Industry trends

Monetizing viral videos.

Nov 07, 2014 | By InPlayer

Remember David after Dentist?

David’s father, who uploaded the viral video that went around the globe in just a couple of days, has made more than $150.000 from the video. Putting aside the moral aspects (David’s dad has been criticized a lot), that’s a huge unexpected income from a fun shot video. David’s dad quickly realized the potential in the viral video monetization, and quit his job in a couple of days. The result: over $150K from youtube advertisements and merchandising on the David after Dentist website. (yes, they had a David after Dentist website!)

Remember Kony?

The viral video was a short film released on March 5, 2012, whose purpose was to promote the “Stop Kony” movement about African cult and militia leader, indicted war criminal and International Criminal Court fugitive Joseph Kony. The video went viral on youtube, it has more than 99 million views and the campaign gained over $16M with regular online donations.

Remember the first kiss video?

What seemed to be a fascinating artistic idea of shooting two complete strangers kiss for the first time, was actually a very carefully and well planned advertisement of a brands’ new season collection. The result: 14 000% increase in sales, the most watched video of the year, the most popular web ad character on the planet.

Remember Harlem Shake?

Harlem Shake was not a single viral video, but a viral series of self-shot videos of different people doing the harlem shake dance. Or an attempt to imitate it. Nevertheless, although it was not a single video, the phenomenon got viral, with thousands of harlem shake videos being uploaded on youtube each day. Earnings: The Content ID program on Youtube allowed the Brooklyn DJ named Baauer who released the EDM track Harlem Shake, after which the videos got viral, to earn $400.000 USD from copyrights. And his track got to Billboard No.1 after Billboard decided to include Youtube data in the chart criteria.

And the most recent one, the #IceBucketChallenge?

Similar to the Harlem Shake, the Ice Bucket Challenge was also not a single video, but a viral series of videos, with people pouring iced water on their heads and nominating others to do so, in order to donate and raise awareness for ALS. Obama rejected it (although he donated) but celebrities like Kim Kardashian, rock stars like Dave Grohl, IT leaders like Mark Zukerberg and Bill Gates accepted it making the phenomenon famous worldwide. The result: Within a month the phenomenon was shared over 1.2 million times on Facebook and 2.2 million times on Twitter earning the ALS Association over $ 100 million.

Conversion rates can get even higher

All these viral videos could have an even greater income if the income came right from within the video. The conversion rates of in-video payments are much higher than redirected-new-page-payments.

Don’t hesitate to contact us if your video gains a lot of views and is rapidly shared worldwide. Facebook is the global sharing platform. And our plugins work right from facebook. Your audience will never have to leave facebook while donating to your charity, purchasing your goods, or paying for your videos.

Whether your video is going viral by accident, or it’s a very well planned campaign, always be prepared to apply a plug&play monetization solution to it. We’ve got everything you need. Make the cool video and leave the rest to us.

Monetizing viral videos

Remember David after Dentist?

David’s father, who uploaded the viral video that went around the globe in just a couple of days, has made more than $150.000 from the video. Putting aside the moral aspects (David’s dad has been criticized a lot), that’s a huge unexpected income from a fun shot video. David’s dad quickly realized the potential in the viral video monetization, and quit his job in a couple of days. The result: over $150K from youtube advertisements and merchandising on the David after Dentist website. (yes, they had a David after Dentist website!)

Remember Kony?

The viral video was a short film released on March 5, 2012, whose purpose was to promote the “Stop Kony” movement about African cult and militia leader, indicted war criminal and International Criminal Court fugitive Joseph Kony. The video went viral on youtube, it has more than 99 million views and the campaign gained over $16M with regular online donations.

Remember the first kiss video?

What seemed to be a fascinating artistic idea of shooting two complete strangers kiss for the first time, was actually a very carefully and well planned advertisement of a brands’ new season collection. The result: 14 000% increase in sales, the most watched video of the year, the most popular web ad character on the planet.

Remember Harlem Shake?

Harlem Shake was not a single viral video, but a viral series of self-shot videos of different people doing the harlem shake dance. Or an attempt to imitate it. Nevertheless, although it was not a single video, the phenomenon got viral, with thousands of harlem shake videos being uploaded on youtube each day. Earnings: The Content ID program on Youtube allowed the Brooklyn DJ named Baauer who released the EDM track Harlem Shake, after which the videos got viral, to earn $400.000 USD from copyrights. And his track got to Billboard No.1 after Billboard decided to include Youtube data in the chart criteria.

And the most recent one, the #IceBucketChallenge?

Similar to the Harlem Shake, the Ice Bucket Challenge was also not a single video, but a viral series of videos, with people pouring iced water on their heads and nominating others to do so, in order to donate and raise awareness for ALS. Obama rejected it (although he donated) but celebrities like Kim Kardashian, rock stars like Dave Grohl, IT leaders like Mark Zukerberg and Bill Gates accepted it making the phenomenon famous worldwide. The result: Within a month the phenomenon was shared over 1.2 million times on Facebook and 2.2 million times on Twitter earning the ALS Association over $ 100 million.

Conversion rates can get even higher

All these viral videos could have an even greater income if the income came right from within the video. The conversion rates of in-video payments are much higher than redirected-new-page-payments.

Don’t hesitate to contact us if your video gains a lot of views and is rapidly shared worldwide. Facebook is the global sharing platform. And our plugins work right from facebook. Your audience will never have to leave facebook while donating to your charity, purchasing your goods, or paying for your videos.

Whether your video is going viral by accident, or it’s a very well planned campaign, always be prepared to apply a plug&play monetization solution to it. We’ve got everything you need. Make the cool video and leave the rest to us.

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