is a vague quantity, I believe that videos with more than 24.

(31) 5 million views can be considered to fit this criterion. The compliance with the second condition, viral status, depended on how each video achieved its popularity. While Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” for example has more than 500 million Youtube views, it is unlikely that the large number was mainly achieved through sharing. Lady Gaga was a world-famous entertainer before the video was uploaded. Therefore, many viewers were probably actively looking for the video. Even without any sharing at all, Lady Gaga’s videos would still have many views. Because the goal of this research is trying to evaluate the quality of video content that makes a video go viral, popular videos that rely on prior fame of a person or product related to the respective video should be excluded. Thirdly, the videos tested should have a wide range of purpose and of content and production quality. Both privately and commercially produced videos have gone viral regardless of genre and production quality, which is why it would be useful to research several different video genres to see if there are common success factors for videos in general.. I finally selected six videos to be included in the survey: “Gangnam Style” by Psy, “Charlie bit my finger – again!” by HDCYT, “The man your man could smell like” by Old Spice, “The Harlem Shake” by TheSunnyCoastSkate, “Abercrombie & Fitch Gets a Brand Readjustment #FitchTheHomeless” by GKarber, and “Victim Fights Back In NSW Sydney School” by Fail Nation. These six videos represent success stories of the genres music video, home video, product commercial and nonprofit campaign; they are mutually distinct and all gained their popularity through viral sharing.. An online survey was designed using the website www.soscisurvey.de. Only one video was attached to the top of each questionnaire, so that there were six different 25.

(32) questionnaires in terms of video content, but all including the same questions (an exact listing of the questions and items of the survey is attached in the Appendix). Questions 1 and 2 (3 items) asked about the participants’ gender, age, nationality and mother language. All following items except for the construct “Degree of User Involvement” were measured using 10 point scales.. The construct of “Simplicity” was measured in Question 3, consisting of 4 items measuring ease of understanding for the participant (items 1 and 2), expected ease of understanding for others (item 3) and ease of sharing (item 4); a 1 point answer constituted high difficulty, while a 10 point answer constituted extreme easiness.. Question 4 measured “Sensory Impact” by asking for the strength of the visual stimulus (item 1) and the auditory stimulus (item 2) with a 10 point answer representing a very strong stimulus.. Question 5 (emotional impact) asked the participants to rate the strength of the emotions they felt while watching the videos on a scale from 1 to 10 from a list of 16 different emotions. The “Novelty” factor was measured through the emotional response of “surprise”.. For the construct of Degree of User Involvement (question 6) the questionnaires contained a list of actions (“discussing the video with friends or family”, “sharing the video online”, “incorporating the content the viewer’s life”, etc.) and asked whether or not the video allowed for these actions to take place. The participants were asked to check all options applicable using checkboxes.. 26.

(33) In question 7, the participants were then asked to rate their desire to perform each of the above actions on a scale from 1 to 10. This question measured the construct of “Provocative Power”.. Questions 8 and 9 asked for the participants’ opinions on how popular the video would be in the future (1, 5, 10 and 20 years later) and how big of an impact it would have on the ideas or products related to it. These questions measured how significant the videos were considered by the viewer and if they were expected to have a lasting impact. The factors of significance or lasting impact are for the purpose of this study combined in the construct of “Staying Power”.. The questionnaires were all sent out together as part of the survey. The participants were instructed to first watch the videos and then answer the questions. The questionnaires were available to the participants in English and Chinese language.. A pretest of the questionnaire was conducted with three individuals of different linguistic backgrounds (English, German and Mandarin Chinese) so as to ensure ease of understanding and a logical order of the items asked. The feedback that those individuals gave led to minor changes in the wording of some questions and answers. Finally the survey was conducted using a convenience sample of Facebook users. For this study a convenience sample should be an appropriate method because Youtube does. not. specifically. target. any. demographic. group. (http://www.reelseo.com/youtube-demographics-tip/), meaning that people of any age and any nationality could potentially participate in sharing.. 27.

(34) The survey was sent out via Facebook to personal friends and acquaintances and also posted in several public Facebook groups which altogether contained more than 3000 members of various nationalities and cultural backgrounds.. 28.

(35) CHAPTER 4 RESULTS OF STATISTICAL ANALYSIS The survey was conducted for a period of two months and finally a sample of 421 usable cases was obtained. 34.9% of the cases were answered by male participants and 65.1% were answered by females. The average age of participants was 26.7 years.. The following bar charts illustrate some mentionable findings of the descriptive data analysis. The graphs show data grouped either by gender and video, or by language and video. Male participants are denoted by the number 1, female participants by the number 2; the languages by the numbers 1 to 4 (English =1; German = 2; Chinese = 3; Other = 4); the videos are denoted by the numbers 1 to 6 (Gangnam Style = 1; Charlie bit my finger = 2; Old Spice = 3; Harlem Shake = 4; Abercrombie Fitchthehomeless = 5; School fight = 6).. As expected, participants of different linguistic background scored the ease of understanding of the videos differently (see Figure 4-1). English speakers and Chinese speakers especially differ in scoring ease of understanding of Gangnam Style, the Old Spice commercial and the school fight. This may be partially due to language barriers or cultural differences (Korean culture or memes being more popular or more well-understood in Asia), or the commercial’s humor being targeted at an American audience.. 29.

(36) Figure 4-1: Ease of Understanding grouped by language. Video 2 (featuring babies) gave the female audience a greater visual stimulus, while video 6 (the school fight) gave the male audience a greater visual stimulus (see Figure 4-2). Again, this finding is not surprising but goes to confirm old believes. Targeting genders differently has long been an important part of marketing.. Figure 4-2: Visual stimulus grouped by gender 30.

(37) The participants perceived video 5 (A&F Fitchthehomeless) to provide the most ways for the viewer to get involved (see Figure 4-3). An interesting observation is that male participants overall gave higher scores for user involvement than females. It is not clear whether this is because male participants have more experience with video sharing or because they are more aware of opportunities to share videos.. Figure 4-3: User involvement. Figures 4-4 and 4-5 illustrate the results concerning positive and negative emotions felt by the participants while watching the videos. Video 1 (Gangnam Style) evoked the most positive emotions in the participants. Regarding Video 6, male participants felt negative emotions about as much as they felt positive emotions, while female participants had much more negative emotional responses toward the video. This goes to show that, generally speaking, males do not perceive violence as negative as females do. 31.

(38) Figure 4-4: Positive Emotional Impact. Figure 4-5: Negative Emotional Impact 32.

(39) Figure 4-6 shows that the provocative power of the six videos differs for viewers of different language backgrounds. Gangnam Style, for example, scored worse among native English speakers but achieved quite similar scores among speakers of other languages. Gangnam Style was a global success. The Old Spice commercial scored the best among native English speakers but scored worse among speakers of other languages; the commercial was a huge success in the United States, but is not as well-known in other parts of the world. This may also be because the Old Spice brand is not as well-known outside the USA.. The Fitchthehomeless video scored the highest in terms of provocative power. Although this does not directly correlate with its number of views on Youtube, it shows that the video makes people want to share its message (and not just view it). This may have led to the aforementioned newspaper reports and A&F’s change in marketing strategy.. Figure 4-6: Provocative Power grouped by participants’ native languages 33.

(40) To test for internal consistency and reliability, we checked the values of Cronbach’s Alpha for the constructs of “Ease of Understanding”, “Simplicity” and “Staying Power”. “Ease of Understanding” and “Simplicity” each have good Cronbach’s alpha values with 0.869 and 0.858, respectively. “Staying Power” has an excellent Cronbach’s alpha value of 0.928.. As a measure of the validity of the constructs proposed by the IVP Model, correlation analysis was performed (see Table 4-1). 相關統計量=Pearson 相關 Total_Emot Ease_of Ease_o. ion_minus_. _Unders f_Shar Sensory. Boredom_an User_Inv Staying ive_Powe. tanding Ease_of_Understanding. 1. ing. _Impact Surprise d_Surprise olvement _Power **. .308. **. .749. **. 1. .418. **. Sensory_Impact. .308. **. Surprise. .168. **. Total_Emotion_minus_B. .260. **. User_Involvement. .247. Staying_Power Provocative_Power. .749. Ease_of_Sharing. Provocat. .418. **. 1. **. .260. **. .247. **. .178. **. .277. **. *. .232. **. .261. **. .299. **. .354. **. **. .367. **. .201. **. .398. **. .403. **. 1. .586. **. .258. **. .312. **. .441. **. 1. .295. **. .426. **. .604. **. 1. .216. **. .482. **. 1. .578. **. .168. .110 .294. *. .294. **. .232. **. .367. **. .586. **. **. .261. **. .201. **. .258. **. .295. **. .178. **. .299. **. .398. **. .312. **. .426. **. .216. **. .277. **. .354. **. .403. **. .441. **. .604. **. .482. **. .110. r. oredom_and_Surprise. .578. **. 1. **. 在顯著水準為0.01時 (雙尾)，相關顯著。 *. 在顯著水準為0.05 時 (雙尾)，相關顯著。. Table 4-1: Correlation analysis. The findings of the correlation analysis support the hypothesized correlations between the variables proposed by the model. All variables are positively correlated as the model suggested. The “simplicity”-factor is represented by the variables “ease 34.

(41) of understanding” and “ease of sharing”. These two variables have very high correlation at a value of 0.749. This could be because, in many cases, viewers who think that a video is easy to understand for them may also deem it to be easy to understand for others. Furthermore we see that the variable of surprise (representing the concept of “Novelty”) has a high correlation with emotional impact with a value of 0.586. Although surprise was measured as part of emotions in the questionnaire, in the statistical analysis it is not part of emotional impact. User involvement and staying power also both have high correlation with provocative power, respectively, with values of 0.482 and 0.578.. In the next step, regression analysis was performed to test the hypotheses illustrated in Figures 2-2 to 2-5 (see Tables 4-2 to 4-7). Anova 模式 1. 平方和. df. b. 平均平方和. 迴歸. 266.334. 3. 88.778. 殘差. 402.906. 417. .966. 總數. 669.240. 420. F. 顯著性. 91.884. .000. a. a. 預測變數:(常數), Surprise, Ease_of_Understanding, Sensory_Impact b. 依變數: Total_Emotion_minus_Boredom_and_Surprise. Table 4-2: Regression Analysis of Ease of Understanding, Sensory Impact, and Novelty in relation with emotional impact. 35.

(42) 模式. R 平方. 1. 調過後的 R 平方. .398. 估計的標準誤. .394. .98295. a. 預測變數:(常數), Surprise, Ease_of_Understanding, Sensory_Impact b. 依變數: Total_Emotion_minus_Boredom_and_Surprise. Table 4-3: Regression Analysis of Ease of Understanding, Sensory Impact, and Novelty in relation with emotional impact a. 係數. 未標準化係數模式. 標準化係數. B 之估計值標準誤差 Beta 分配. 1 (常數). t. 顯著性. 1.152. .184. 6.262. .000. Ease_of_Understanding. .057. .019. .118 2.945. .003. Sensory_Impact. .096. .022. .180 4.348. .000. Surprise. .206. .016. .514 12.878. .000. a. 依變數: Total_Emotion_minus_Boredom_and_Surprise. Table 4-4: Regression Analysis of Ease of Understanding, Sensory Impact, and Novelty in relation with emotional impact. The P-value is smaller than 0.05 (F = 91.884), which means that the model is statistically valid. The R-square value is 0.398, which means that around 40 % of the value of emotional impact can be explained by Ease of Understanding, Sensory impact and Surprise (Novelty).. The three variables “ease of understanding”, “sensory impact” and “Surprise” all have significant influence on the intervening variable “emotional impact”, with surprise (Novelty) being the biggest factor with a Beta value of 0.514. Sensory impact and ease of understanding have Beta values of 0.18 and 0.118, respectively. 36.

(43) Anova 模式 1. 平方和. df. b. 平均平方和. 迴歸. 884.046. 6. 147.341. 殘差. 607.079. 414. 1.466. 總數. 1491.124. 420. F. 顯著性. 100.480. .000. a. a. 預測變數:(常數), Simplicity_UI_moderation, Staying_Power, Sensory_Impact, Total_Emotion_minus_Boredom_and_Surprise, Simplicity, User_Involvement b. 依變數: Provocative_Power. Table 4-5: Regression analysis of Provocative power. 模式摘要模式 1. R. R 平方 .770. a. 調過後的 R 平方. .593. 估計的標準誤. .587. 1.21094. a. 預測變數:(常數), Simplicity_UI_moderation, Staying_Power, Sensory_Impact, Total_Emotion_minus_Boredom_and_Surprise, Simplicity, User_Involvement. Table 4-6: Regression analysis of Provocative power a. 係數. 未標準化係數模式. 標準化係數. B 之估計值標準誤差 Beta 分配. 1 (常數). t. 顯著性. -.291. .342. -.851. .395. Sensory_Impact. .057. .029. .071 1.931. .054. Total_Emotion_minus_Boredom_and_Surprise. .504. .055. .338 9.231. .000. Staying_Power. .295. .033. .327 8.996. .000. User_Involvement. -.169. .169. -.109 -.997. .319. Simplicity. -.083. .045. -.104 -1.854. .064. .081. .021. .477 3.752. .000. Simplicity_UI_moderation a. 依變數: Provocative_Power. Table 4-7: Regression analysis of Provocative power. 37.

(44) Regression analysis showed that the variable “Surprise” was not statistically significant in measuring “Provocative power”, unlike originally assumed. Therefore the variable was left out the second time the regression analysis was performed. The results of the second regression analysis show that there is satisfactory statistical support for the remaining parts of the model, with F = 100.48 and the value of R-square being 0.593. An R-square value of 0.59 is considered quite high in social science because of the subjectivity of participants. “Sensory impact” has weak significance with a Beta value of 0.071. The variable of “User involvement” has to have “Simplicity” as the moderating variable to be statistically significant for measuring “Provocative Power”, just like the model suggested. With a beta value of 0.338, “Emotional Impact” proves to be a highly significant factor as already stated in prior research. “Staying Power” is also significant with a Beta value of 0.327.. Based on these findings, Figure 4-7 illustrates the adjusted model of innate virality potential. Out of the nine hypotheses, only hypothesis 5 was proven to be false.. Figure 4-7: The adjusted model of Innate Virality Potential 38.

(45) CHAPTER 5 DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS This studies makes contributions to the field of viral marketing in three ways: firstly, it focuses on a relatively new and little researched medium in the form of Youtube; secondly, it introduces new constructs that play a role in making messages go viral; thirdly, it combines these constructs and already established factors into a new comprehensive model.. The findings of this study are important, in my opinion, because they establish some basic concepts that are vital to a part of marketing research that is not yet very well understood – the quality of video content that people tend to share. While some concepts have been touched on in prior studies, like the importance of emotional impact, this paper not only adds new concepts that can help increase the appeal of video content, but it also unifies these distinct factors into one model.. Some factors, like simplicity and visual stimulus, were not or could not be evaluated in prior studies which investigated sharing of emails or newspaper articles when websites like Youtube were not as well-known. Furthermore, the concept of importance or social significance of a message that was only briefly mentioned in prior studies has now been more deeply analyzed as staying power is partly based on the perceived importance of the video.. The concept of user involvement is something that has been overlooked in past studies about viral sharing. Marketers have long known that user involvement can 39.

(46) increase user interest or brand image, but it has not been discussed how this concept can be incorporated in video messages implicitly. This study mentions cases of videos that achieved different levels of user involvement and the data analysis shows that user involvement is a significant factor in determining whether a video entices the viewer to share it or talk about it. At this point it is also worth noting that the regression analysis showed that the emotion of “Inspiration” was by far the most significant factor among all the emotions when determining user involvement and provocative power. Based on this observation it may be reasonable to say that inspiration leads to the viewer taking action, not necessarily in the form of sharing the original video, but also by using individuated ways of spreading the message or by adopting a new mentality. The emotion of inspiration could manifest in the creation of new content or new ideas that are shared by the viewer. This study cannot definitively answer whether the process really works as smoothly as the theory suggests, but this may be a point of interests for future research.. One managerial implication this study raises is that companies should start investing time and capital to understand how to reach customers who primarily use the internet or video streaming websites as entertainment instead of television. Business executives have to take social media marketing or Youtube marketing in particular very serious, even if it might not be a marketing tool of their generation. Furthermore, since executives are often reluctant to invest in things they cannot measure, this study may be a cornerstone on the way to establish more reliable measurements to predict whether a campaign or a video in particular have potential to touch large audiences. Of course, researchers and marketers will still have to analyze the environment that will help spread or even shape a potent message, but having more information on what makes a message potent will also be of value. The model I 40.

(47) have conceptualized defines a third of the model illustrated in Figure 1-2 on page 9 in this study and is thus a big step from counting on luck to knowing how to make people watch and share.. After the positives I also have to mention that there are several limitations to this study. Although this research tries to analyze video content and not focus on outside factors, with the measurement of the factors of the IVP Model relying on participants’ subjective perceptions, there cannot be a completely objective measurement or evaluation of the factors involved. Furthermore, even with absolute precision in assessing a video’s innate virality potential, outside factors like audience demographics, additional marketing mix strategies and brand image are still very important and add uncertainty. Therefore the IVP model cannot be relied on exclusively in creating viral content, but should always be adjusted and used in concordance with the outside factors of a changing environment. Provocative Power alone does not lead to sharing but is just one of several factors (see Figure 5-1 on the next page). More comprehensive research on the outside circumstances (such as Seth Godin’s e-book) is mentioned in chapters 1 and 2 of this study.. 41.

(48) Figure 5-1: Provocative Power, outside factors and sharing. Another limitation associated with the survey design is that, since the emotion of surprise and a person’s need for individuation are such important factors in determining a person’s desire to spread a message, and since the videos used in this study are to some extent well-known and not brand new, the participants’ scores regarding emotion and desire to share may not reflect the true potential that the videos had when they were still unknown. For instance, since almost everyone already knows Gangnam Style, they are unlikely to give the video high ratings in terms of surprise factor, funniness, or in regard to desire of sharing. Sharing a video that everyone already knows would not be a desirable action as one would seem boring and redundant and diminish their individuation.. Secondly, the sample size is relatively small when compared to the population. The survey involved participants from many different countries and the sample 42.

(49) groups, albeit diverse, may not accurately represent larger parts of the population.. Furthermore, this study only looked at successful viral videos, which means that there is no control group of unsuccessful videos to compare them to. This is one of the bigger regrets I have about this study. However, a limitation of resources did not permit a study of such large scope and scale. Hence, my suggestion for future research is to use this model to analyze viral marketing videos or campaigns that failed. Future research may also look at detrimental factors that are negatively correlated to desire of sharing.. Lastly, I want to say that I do not believe that the model I proposed is complete or absolute, but that it is rather an approximation toward an ideal model of innate virality potential. For this reason, I think that future research should add to or subtract from this model to make contributions to this relatively new field of research.. 43.

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(53) APPENDIX – Survey Questions and Items – DD: Demographic Data [DD01] Selection Gender "Your gender" DD01 Gender 1 = male 2 = female -9 = Not answered [DD02] Text Input Age and nationality "your personal data" DD02_01 your age Free input (integer) DD02_02 your home country DD02_03 your native language Free text. SF: Simplicity Factor [SF01] Scale (fully labeled) Ease of understanding "Ease of understanding the video" 47.

(54) SF01_01 How easy was it for you to understand the video? 1 = very hard, 10 = very easy SF01_02 Do you think you understood the video's message or its purpose? 1 = did not understand at all, 10 = fully understood SF01_03 In your opinion, how easy is it for other people (no matter nationality, language skills or social background) to understand the video? 1 = very hard, 10 = very easy SF01_04 How easy is it for you to share the video or the ideas or products related to it? 1 = very hard, 10 = very easy 1=1 2=2 3=3 4=4 5=5 6=6 7=7 8=8 9=9 10 = 10 -9 = Not answered. SE: Sensory and Emotional Impact [SE01] Scale (fully labeled) Sensory Impact "How strong was the physical sensation for you?" SE01_01 Visual stimulus (seeing): 1 = very weak, 10 = very strong SE01_02 Auditory stimulus (hearing): 1 = very weak, 10 = very strong 1 = very weak 2= 3= 4= 48.

(55) 5= 6= 7= 8= 9= 10 = very strong -9 = Not answered [SE02] Scale (extremes labeled) Emotional Impact "What emotions did you feel and how strong were they?" SE02_01 Happiness SE02_02 Sadness SE02_03 Excitement SE02_04 Boredom SE02_05 Encouragement SE02_06 Fear SE02_07 Amusement (funniness) SE02_08 Anger SE02_09 Pity SE02_10 Curiosity SE02_11 Inspiration SE02_12 Nostalgia SE02_13 Surprise SE02_14 Disgust. 49.

(56) SE02_15 Sexual Arousal SE02_16 Shame 1 = none 10 = very strong -9 = Not answered. UI: Degree of User Involvement [UI01] Multiple Choice User Involvement "In what ways are you able to spread the video or the ideas or products related to it?" UI01_01 discussing the video with friends or family UI01_02 sharing the video online UI01_03 creating and uploading your own version of the video UI01_04 writing an article or blog entry about it UI01_05 incorporating the content into your life (by adopting ideas or buying products advertised in or by the video) 1 = Not checked 2 = Checked. PP: Provocative Power [PP01] Scale (extremes labeled) Provocative Power "Rate your desire to do each of the following things on a scale from 1 to 10" PP01_01 discussing the video with friends or family PP01_02 sharing the video online PP01_03 creating and uploading your own version of the video 50.

(57) PP01_04 writing an article or blog entry about it PP01_05 incorporating the content into your life (by adopting ideas or buying products advertised in or by the video) 1 = no desire 10 = strong desire -9 = Not answered. SP: Staying Power [SP01] Scale (extremes labeled) Staying Power "On a scale from 1 to 10 and compared to the current state, how popular (or well-known) do you believe this..." SP01_01 1 year SP01_02 5 years SP01_03 10 years SP01_04 20 years 1 = not popular 10 = very popular -9 = Not answered [SP02] Scale (extremes labeled) Staying Power "On a scale from 1 to 10, how big of an impact (good or bad) do you believe this video will have on the ide..." SP02_01 in 1 year SP02_02 in 5 years SP02_03 in 10 years 51.

(58) SP02_04 in 20 years 1 = no impact 10 = very big impact -9 = Not answered. 52.

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