Goviral distributes online video for clients across thousands of consumer and business-to-business websites. It was launched in 2005 and was bought by AOL for $96 million in 2011.
Propeller began working with Goviral soon after the company’s launch with the brief of raising its profile. As Goviral grew and expanded the brief evolved to position them as the leaders in their market and set them up as a viable acquisition target.
Propeller achieved this first part of the brief by maximising any news coverage, such as new client wins and hirings but by also setting up a consistent stream of thought leadership and comment pieces as well as reactive comment in trade publications and nationals.
For the second part of the brief simply maximising news wasn’t enough.
Propeller added value by not only securing Goviral a monthly slot on Think BR, writing the only monthly piece looking at the issues around online video, but also by using its own data to create research-based features.
It also began placing Jimmy Maymann, the founder, as the main spokesperson in the online video sector. As well as appearing in the Campaign A-List since 2006 he has also appeared in the FT numerous times.
Another tactic was to use Goviral’s own ability to measure who was watching what videos to put lists out to the nationals every year of that year’s most watched viral video – this generated regular national coverage in paper’s from the Metro to The Financial Times (well, everybody loves Kylie riding a bucking bronco for Agent Provocateur).
A similar idea, but with a social media twist, was developed at the turn of the decade when Propeller set up “Game Changer” – a survey using social media channels designed to find the decade’s most influential game changing viral. Not just the most watched, but the video that changed the way online video and branded content would be made in the future.
The eventual winner was chosen as the Diet Coke/Mentos video and the story secured coverage across the nationals and trade titles.