PSYCHOLOGY BEHIND VIRAL VIDEOS

JONAH BERGER’S STEPPS FRAMEWORK

CMV 3003 Viral Video for Social Media

• The STEPPS framework explains why do some
ideas go viral while others don’t’.

• Why do pictures of cats or dogs go viral, or why does Justin

Bieber reach the top of the Billboard charts ?
 • In the book ‘Contagious: Why Things Catch On’
based on more than 10 years of research, Jonah
Berger identified 6 key principles of what
makes content viral (STEPPS for short):

• Social currency – we share what makes us

look good.
• Triggers – we share what’s at the top of our
minds.
STEPPS FRAMEWORK • Emotion – we share what we care about.
• Public – we imitate what we see people
around us are doing.
• Practical value – we share things that have
value to others.
• Stories – We share stories, not information.
 Why do we share cool
photos, videos and witty
jokes on social media?
1. SOCIAL
CURRENCY
Because it makes us look
good.
 1. SOCIAL CURRENCY

We post and share content on social media to be

perceived by others in a certain way.
Because we care so much about what people think of us.
It affects our online behavior.
 1. SOCIAL CURRENCY

Jonah Berger identified three ways we can make people want to

share our brand for to earn social currency amongst their peers.

A. Identify what’s remarkable about your brand

B. Utilize game mechanics
C. Make people feel like insiders
1. SOCIAL • When we come across something
CURRENCY exciting/cool/funny/awesome, we can’t wait to
share it with others.
A. IDENTIFY
• Do you want to see a blender destroy some
WHAT’S golf balls?
REMARKABLE • Watch: https://youtu.be/MC8Zvl-8ziA
ABOUT YOUR
BRAND
 • Blendtec’s “Will It Blend?” series provides
SOCIAL CURRENCY entertainment value, and showcases their
blenders’ impressive abilities.

A. IDENTIFY • So even if your product is as seemingly

unremarkable as a blender, don’t fret.
WHAT’S • Ask yourself: What separates you from your
REMARKABLE competitors? What makes you unique?

ABOUT YOUR • Place that remarkable element front and center,

so people will feel more compelled to share it!
BRAND
 • Bellroy takes pride in slimming your wallet.

1. SOCIAL
CURRENCY
A. IDENTIFY
WHAT’S
REMARKABLE
ABOUT YOUR
BRAND

The way they compare their wallets against

conventional ones paints a very compelling picture
of just how slim their wallets can be.
 1. SOCIAL CURRENCY
A . I D E N T I F Y W H AT ’ S R E M A R K A B L E A B O U T YO U R B R A N D

• Trunk Club – Hand-picked clothes that suit your unique personality

and needs
 • Trunk Club is perfect for those of us who hate shopping
and aren’t the best at picking out clothes.
1. SOCIAL • Real-life stylists at Trunk Club will personally select
CURRENCY pieces that match your unique personal style.
A. IDENTIFY
• The clothes are sent right to your door for free, and you
WHAT’S only have to pay for what you like.
REMARKABLE
ABOUT YOUR • Another good thing about Trunk Club is you don’t have
BRAND to pay every month; only when you need some new
clothes.
 • Game mechanics such as scoring systems, levels, and
leaderboards tell you how well they’re doing in
relation to others.
1. SOCIAL • This encourages a form of competitive spirit, and
CURRENCY internally motivates us to be better than others –
B. UTILIZE that’s social currency for you.
GAME • Include game mechanics in your brand, because they
MECHANICS can motivate customers to remain engaged in
certain actions for the sake of achievements.
 1. SOCIAL
CURRENCY
B. UTILIZE GAME
MECHANICS

• My Starbucks Rewards –
Drink your way to a Gold
Card!
 My Starbucks Rewards – Drink your way to a Gold
Card!

Customers are given stars for every purchase using their

Starbucks cards.

1 . SO CIA L CUR R ENCY

Starting from the Welcome level, they have to collect stars to
B. U TILIZ E GA M E upgrade to the Green and Gold levels.
M E CHA NICS

Each level provides more benefits than the previous level.

This encourages customers to drink more, so that they can

gain more stars, unlock new levels and get more benefits.
 1. SOCIAL
CURRENCY
B. UTILIZE GAME
MECHANICS

• Leaderboards to encourage
reviews and sharing
 1. SOCIAL CURRENCY
C . MAKE PEOPLE LIKE INSIDERS

• Exclusivity works in the same way; only some people have

access to it. That’s social currency.
• Make your customers feel special, so they’ll tell
everyone about it.
• Ask yourself: What will excite my customers? What will
make them feel unique, or look awesome?
• But make sure that your product can bring genuine value to
your customer; not just hype without substance.
 1. SOCIAL
CURRENCY
C . MAKE PEOPLE
LIKE INSIDERS

OnePlus doesn’t sell their phones in

stores; they’re only available through
invites.
• If you want to get your hands on
one, you’ll have to find someone
who has it.
• They are confident that their
phones will speak for themselves,
and people will naturally
recommend them to their peers.
 1. SOCIAL
CURRENCY
C . MAKE PEOPLE
LIKE INSIDERS

• Crowdfunding – Exclusive
perks for supporting
groundbreaking trends
 1. SOCIAL CURRENCY
C . MAKE PEOPLE LIKE INSIDERS

• Crowdfunding – Exclusive perks for supporting groundbreaking

trends

• Crowdfunding sites (e.g. Kickstarter, Indiegogo) are where new ideas and
products are introduced to the world.
• Anyone can back these projects, many of which are trendsetters or
technological breakthroughs.
• Supporters of these projects are receive exclusive perks for their efforts.
• These often give us bragging rights to being a supporter of novel ideas.
 1. SOCIAL
CURRENCY
C . MAKE PEOPLE
LIKE INSIDERS

• Facebook – Generated hype by

opening up to one school at a
time

• When Facebook started out, it was

only available for Harvard students.
• Within the first month, more than half
of Harvard undergrads were
Facebook users.
• This helped the site build up a lot of
hype, since the other students had to
wait till it was available for their
school.
 2. TRIGGERS

• The stimuli that prompt people to think about your

product or campaign
• Top-of-mind means tip-of-tongue.
• Rebecca Black’s ‘Friday’ music video is a great
example of this.
• No matter what association you create, it’s
important to ensure that no other brand shares the
same trigger.
• Customers will get confused by multiple triggered
associations, just like how peanut butter brings to
mind multiple peanut butter brands.
2.TRIGGERS

https://twitter.com/kitkat_us/status/1029052854441570304?lang=en
 A. Specific Days

B. Seasonal

2. TRIGGERS
C. Common words/phrases
used in conversations

D. Activities and events

 2. TRIGGERS

A. Specific Days
• The more frequent the day arrives in a year, the
more your customers will think of your brand!
• In some countries, Wednesdays are referred to
as Hump Day.
• It is the middle of the week, where one has to get
“over the hump” before looking forward to the
weekend.
• This ad has Caleb the camel walking around the
office, celebrating the arrival of hump day.
• By associating the humorous camel with Hump Day,
people will naturally remember this video whenever
Hump Day arrives.
• The original video received more than 6 million
views, and they spiked every Wednesday.

Geico’s Caleb the Camel – Every Hump Day (Wednesday)

Watch: https://youtu.be/7LtjzQaFZ3k
 2. TRIGGERS

• Star Wars day – May the 4th be with you

• Star Wars Day falls on the 4th of May; a play on the iconic
phrase “may the force be with you”.
• It was started by fans of the series, but many brands take the
chance to reveal their playful side and celebrate the iconic
series:
 2. TRIGGERS

• B. Seasonal
• Christmas isn’t a national holiday in
Japan, but since the 1970s, Japanese
have been flocking to KFC every
Christmas.
• That’s because KFC had successfully
created the association that KFC =
Christmas.
• The campaign, which began in 1970,
initially focused on foreigners who
couldn’t find turkey during Christmas.

Watch: https://youtu.be/mM9IeRXxdTA
2. TRIGGERS
B. SEASONAL
2.TRIGGERS

C. COMMON
WO R D S / P H R A S E S U S E D
I N C O N V E R S AT I O N S

• Pumpkins are especially popular

in USA and Canada during
Autumn seasons.
• Starbucks rode on the trend by
selling the Pumpkin Spice Latte
(PSL).
 2.TRIGGERS

C. COMMON
WO R D S / P H R A S E S U S E D
I N C O N V E R S AT I O N S

• “Great!” – Greats
• “Great” is a very common
word in daily language.
• Choosing a word commonly
used in daily speech for a brand
name increases the chance that
your customers will constantly
be reminded of you.
 2.TRIGGERS
D. AC T I V I T I E S A N D
EVENTS

• Have a break…Have a Kit Kat

• Kit Kat was designed to serve as

a snack for breaks, and the slogan,
coined in 1958, complimented it
very well.
• Up until today, Kit Kat remains
synonymous with the act of
taking a break.
•
 2.TRIGGERS
D. ACTIVITIES
AND EVENTS

• Mars Bars x NASA Pathfinder

mission
• In mid-1997, the sales for Mars bars
spiked.
• The company were confused: they didn’t
spend extra money on advertisements
or campaigns.
• Eventually, they realized it was thanks to
NASA’s Pathfinder mission to Mars.
• The media attention given to the
exploration mission had helped trigger
thoughts of Mars bars.
• It wasn’t intentional, but it worked
in their favor after all.
 3. EMOTION

• Emotional marketing is a type of advertising that uses basic

emotions, such as happiness, fear, or anger, to elicit a
consumer response.
• This can typically lead to more social shares and purchases
of the advertised product.
• It can also lead to customer loyalty as trust builds between
your brand and the customers as well as improved
customer experience.
 3. EMOTION

• Happiness = More Shares

• Emotionally positive content spreads faster on social media via social sharing than any other type of
content.

• Sadness = More Clicks

• If it bleeds, it leads.
• Another branding strategy that many companies use is to build an emotional connection with their target
audience by touching on negative feelings, such as sadness. Sadness is a human emotion that naturally
brings people together for support.

• Fear/Surprise = More Loyalty

• When we experience negative feelings, such as fear, we naturally look for comfort and reassurance.
• Anger/Disgust = Viral Content

• Another strategy that many marketers shy away from is using anger and disgust in their emotional
marketing strategy. Unlike happiness and sadness, which mostly just pulls on the heartstrings of the
audience, anger and disgust can elicit an intense emotional reaction from viewers which often turns into
actual action, like sharing, forwarding, or commenting on the piece of content.
 3. EMOTION

• P&G - Thank You, Mom - The Winter Olympics (2018)

• Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUg6s-uIp1w

• P&G is a company that encompasses a wide range of products all meant for the home, so
it’s a powerful move to do a little emotional branding on the home aspect of their
company just as millions of people sit down to watch their commercial from home.
 3. EMOTION

• Lysol “Protect Like A Mother”

• Rather than boasting all of the

chemicals in their disinfectant sprays,
Lysol pulls on the heartstrings of their
customer base of mothers by
promising that they “protect like a
mother”. This message empowers
mothers and validates all that they do,
which likely positions the brand as
one that mothers can trust. It’s a
smart yet simple move to build trust
and loyalty in their customers. Watch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQLj9KQyVNA
 3. EMOTION

• WWF’s Emotional Ads

Evoke Big Emotions
• They’re known for creating
emotionally charged images
that either provoke anger, fear,
or awe, all in hopes of
compelling action in their
target audience.
 3. EM OT IO N

Nike’s “Believe in Something”

Campaign
• Nike took a bold step in this emotional ad
campaign by aligning with an athlete most
known for kneeling during the national
anthem in protest against police brutality
against African American men in the US.
• As a result, half the nation was outraged
and burning their Nike products in
protest.
• The other half was applauding the brand
and investing in Nike products to support
the brand.
• As for Nike, no matter which side you’re
on, they were the talk of the nation that
year.
 • The fourth principle from Jonah Berger’s STEPPS
model is Public Visibility.
• The more public something is, the more likely
people will imitate it. Built to show, built to grow.
• Imagine you are in a restaurant in a foreign country,
and you see everyone taking off their shoes before
4. PUBLIC entering.
• Chances are, you’d do the same.
• Why do we do that? Because we base a lot of our
actions on those we see around us. If a lot of people
buy something, it has to be pretty good.
 4. PUBLIC

• Salting the tip jar –Putting

your own tips in to
encourage others to follow

• In cafes, some baristas used a

technique called “salting the tip
jar”, where they place a bit of
their own money in the tip jar.
• People are more likely to
contribute to a jar that has
money than an empty one.
 4. PUBLIC

• Today, most emails sent from

smartphones contain a default
signature that goes like “Sent
from my iPhone/Blackberry”

• The more often we see such

messages, the more popular
we’ll think that product brand
is.
 4. PUBLIC

• Apple’s distinctive product features

makes them distinguishable from a
mile away
• Back when Apple revealed the very first
iPod, it was accompanied by a series of
commercials.
• They featured people in black silhouettes
dancing while listening to a iPod and white
earphones.
• During that time, almost all earphones were
black, so Apple’s white earphones became a
brand trademark.
• Some would buy white earphones from
elsewhere just to follow the trend.
•
Watch: https://youtu.be/NlHUz99l-eo
 4. P UBLIC

• Branded shopping bags boost

social image as well as serve as
mobile advertisements.
• Big brands often produce shopping
bags that are of a higher quality.
• Customers are encouraged to reuse
them because they feel bad
throwing them away after just one
use.
• Some customers also want to be
seen associated with an expensive
brand.
 4. PUBLIC

• Oreo engaged fans worldwide with

the age-old question: Cookie or
Creme?
• In February 2013, Oreo launched a two-
month campaign on Instagram titled:
Cookie vs Creme.
• Fans were asked to take a side by
attaching photos with either a
#cookiethis or #cremethis hashtag.
• Selected photos were translated into
actual sculptures using either cookies or
creme from real Oreos.
 5 . P R AC T I C A L
VA L U E

• Shopify provides free

resources to help you sell
your stuff better.

• Shopify provides a platform

where online retailers can sell
their stuff without any fuss.
• Apart from their blog, which
covers interviews and case
studies of successful sites,
they also provide guides for
improving your store.
 5. PRACTICAL VALUE

• Schermer Pecans posts delicious recipes that make use of their delicious pecans

• At Schermer Pecans, they provide recipes that include their delicious pecans.

• It’s always good to receive recipes that you can try out in the future.
• Some of their delicious recipes include Martha’s Brown Sugar Pound Cake and Lee Epting’s Pecan Red Velvet Cupcakes.
 5. PRACTICAL
VALUE

• Watch: https://youtu.be/6GRfFuWsjNU

• Be My Eyes is a non-profit that helps blind people

“see” through the “eyes” of others with the help of
live-streaming video.

• Value provided:
• The visually-impaired have benefited from the
various tools and systems put in place around us,
but we still have a long way to go.
Be My Eyes – Non-profit app that allows you to lend your eyes to the blind.
• For instance, we do not have food expiry dates in
Braille, and we do not have a system that provides
auditory directions in a subway station.
• With the help of Be My Eyes, users with sight can
now help the visually-impaired to view and
interpret important information.
 • The last principle from the STEPPS model
is Storytelling. We share stories for several
reasons:
• To gain social currency
• To share a certain emotion with someone else
6.STORIES
• To pass on useful advice or tips
• The deeper you embed your brand into the story
you’re telling, the more likely people will think about
you while telling the story.
 6. STORIES

• GoPro’s ‘Fireman saves kitten’ ad tells a

touching story of connection and healing.

• This story is awe-inspiring, but it has one very

important element: this video wouldn’t have been
possible if not for the GoPro camera on the
fireman’s helmet.
• The narrative in this video carries the subtle
message that GoPro enables us to see things from
very different perspectives. We’ve seen
skateboarders, skydivers and other extreme sports
enthusiasts wear them, but this video shows us a
different perspective. A different, yet very real kind
of danger.

• And that’s what makes this video so viral.

Watch: https://youtu.be/CjB_oVeq8Lo
 6. STORIES

• The Panda Cheese panda is too

compelling to be ignore
• In a hilarious series of ads promoting
Panda Cheese, we get to see what
happens when a panda gets angry.
• The ads feature various people declining
the cheese, after which a panda shows
up and starts destroying stuff.
• The ads received a few million views,
and even won several advertising
awards.
• Because the narrative is hauntingly funny,
we all can’t resist showing our friends
the video of the violent panda.
•

Watch: https://youtu.be/7q_94ukQfO4
 6. S TORIE S

• Jared Fogle lost 240 pounds from eating

Subway and became the company’s
hero.
• After being told that his obesity might kill him
before he reached 35 years old, Jared
Fogle decided to lose weight.
• He tried different diets, but they all didn’t
work.
• Eventually, he decided to try out Subway,
thanks to their low-fat and low-calorie food,
and lost a total of 240 pounds.
• When Subway heard about this, they ran an
ad featuring Jared, becoming an instant hit.
• Who doesn’t want to hear about the guy who
lost 240 pounds from Subway sandwiches?
 SUMMARY

Watch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EatUYmOvUiw
 • https://jonahberger.com/the-secret-science-behind-big-
data-and-word-of-mouth/
• https://www.referralcandy.com/blog/social-currency-
marketing-examples/

• https://www.referralcandy.com/blog/13-examples-of-
REFERENCES triggers-used-in-marketing/

• https://www.referralcandy.com/blog/practical-marketing-
examples/

• https://www.referralcandy.com/blog/narrative-
marketing-examples/