Social media has become a relevant content dissemination channel in recent years. Each user has the capacity to potentially reach others, and in this way, social media challenges the traditional distribution of content through mass media. The advertising industry has had to adapt to this new ecosystem and develop audiovisual pieces specifically tailored to this environment as part of their communication strategies. These pieces aim at achieving not only views but to engage viewers in sharing content with their contacts. Recent research indicates that there are certain aspects of human behaviour related to emotions and motivations that have an impact on the decision to share information, news and content with others. However, there are few studies analysing how the features of the content shared influence that decision. This article presents the content analysis results of the 100 most widely shared advertising viral videos around the world from 2011 to 2015 according to Adweek. The analysis was conducted from an emotional perspective in order to establish the common features of the most shared videos and to identify the frequency in which emotional narrative resources are used.
Key wordsAdvertising, viral video, social media, content analysis, emotions by the user. Viral marketing appeals to the audience's interest to share content and uses existing distribution networks that the advertiser does not need to own (Welker, 2002).Despite the fact that the motivations of individuals are not homogeneous (Amichai-Hamburger, 2002), there is some consensus around the influence of three personality dimensions that affect on-line communications and relationships: openness, understood as a creative, innovative and tolerant attitude; extraversion, understood as sociability, assertiveness and enthusiasm; and neuroticism (related to emotional stability and selfconfidence) (