Going viral

Last night I went to KittenCamp . An event hosted by Rubber Republic (an agency in Bristol that specialise in viral marketing).
We took a look at some of the top viral videos of the moment: http://www.nma.co.uk/resources/viral-brand-chart. (Generally all sources of hilarity – funny stuff seems to always be what people share most).
We then had superstar Dan from Aardman digital talk to us about Viral gaming. I’ve only been involved in a few games before and I know how difficult they can be. Even at the concept stage it’s hard to come up with something different and original.
Tips I picked up

• Seems obvious – but the game must be fun, challenging but not too difficult. This is easily missed.
• When launching a viral game the first 48 hours are the most critical – this is the time when it will sink or swim. You have to accept the risk with anything “viral” – it may sink.
• Sometimes this is time to start selling out to advertising to try and breathe life into it.
• The ideal launch time is Thursday lunch GMT – this maximises chance it’ll be picked up by UK and US market and that things will really pick up at the weekend.
• Germans love playing online games. Das ist zehr gut!
• You need to seed the game out there but there are platforms such as Kongregate  and Newgrounds .
• You should work out the gameplay first not the design. If it’s not fun to play it won’t be played – colouring it in won’t make a difference.
• So I think I’ve said this a few times – MAKE IT FUN!
• Everyone thinks that the age demographic is spotty teenagers – it isn’t, they have better games to play (PS3, Xbox, Wii, Mobile and other solo games teenagers like to do alone in their bedroom). Online games are mostly played by 25 – 45.
• Don’t drink too much at the free bar unless you want to start rambling rubbish to the accounts team from McCann Erickson.