Happy Mother’s Day!
There used to be a day when I could scroll through my Facebook feed and catch up on what my friends were up to, what pictures I missed from the Jays game last week, or who finally got their dream job. Over the last few years my timeline has changed. A lot. Nowadays, I’m blanketed with funny memes of where someone photoshopped Donald Trump’s hair or the cat of the week that’s taking the Internet by storm. But over the last few years, a new type of video has swallowed the social media world this time of year – Mother’s Day tributes.
With 32.1 per cent of all Facebook users between the ages of 25-34, it’s fair to say that most of them probably don’t live with their parents, or could even be parents on their own. Facebook has become a fantastic way to communicate across cities, provinces and countries and is one of the most simplistic ways for this age group to keep in touch with their parents, which makes it a perfect channel to share a tribute to moms everywhere.
Marketers, being the statistically inspired people they are, saw this as a huge opportunity for organic seeding and content marketing that pulls on heartstrings. For many young people who have left the comforting nest that is their parents’ home, you may only make a trip back a few times a year as you start to get older. For most, it ends up being the holidays, a birthday here and there and usually Mother’s or Father’s Day. This is one day of the year that seems to grow with importance as you get older, as you become more and more grateful for the things your mother and father did for you as a child, especially now that you don’t see them every day. With that in mind, brands began to research the importance of moms to their company and the Mother’s Day video was born.
This chart shows the number of Facebook users in the United States as of January, 2015 (by age group). Photo credit.
I’m not suggesting the Mother’s Day video was the start of all viral Internet videos, but I am suggesting they certainly helped carve out a criteria for what a viral video should look like. I can’t remember a different style of purposeful video that garnered as many views, shares and likes as any Mother’s Day video. In my eyes, they started the teary, feel-good videos that makes you want to snuggle up with a room full of puppies, just like the WestJet Christmas Miracle (shown left), which reached almost 45 million views. To marketers, the number of views is a glorious thing, but the actual results are quite a bit more significant. Viral videos have been known to garner earned media coverage and create worldwide brand awareness with little additional cost, to further prove that small investments on web and social media videos can sometimes yield gigantic results if they’re seeded by a team of experts.
Mother’s Day videos aren’t exactly new, but many brands have begun to act more strategically around the holiday as the years progress. In celebration of great filmmaking, seeding and moms everywhere, here are a few examples of brands that hit the Mother’s Day video out of the park. Let us know which video is your favourite on Twitter using #SVGMothersDay and tag @Signature_video.
World’s Toughest Job – Cardstore by American Greetings
Thank You Mom – Care.com
#WhatWillYouSay – Echo Storytelling Agency
Thank You, Mum | Rio 2016 Summer Olympic Games
