THE HOOK POINT GUIDE TO
Going Viral
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Brendan Kane is the founder &
managing director of Hook Point.
Since 2005, Brendan and his team have helped the largest brands and
celebrities in the world reverse engineer how to make content go viral.
Hook Point’s accomplishments include:
• Developed the first ever influencer campaign on YouTube in 2007
• Oversaw over $300 million in market spend
• Worked with major corporations like MTV, Viacom, Vice Magazine,
Paramount Pictures, IKEA, and Sketchers shoes
• Helped clients generate over $1 billion in revenue
• Helped celebrities like Taylor Swift, Rihanna, and Adriana Lima craft a digital
strategy and build a strong social presence
• Authored the best-selling books One Million Followers: How I Built a Massive Social
Audience in 30 Days, and Hook Point: How to Stand out in a 3-Second World
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What we will be covering today:
Creating viral content isn’t luck, it’s science
Understanding how social media algorithms work
How to make content the algorithms will love
A simple truth to consistently going viral
The Hook Point Viral Content Model
After 17 years of canvasing the entire social
ecosystem, analyzing billions of views and
tens of thousand of videos, WE cracked the
code on social content creation.
Brands have been doing IT wrong for the past
decade.
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And if brands don’t change they won’t be
relevant 2 to 5 years from now.
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Why would throwing things against the wall
work with human beings?
It’s not about quantity, it’s quality.
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Content doesn’t go viral when a creator gets
lucky.
Content goes viral when a creator
understands the science behind virality.
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There are now 4 billion Content Creators
fighting for the same attention you are.
Your content is competing directly with all of it.
Do you want to know how to win this fight?
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The algorithms CONTROL DISTRIBUTION OF CONTENT.
THEY are engineered to favor content that
Grabs and holds attention for as long as
possible.
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You can’t beat the algorithms,
But you can partner with them.
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make content that the algorithm will love.
That’s it. That’s how you get your content to go viral.
Learning how to make content that the algorithm loves isn’t easy,
but it is simple.
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Hook Point’s Model is built to understand and
adapt to how the algorithm works.
And we have the data to prove it.
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We have helped create content that’s
generated 60 billion views and 100 million
followers.
Using a systematic approach we developed called Hook
Point’s Viral Content Model.
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If your content is only reaching a few
thousand people, What if you could start
reaching an audience 10x that size?
Or 100X that size?
Or 1,000X?
What kind of impact would that level of reach have on your
business’s bottom line?
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here is how you can work With The Algorithm To see Results:
Grab
Attention
Grabbing attention, you are
able to rise above the noise
+
Hold
Attention
Attention with substance extracts
the most value from your content
+
Monetize
Attention
Attention is maximized
once you monetize it
=
Viral
Marketing
at Scale
We aren’t talking about silly cat videos, pranks, and other stunts created just to grab attention.
With Hook Point’s creative process we generate virality that translates into scalable commerce.
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Creating content that grabs and
holds attention is your goal;
here’s how you get it done:
Master creating content that gets people to
stop scrolling and watch it longer than your
competitors’ content:
By creating content that performs up to the algorithm’s standards
you can literally make the algorithm serve it to its users.
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There is only one proven MODEL for becoming an
expert at creating content the algorithm will love:
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Hook Point’s
Creative PROCESS:
1
Viral Content Model
2
Qualitative Analysis of Viral
Formats
3
Communication Algorithm
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Hook Point’s viral content model
The Frustrating Thing about creative:
In almost every form of innovation, centuries of trial and error, data, and
experience are leveraged to help ensure success and guide innovation.
But when it comes to content, all of those invaluable data points and results
are often discarded in the pursuit of “originality.”
Why? Because many creators believe that originality trumps functionality.
To make matters worse, the traditional creative model that is usually
applied to content is no longer relevant.
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The Traditional creative Model
This is the outdated method most companies and content creators still rely on
Brand
Guidelines
Creative
Ideation
Monthly/
Quarterly
Content Plan
Production
and Posting
Review Results
Monthly/
Quarterly
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Do you want to know why this model doesn’t work if
your goal is to create content that goes viral?
• It minimizes the impact of data and research that is required for success.
• It pushes content creators to chase trends and burn themselves
out, producing hundreds of underperforming videos.
• It is completely reactive: there is no process in place for accountability,
iteration, and learnings of each piece of content produced.
• It makes your chances of going viral completely dependent on luck.
As a result, 99.9% of all the branded content developed using this model fails.
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So what does work?
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Hook Point’s Viral Content Model
This model merges Content Development with Meaningful Methodologies
research
Data Driven
creative
format
selection &
Analysis
Highly
Informed,
Data Driven
Ideation
Single
Iteration
Production
Planning
Review
Results &
Hypothesis
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Why The Hook Point Model works for Content:
• This model’s foundation is research – rather than the creator’s
affinities.
• It provides data-backed competitive analysis required for consistent viral
content breakthroughs.
• It utilizes data to inform the ideation process and avoid this common
boardroom conversation: “We have a room full of people with great ideas,
but our content never goes viral”.
• It increases efficiency, saving a ton of time, energy, money and resources.
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The Hook Point Model has been successfully
applied to creating content that has generated
60 billion views and over 100 million followers.
We’ve consistently made it work for brands starting with zero
followers or views.
We’ve consistently made it work for brands starting with millions
of followers and views.
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Qualitative Analysis of Viral Formats
Trend vs format
Trend is a post, topic, or an idea that is hyped or popularized for a
limited period of time.
Format is a storytelling structure that is designed to work for any
subject matter and last for years, even decades.
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A simple truth to going viral: Mastery of a Single format
Going viral isn’t about producing as much content as possible,
hash tags, chasing trends, time of day…
Going viral is about focusing your time, energy and resources on
becoming world class at executing a single top performing
format.
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Hook Point’s qualitative analysis
quantitative vs Qualitative
Over the past decade brands have relied on quantitive analysis,
focusing on views, likes and shares. This simply isn’t enough and
causes 99% of brands to fall short.
Numbers tell you if something works but doesn’t tell you WHY it
worked.
Qualitative analysis provides these answers.
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Hook Point meticulously researches top
performing formats to glean QUALITATIVE
insights that consistently drive results.
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Example format: visual metaphors
This format involves 3 major elements:
• An abstract or complex topic
• A visual representation of the topic with physical objects
• A verbal explanation of the topic
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How we uncover the WHY:
Gold | Silver | Bronze (GSB) is a foundation to our Qualitative research process.
1. Collect references of videos in a specific format.
2. Include Quantitative data along with any patterns you notice.
3. Create hypotheses of the Qualitative differences between high
performers and low performers.
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▶
▶
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Gold Video: 12M views
Bronze Video: 130K views
Active Metaphor
A clear visual story that involves manipulation of
the object, demonstrating the topic of the video
(trauma).
Active Metaphor
Instead of using an active metaphor, she asks
the viewer to imagine the scenario, and doesn’t
manipulate the object.
Tension
Within the first 4 seconds there’s a clear problem
(overflowing basket) that lingers on screen
Tension
Without a clear visual problem, there’s no visual
tension.
Potential Energy
Within the first second the basket and pile of
papers hint to the viewer that there will be an
interaction.
Potential Energy
She doesn’t reach for a car or have another object
implying interaction. All she promises is a visual
story.
Clever
Using everyday objects to demonstrate what it’s
like to live with trauma is unexpectedly smart.
Clever
Instead of an unexpected smart demonstration,
she asks the viewer to do work by imagining her
metaphor.
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Hook Point format Performance drivers:
Visual
Storytelling
Delivery
Color
Composition
Lighting
Satisfying
Videography
Graphics
B-roll
Text
Production value
Script structure
Story structure
First 3 seconds
Jenga Theory
Golden Triangle
Analogies
Content layers
Absurdity
Completing the scale
Cadence
Dynamics
Vocal delivery
Humor
Language usage
Cleverness
Generalist approach
Rare combinations
Music
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The Communication Algorithm
The Hook Point Communication Algorithm
Our proprietary internal data (generated by 1.5 million profiles worldwide) shows that most
of the content created by brands connects with less than 30% of their core audience –
and in some cases alienates up to 70% of that audience (causing brands to lose millions).
Hook Point’s Communication Model turns marketing communication into actionable
math to help ensure your content succeeds in going viral.
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Imagine this scenario:
Your Marketing Director
Female
30-35 years old
High Income
Macy’s Shopper
Has Children
Married
University Educated
Your Customer
Female
30-35 years old
High Income
Macy’s Shopper
Has Children
Married
University Educated
They look the same on paper...
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...but these are their communication styles:
Your Marketing Director
Feelings
Values
Your Customer
Action
Imagination
Fun
Facts
Facts
Values
Imagination
Action
Fun
Feelings
See the problem?
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The core problem
Most content is designed to best fit how the creator perceives
the world, instead of utilizing all 6 different ways that people
communicate and engage with the world.
As a result, it alienates a large percentage of the population,
causing the content to fall flat.
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Instead of your
marketing communication
looking like this...
the communication
algorithm makes it
look like this.
Imagination
Imagination
Values
Values
Fun
Fun
Facts
Facts
Feelings
Feelings
Actions
Actions
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having this level of balance in your content allows
you to grab attention, hold attention, and monetize
attention with clarity, purpose, and intention.
This is achieved by knowing exactly:
• What words and phrases to use and avoid in your communication
• The exact body language and facial cues to use and avoid
• The best environments and settings for your content in
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Hook Point Case Studies
SUCCESS STORIES
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What we covered today:
Creating viral content isn’t luck, it’s science
Understanding how social media algorithms work
How to make content the algorithms will love
A simple truth to consistently going viral
The Hook Point Viral Content Model
Content doesn’t go viral when a creator gets
lucky. Content goes viral when a creator
understands the science behind virality .
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Are you interested in working with us? We
want to help you take your brand to the next
level!
➡ Click here to learn more ⬅
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