Virally Awesome or Virtually Disappointing?

Have you heard the word “viral” used when talking about videos? Unless you live inside of a cave on the side of a mountain (my personal dream honestly) or have been in a coma for 10 years your answer is “yes”. If the situation is that you were in a coma for 10 years, then welcome to 2018: everything is terrible, and the Earth is dying.

Anyways…

I am going to give some examples of things that have gone viral in the last few years, but I am only going to provide one of two words about it. Here we go: Double rainbow, Covfefe, Friday music video, Boaty McBoatface (if you are not into UK news then you may not get that one), Tide pods, and I am sure there are plenty more I could name. Businesses use crowdsourcing, feedback from their customers, to get an idea of what their consumers, or “followers”, want to see from them as an organization/business. Crowdsourcing is when a company takes the “power of the crowd” or the opinions of their consumers into consideration when creating a new product. Basically, instead of someone going out to interview or survey consumers they can just listen to what they are already saying about current products. Do they want more inclusion? A recent example of this is when the brand Beauty Blender released their foundation line for the first time. Their consumers instantly saw an issue that they wanted the company to see, and that was their lack of inclusion in the colors of their formula. While there were plenty of undertone differences among the pale shades Beauty Blender looked like they had forgotten not everyone has white skin. There were a few formulas for darker skin colors but when you look at the picture you wonder how they did not see the problem. The foundation line was the first makeup product Beauty Blender released after getting feedback from their customers, displaying their appropriate use of small-scale crowdsourcing. The foundation line then became viral for the reason mentioned above: people with dark skin exist but they did not accommodate their line for those colors. I have included a picture of the makeup line at the bottom of the page to give you a better idea of why this problem went viral. Many makeup brands are focusing on having a wider shade range, so more people can find their shade and purchase their product. The shade revolution started with Rihanna’s foundation from her makeup line “Fenty”. The Fenty Pro Filt’r foundation has 40 different shades for consumers so that they can find their exact match. I will also show you a picture of the Fenty shade range, so you can more easily see the difference. I am sure you are reading this thinking: what is the point of all of this? The point is how a company can go viral for doing something amazing and innovative or for an anticipated product completely flopping in sales for one reason or another. When the Fenty foundation was released (which was way before Beauty Blender’s foundation) it went viral for the right reasons. Consumers were waiting for Rihanna’s line to be available for purchase and it was a huge success. The product was so successful that all the influential “Beauty Bloggers” were sharing reviews, articles were being written left and right about the success, and for the first week it was near impossible to find your shade at the local Sephora because they were selling out so quickly. Two very different viral situations: one negative and one positive. The best thing for Beauty Blender to do would have been to take better advantage of any crowdsourcing efforts and really get a feel for their consumers. If Beauty Blender had done this before releasing their foundation it is safe to assume the foundation would not have gone viral for such a negative reason. Crowdsourcing can boost a company campaign to becoming successful and possibly even so successful that like in Rihanna’s situation it becomes viral.

If you were to go to Google right now and type in “viral news” you would see videos or articles about politics, unusual circumstances caught on camera (like the grandfather that naps with shelter cats), or an endless barrage of “fail videos”. Company marketing campaigns have been “going viral” for years due to effective crowdsourcing and listening to their customers. Two companies who have received huge praise in the past few years for listening to their consumers are Dove and Aerie. Dove began the “Real Beauty” campaign and it received a huge positive reaction. Dove listened to the voices of consumers everywhere, not just their own, who felt excluded by a company because of how they looked on the outside. From this information Dove made the decision to use women of all shapes, colors, and sizes as their models and not the typical professional campaign model. Dove attracted new customers because of this campaign which led to its great success and continued presence. While not everyone agreed with the tactics of the campaign it was hard to deny that the “Real Beauty” campaign had gone viral. You may not be aware that this campaign began back in 2004 because Dove found out that statistically only 2% of women consider themselves beautiful. The “Real Beauty" campaign still runs today, 14 years later, making Dove a kind of advertising icon. This campaign successfully shows how crowdsourcing can lead to a viral result and increase the longevity of a campaign as well as brand recognition. There were some negative comments and displeased feedback about the campaign but that did not affect the explosion of success that Dove experienced from their “Real Beauty” campaign. The second I mentioned, Aerie, followed Dove’s lead by also using every day people of all shapes, colors, and sizes for their advertisements. These women were not necessarily models but the did represent a part of the world and that was what Aerie put their importance. Aerie has recently gone beyond this to include women with disabilities as models. An Aerie campaign model may be in a wheelchair, missing a limb, have a colostomy bag, or any other physical or mental disability. I am an avid Aerie customer because of the Aerie Real campaign and how inclusive their advertisements looked, I could see myself as these women which is something that has never happened with an ad using professional models or celebrities. Aerie also let it be known through their marketing and advertising efforts that they would no longer be photoshopping their models. Essentially, Aerie took Dove’s successful “Real Beauty” campaign and adjusted it to their consumer’s profiles through crowdsourcing and made an even bigger impact. When Aerie Real started using models with visible disabilities in their campaigns they just became more successful in their marketing strategies. The new campaign element went viral, just like Dove, because Aerie was representing real women. Articles were constantly being written about this inclusive form of advertising, interviews with company execs, more followers on their social media accounts, and (most importantly for any business) it drove up their sales.

Hopefully I have painted a clear picture for you of how viral may not always be a good thing and that if businesses use crowdsourcing effectively it can make them a more profitable company. Of course, there will always be viral videos and shows like Tosh.0 and America’s Funniest Home Videos that broadcast those videos to draw in viewers. YouTube will also be cluttered with “viral” videos of some sort, whether it is like Jenna Marbles video “How to trick people into think you’re good looking” with a whopping 67 million views or someone falling off a skateboard and hitting themselves in the crotch. 

Beauty Blender

Fenty