Client – “I want to create a viral video.”

Me – “Do you know what it takes for a video to go viral?”

Client – “No! That’s your job!”

Fair enough. In that case, let’s take a look at some examples of viral videos to see if we can discover the secret of why people may pass along videos to their friends and family.

Here are two recent examples of news events that went “viral.”

We all recently saw the predictions about the end of the world come and go and come again. And we all woke up to the news that the “Governator” had spawned a love child. In both of these cases, people took the idea and ran with it. The notion that the world was going to end spawned millions of web searches as well as several entrepreneurial ventures selling “end-of-the-world” t-shirts. My personal favorite was the website Gizmodo, which invited its’ readers to “punk the rapture” and post their favorite “rapture bomb” photos.

Within a few days of the love-child announcement, links and photos of Arnold’s former housekeeper, Mildred Baena began popping up all over the Internet. This links were shared by people on thousands of Facebook pages, in countless emails. A Mildred Baena Facebook fan page even appeared. People already search for information about Arnold Schwarzenegger

So, it’s clear that wacky prophecies and sensational stories about celebrities have a really good chance of capturing the imagination of people and “go viral.”

What about videos? What types of videos have the highest likelihood of “going viral?” Here is some of the best and latest thinking on the topic.

Cute cats and stupid pet tricks.

Cute animal videos are almost a cinch to go viral. A video of a mother cat hugging her offspring received more than 4 million views in the first two days after posting it to YouTube. Users posted links to the video on Reddit.com and the rest is history. A week later . . . almost 16 million views. That number was also driven by the fact that mainstream news outlets also featured the video in their morning and nightly news broadcasts.

Naked Celebrities

It pays to have a celebrity in your video. This Jennifer Aniston video for Smartwater was viewed by over 9 million people after it was referred to as “sex tape.” Nothing has really changed and sex really does sell. In this case, the video was really funny and it spoofed other viral videos and included Jennifer kicking a man in the groin (worth at least 100,000 views).

Shocking Videos

Was this really a UFO over Haiti? Who knows? But there are at least 17 million viewers who have an opinion about it after having seen the video.

Short videos with babies or animals (same difference)

Short videos (less than 30 seconds) that can be mashed or remixed into other videos are also good. Check out this video of a baby sneezing and farting. It’s 13 seconds long and received 6.5 million views. Fart humor also is funny!

The “Jackass” Effect

This is a variation of the shocking video category above, and people love a good train wreck. The Australian web craze of “planking” in public resulted in one man’s death and then spread worldwide.

Is there any “science” behind how videos go viral? Yes. Mashable recently published an excellent summary of how video gets shared on the Internet. Here are the highlights:

- The shorter the video the better (see short videos above). Videos that are 15 seconds in length are shared 37 percent more than videos of 30 seconds to 1 minute.

- Facebook is the god of sharing. People share videos on Facebook 218 percent more than on Twitter or through email.

- Gen Y and Girl Power. More than 55 percent of the videos viewed are by 18-34 year olds. And women are 57 percent more likely to share than men.

- Southerners watch and Midwesterners share. People in the South watch more video than in any other region. But, people in the Midwest share video more than any other region in the US.

- Email in the East. People on the East coast of the US are more likely to share by email than any other region in the US (by 15 percent).

- It helps if you are selling deodorant. Consumer package goods companies drive 19 percent more video views than retail, consumer electronics, media and entertainment brands combined. It also helps that CPG companies help drive video views with air cover from traditional broadcast advertising. Remember the Old Spice Guy? This video is a combination of both sex and humor. And it even has an animal in it. Combine those elements with traditional broadcast advertising and you’ll get 32 million views.

So what does it take for a video to go viral? Dan Greenberg, CEO and co-founder of social video advertising company Sharethrough, writes about viral video science. According to Greenberg, “there are three key reasons why users share video content, and tapping into one of these three basic psychological drivers is essential to creating content that is likely to be shared.“

- Emotion – If a video captures an emotion that resonates with an audience, users are likely to share it.

- Identity and self-expression – According to Greenberg, “the content we share online increasingly defines our personality to our friends.” He suggests that in order to influence video sharing that you ask the question, “when a user shares this video, what are they saying about themselves?”

- And finally, Information – Greenburg believes that a video that contains new and interesting information is very likely to be shared.

So, there you have it. Now, who wants to go make a viral video?

Topics: Arnold Schwarzenegger, branded content, end-of-the-world, Gizmodo, Harold Camping, Jackass Effect, Jennifer Aniston, making a viral video, Mashable, Mildred Baena, naked celebritites, Old Spice Guy, planking, Sharethrough, social videos, the Rapture, viral video