Photo by Caleb Woods on Unsplash
The picture that I used in this post has nothing to do with whatever I’m writing about (or does it?). I just happened to like cats, I mean, who doesn’t?
Let’s just face it, cat videos have magical powers and that amazing ability to keep stop somebody from what he or she is doing and to watch the video about the cat. The cuteness always results in a 99% chance (untrue) of sharing that video!
Check out the most recent celebrity cat video, #MaxtheCatIntern by Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) to promote firms such as Paktor and Redmart. Each video alone has reached up to 200k views!
In a conversation with Marketing, Don Anderson, regional managing director of social media analytics firm We are Social, shared that in 2014 alone, there were more than 2 Million cat videos posted on YouTube with a total of 26 Billion Views.
Not Convinced yet? Check out who manage to get a feature poster of her own.
Yes, Goose, Captain Marvel’s pet cat. Does she has a major role to play in Captain Marvel? We do not know for sure. But can she bring Captain Marvel’s marketing Higher, Further and Faster? She sure can.
Oh yes, have I mentioned that “Cats and the Internet“ is an actual page on wikipedia?
Let’s explore a little further on why videos get viral. Viral marketing is a marketing strategy that aims at individuals from a target audience to electronically forward a message to someone in their social network. In other words, share that video. This tool has been used to create exponential growth in the marketing message and to influence potential consumers.
Marketers simply use what is trending or viral at the moment to push for new products or connecting the message to their products. But they also have to keep in mind to ensure that creativity meets relevancy. So as long as it connects to the person viewing it, there is a chance that the content will be shared to another person and soon it will become viral.
Let’s bring this back to the point, why cats? Well, some people believe that cats are the perfect canvas for human projection. “Cats have very expressive facial and body expressions, so they are a perfect canvas for human emotion, which makes them awesome for captioning and anthropomorphization,” says Ben Huh, CEO of The Cheezburger Network.
There are loads of content online that allows a human being to relate to that furry ball of disaster. Tell me you don’t relate to grumpy cat on a Monday morning.
So what can we learn from our furry masters? As long as your content resonates with your audience and stir up some form of emotional connection, that content is most likely to be a successful content. There are still many factors of why some campaigns go viral, but at the end of the day, you need people to have a reason to share your content.
Tell me your thoughts!
Hungry Jacks Food for thought 
Cat is love cat is life
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Oh Yea, Cat is love. I’m spending Valentines with my 2 cats. Cats are marketers best friend, and they can be used to create content! It’s just like ancient Egypt, where people worship cats and draw them on walls. in the same way, we keep drawing cats on people’s facebook wall’s by sharing cat pictures and cat videos.
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Another fun and interesting read. Thank you for posting such wonderful content. I am not sure about the Marvel universe but you just got me thinking if they actually added a Cat into the movie so they can actually make use of it to advertise and make things go viral. With all the data you have on cats on the internet it might seem like Marvel actually had that idea doesnt it?
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Interesting post about Viral Marketing. I agreed with you that creativity meets relevancy. If there is creativity, but no connection with the audiences, it is hard for the marketing content to even spread from person A o B, so it stopped going viral and the campaign failed.
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Captain Marvel’s Cat was actually introduced in Marvel Comics in 2006. That’s also the period where people are shifting into the social media generation as well. I’m looking forward to how big of a role she can play. I think it also helps with one thing, MERCHANDISING!!!
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As long as no cats are harmed in the process! That aside, creativity really engages people and get people interested!
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They used 4 different cats to film Goose, each with a unique skills on its own! Thank you! Cats granted me the power to do so, and that’s the same effect it has on social media as well!
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Haha I personally prefer dogs but I didn’t know so many platforms are using cats as a way to advertise. Indeed… whatever is in trend, ppl rush to use it as a way to communicate with the mass.
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Get away Team Dog. have you ever wondered why dogs are usually not viral (except corgis, they are.. a little special). Dogs always have the same few expression, either drooling, smiling or chasing something. Humans tend to share whatever is in trend as “people will like this post that i shared” and it gives a sense of instant gratification. Cats I believe, have a special power that boost your post. There are so much algorithm in social media, that cats have already become default as the top few content that keeps on showing up.
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