6 reasons why “Danish mother seeking” by “KarenDK26″ went viral!

Posted by Anders Colding-Jørgensen on september 13, 2009 under Marketing, Psykologi, Twitter | 6 Comments to Read

Some videos spread aggressively on the internet – and some don’t. And even though it is as difficult to write a formula for at hit video as it is for at hit song, there are some key elements about “Danish mother seeking” that we can identify. Key elements that most likely helped it spread.

1. It’s a “first”. Well actually I am pretty sure that it isn’t – but that’s not important as long as it’s percieved as a novel idea. Wanting to be the one who shows another person something new is a very powerful driver in sharing content and messages.

2. The video is very vague. A general rule says that the less details and information you have, the more details and info your brain will produce to fill in the gaps. So when “Karen” sits in a totally anonymous living room and doesn’t seem to remember anything about the father – it leaves room for our own imagination. You actually start filling in details that you find credible to make the story work. And I would prefer your own details over mine anyday, if I was to manipulate you. You just make a much better job convincing you than I could ever do.

3. The girl in the video is friendly. She is constantly flirting with the camera – smiling, making eye contact with her big blue eyes. Looking at friendly faces is something that we are hard wired to like from birth. Actually, anything with big eyes will appeal to us – babies, young girls, kittens. Being able to pick out the faces that are friendly towards us has been cruzial to our very existence from the dawn of man (and woman) .

4. The girl is attractive – but in a certain way. She looks alot like the girl you were secretly in love with in seventh grade. She presents her self as very innocent – but the whole situation reveals that she is not, since she has sex with strangers. A really sweet looking girl looking shy and mentioning drunk sex with strangers is a perfect combination of the madonna/whore in one. Thus, she probably hits a soft (or hard?) spot with many men.

Portfolio shots of the actor behind "Karen" - from her website.

A portfolio shot of the actor behind "Karen" - taken from her website.

5. The video contains is a mystery – a riddle. Something that wants to be solved. Finding out if this was a hoax or a real video, definitely made a significant impact on the spreading of it. There’s always both the message (the actual video) and the meta-discussions of the message (is this real/stupid/too much?) to drive people to share and view your content. As the buzz grows, people will join only to see what others are talking about – this is when the crowd mentality kicks in. And this also shows the importance of seeding and getting it in the old media, such as TV and Newspapers, since most people dont’ pick up on the first wave of the video – but actually only watch it to find out what everybody is talking about.

6. There is a genuine cry for help. Judging from the comments on YouTube, lots of people are genuinely touched by this womans story and sends her love, respect and encouragement. Genuine heplfullness is still a strong driver in all our actions and utilizing the good in us all can be powerful – but it can also backfire on you, when people find out that they have been decieved ( an issue also being debated by Mindjumpers ). And again, it is probably very important that this poor person is very attractive – I really cannot imagine a boring looking person with no charisma getting the same effect. We like to help – but we prefer to help attractive people.

Following these principles will not guarantee you a “viral” succes video – but if you are not obeying to any of them, that is probably why your video has not attracted a large audience.

KarenDK26 – sand eller falsk?? « Dagens Buzz said,

[...] Internetpsykolog Anders Colding giver sine bud på hvorfor videoen opnåede viral effekt - Læs mere her. Ligeledes følger Mindjumpers sagen på tætteste hold – du kan følge med på deres blog eller se [...]
Ilse Colding-Jørgensen said,

Hæ – hvem siger at hun ikke bruger et kunstnernavn? At hun I VIRKELIGHEDEN hedder Karen og mangler barnet til sin far?

Men OK, nok et “long shot” – hvis det var tilfældet HAVDE hun nok allerede været fremme i medierne og fastslå sin historie og identitet :0).

Mon ikke det bare er hende selv, der laver et reklamefremstod for .. .sig selv? “Se hvad jeg kan sætte gang i… og ups, dér blev jeg lige et kendt ansigt!”
Daryl said,

Where were the heterosexual men when this script was approved?
What man would leave this lovely women in the morning without an encore performance?
btw, your 6 reasons are almost as compelling as my “real world” reaction.
Karen26 tidslinie - sagen om VisitDebmark og barnets far på YouTube | Overskrifts underskrift said,

[...] 10:25 Virkeligheden.dk 6 reasons why “Danish mother seeking” by “KarenDK26? went viral! [...]
Søren Sprogø said,

I think you are missing one very obvious reason why the video went viral so fast:

The Danish media was pretty fast to pick up the story, and uncritically repeating the badly disguised marketing message without even researching it. Thus lending it a ton of credibility that the regular media (for some odd reason) carries.

Because OFCOURSE a professionel journalist wouldn’t just take a YouTube video and post it as a story, without doing any research! Every journalist knows that YouTube is one of the most credible and reliable medias on the internet…

…Well, apparently not :-P
Anders Colding-Jørgensen said,

True, Søren. And it’s mentioned briefly in point 5. But not any video would have been spread – even by journalists. That’s my point. One might say that your point actually indicates that the psychology of spreading is the same for journalists – they spread just like anyone else – thus becoming a useful tool for media bureaus.