Selling My Soul To Food Porn Videos On Facebook

Last weekend I woke up in the morning, thinking about this particular viral recipe I saw for the past few weeks on Facebook. Not only the recipe has being shared on Facebook by thousands of people, the same recipe also been discussed on at least 2 of my WhatsApp groups. And when I read the comments, everybody seem to rave on how delicious it is.

Of course I also know that the recipe is really a no brainer. Anyone with level 0 cooking skill can make it. But the fact that I have not tried the same recipe shared online, bothered me quite a bit. And at the same time I’ve been been wondering, how can this simple recipe can taste so delicious? Can I trust their claims? What If I die not trying the recipe and not knowing how it taste? Yes, you can say that I have a serious FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) issue here.

So on that fateful morning,  I took my laptop and search for “cucur viral” and I saw around 10 different videos being shared on Facebook. Scrolling down the list, I selected a few and that brought me to a few more Youtube channels that shared more videos with the title “cucur viral”. I carefully selected one video, watched it for at least 3 times and went to the kitchen and 30 minutes later (yes, my cooking skill is in between 0 to 1), I was beaming happily watching my children eating my “cucur viral”.

Later in the afternoon, I asked myself, what if I saw only the written recipe of this “cucur viral” would I be so adamant to try it? When the cucur viral videos are being shared over and over again, the impact is totally different and it’s almost hilarious to witness the online community response over a simple 3 ingredients afternoon snack.

Video content on Facebook has now gaining huge popularity, and internet marketers are making full use of it by offering a lot of “how-to” content. Maggi for example is no longer just showcasing its noodles in a typical mom in the kitchen cooking scene, but has brought the famous cook/ blogger Azie Kitchen onboard to show how to cook variety of delicious Maggi noodles.

Electrical appliances brand such as Pensonic Malaysia and its brand ambassador, Chef Ismail has engaged in similar strategies, resulting in active response and feedback on their Facebook page. The way Pensonic showcasing the wonder of its appliances during a cooking show has successfully created engagement among those who want to try the recipes as well as those who want to buy the products.

Another brilliant marketing way involving videos is by sponsoring a series of videos, put the brand logos on the videos and have their brands planted in the viewers’ subconscious mind. The more people see and share the video, more people will recognise the brands and there will be higher chances of sales conversions. You can try search one brand by the name of Lazz Susu Kambing has successfully using this method by collaborating with Seminit Resepi on Facebook.

By now you must also have heard about the famous BuzzFeed Tasty videos. In the recent years Tasty has becoming a worldwide digital sensation. By showing a one minute long online video, Tasty has successfully convinced almost everyone to either share it on Facebook or to believe that they can actually cook the best meal at home.

BuzzFeed estimated the videos are being watched 14 billions times on Facebook alone. Tasty now has variety of spin off including Tasty Japan, Tasty Bien for Spanish speaking countries, Enfach Tasty for Germany,  Tasty Demais for Brazil and Tasty Miam for France.

When Facebook changed its algorithm in 2013 and added default auto play setting for videos, it has given a major advantage for digital content producers. Producers, together with internet marketers immediately see this as opportunity to actively offering video content services to to small businesses. With the promise to viral the brand, small businesses eagerly putting their money on the table aiming for the brand to be the talk among netizens.

There are 3 ways food and recipe videos on Facebook are now winning viewers’ heart. The first trick is to make the recipe as simple and as easy as possible. When the recipes are viewed in a short video on Facebook, billions of viewers now think that they too can do it.

Secondly, this bit sized videos on Facebook are very easy to find. All we have to do is to log on into our Facebook account, look up for popular page and find our favourite recipe to try. We can also easily create our own content using simple video apps on our phone or simply by using the Facebook Live. Home videos are popular too on Facebook and by consistently producing food videos, it can be a great start to build our personal branding online. 

Finally, the topic related to food is always appealing. Combining creative video production with food will always works for online viewers. There are studies showed that beautiful photos and videos of food can stimulate hunger and that is how the idea and concept of food porn started. The mouth watering process of recipe videos can be so satisfying as we watch the ingredients being sliced, beaten and baked.

One minute videos on Facebook are so addictive too. We cannot help but to watch them over and over again. And while enjoying the content we also would love to think how easy it is to cook. Now let us switch our perspective and imagine how much money are being generated by internet marketers, producers and online content providers using this method.