A very small percentage of potentially viral advertisement messages actually go viral. The creativity of these
advertisement messages is considered crucial in making them viral. Through a review of literature, this study
develops a measure to assess the creativity of potentially viral advertisement messages that can help predict their
success. Using a controlled experiment on a sample of internet users, it pre-tests the measure of viral ad message
creativity and explores its role in predicting viral success. The study assesses and compares the creativity, sharing,
and liking of a sample of viral advertisements versus a sample of control advertisements. The results indicate the
significant positive effects of perceptual creativity on shares and likes, which in turn determine viral success.

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