How can marketers find better while cheaper ways to reach their customers in times of a down turning economy? Often this is the moment where viral marketing comes into mind.

Viral-marketing uses the social networks between human beings and the basic wish to communicate news and interesting facts to improve the own social status.

So a viral video, abbreviated as viral, will be seeded into a pear group of mavens and if it is interesting enough they will pass it to their social contacts to gain some honour to have found this content first. The receivers may act the same way in their social network and so on, which causes the viral spreading of the message.

But most times, marketers are afraid of virals, as there is no guarantee that it will work. A lot of money has been invested in videos that never reached the critical mass to create a viral effect.

I think that nearly every successful viral triggers emotions by using one of the following 4 basic categories:

• Humor / Parody
  “Say no to dirt”
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaHtA89RHUQ
  Views: 1,045,132

• Sexism
  “whizbiz.com.au”
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T47kt6DuT-4
  Views: 2,057,454

• Stars
  “5 More Friends uncensored”
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fX40RsSLwF4
  Views: 1,399,535

• Surprise
  “Dynamite Surfing”
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JR_naKxLEPc
  Views: 1,554,113

Sure, not every viral using one of these story lines needs to be as successful as these examples and the time a viral is swirling around in the net is also important, but maybe it is a good starting point if you think about creating your own viral.