I was talking with a friend of mine, Nate Davis, a few weeks ago and we stumbled onto something rather perplexing. A lot of brands spend a tremendous amount of time and money trying to create viral videos. Why? They are extremely expensive to produce and usually end up being anything but viral. They usually outright fail. But if you want to send a message without the support of paid media, how do you do it?
A few brands have discovered that you don't have to sink tens of thousands of dollars into production in order to send a message viral. You can do it with an image. If you’re a connoisseur of cliché Internet buzzwords, you might know what I’m talking about. I’m talking about infographs.
Making an infograph is relatively cheap and easy. How many stunning infographics could you make for the cost of a single viral video? Ten? Fifty? A hundred? If they’re relevant, you’ve got a good chance at getting half of them plastered all over Digg, Reddit, and Delicious. They are also easier to embed on blogs and you don’t have to worry about how to get them to display on devices that don’t support Adobe Flash, like the iPhone.
Moreover, it’s just better format for most brands to use on a regular basis. You can be blunt about what it is you want to say. As long as you can make it visually compelling, people will want to spend time with it. You don’t have to try to trick the consumer into watching it or sharing it. The brand itself can speak, and what it says can be, not only genuinely interesting to the consumer, but helpful. With an infographic a brand can come out and say: This is who we are, this is what we’re interested in, and this is what we think is true about the world.
Mint has been pumping out infographics like mad for the past few months. They are a great example of a company who understands how it is people are sharing information online, and how to actually inject themselves into the conversation. Bravo, Mint. Bravo.