Ride To Work Day is a motorcycle industry sponsored campaign to promote commuting by motorbike. Previous campaigns had failed to make much of an impact and so we were asked to come up with an engaging, cheeky and memorable idea for 2012, that would get the bike forums buzzing and appeal to non-bikers as well. The challenge was two-fold. First, we had to come up with a concept that would fulfill the client's brief and engage a vast and varied audience - basically all adults, male and female, between 16-68. Second, we had to find and target this audience online.

The campaign objectives were: to promote Ride To Work Day itself, direct traffic to both the Ride To Work campaign website and its sister 'Get On' campaign site, generate conversations on Facebook and Twitter, and to promote both the time-saving and safety aspects of bike riding. Given the lacklustre performance of previous campaigns, the success measures we were given were modest: 40,000 views would be considered great, with an upturn in web traffic, a good buzz across blogs, and interaction on the various social media platforms.

We identified the use of comedy as a seeding hook. The video had a very recognisable family/suburban feel designed to appeal across generations and genders, but with a surprise ending. The video was launched on YouTube via the industry paper Motorcycle News channel with support from Facebook and Twitter. Non-bikers were targeted via select sites and blogs popular among adults who had previously demonstrated a disposable income, as this meant they were likely to a) work and b) have the financial means to get in to biking if they so desire.

Within hours, the video was being widely shared on bike blogs around the world with an overwhelmingly positive response. It topped out at about 170,000 views with over 200 comments and 98% "Likes". The video trended on YouTube in the 'Top 5 comedy videos' for the month of June. Marketing Magazine picked it up as one of their 'Ones to Watch' and ReelSEO featured it in its article, "The Top 2012 UK Viral Marketing Videos Show the Big Boys How it's Done." It also picked up a gong at Communicate Magazine's Digital Impact Award for Best Corporate Viral Campaign 2012.

The success of Ride To Work showed that in the right hands a modest budget can still deliver results. Good content will always attract and engage its audience . The client trusted our creative skills to deliver a video that fulfilled all of their campaign objectives and far exceeded their expectations in terms of performance. Brands have become wary of 'viral' video as a means of audience engagement as the genre has picked up a reputation for failing to deliver ROI. With a strong brief, understanding of audience and KPIs, however, a viral by Ossian WILL deliver for you.