4

Month 2: Create Content Worth Sharing

• Chapter Contents:
• Learn the Lesson of “The Last Lecture”
• Week 1: Watch YouTube Award Winners
• Week 2: Explore Popular YouTube Videos
• Week 3: Examine Contagious Viral Ads
• Week 4: Observe Top Viral Videos

Learn the Lesson of “The Last Lecture”

YouTube's slogan is “Broadcast Yourself.” And millions of people are trying to broadcast themselves to the YouTube community, including amateur and professional and established filmmakers; aspiring and professional musicians; comedians; personal video creators such as cooking, beauty, health, and fitness experts; and professional content owners.

However, YouTube generally isn't a broadcast medium—with the exception of the YouTube Homepage Roadblock, which allows brands to own the homepage for 24 hours with a 100 percent takeover of “share of voice.”

So, in addition to making videos worth watching, it is necessary to create content worth sharing.

Why? Not every new video worth watching contains content worth sharing with others. Some opinion leaders may consider a video inappropriate to share with their followers.

Watching a video is mainly a transfer of information, but sharing the content is primarily a use of influence. Let me give you an example to make this two-step process clear.

A couple of years ago, my wife, Nancy, read The Last Lecture, the New York Times best-selling book written by Randy Pausch, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. The book was born out of a lecture Pausch gave in September 2007 entitled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.”

After reading the book, which is 224 pages long, Nancy decided to buy copies to give as Christmas presents to all three of our kids. Although I hadn't read the book, I discovered “Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” (www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo) had been uploaded on December 20, 2007, to the CarnegieMellonU channel on YouTube.

Now, I'm not the only one who has discovered the video. As Figure 4.2 illustrates, “Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” had more than 12 million views on YouTube at the time I was writing this chapter.

Go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo, click the “Show video statistics” icon, and you'll see there are currently no honors for this video. But when this was written, the video had 28 honors:

• #71 – (Spotlight Videos) - Education - Germany
• #67 – (Spotlight Videos) - Education - Australia
• #65 – (Spotlight Videos) - Education - Canada
• #77 – (Spotlight Videos) - Education - United Kingdom
• #73 – (Spotlight Videos) - Education - Ireland
• #73 – (Spotlight Videos) - Education - India
• #66 – (Spotlight Videos) - Education - New Zealand
• #71 – (Spotlight Videos) - Education - Israel
• #71 – (Spotlight Videos) - Education
• #65 – (Spotlight Videos) - Education - South Africa
• #65 – (Spotlight Videos) - Education - Argentina
• #70 – (Spotlight Videos) - Education - Spain
• #90 – (Spotlight Videos) - Education - Mexico
• #72 – (Spotlight Videos) - Education - France
• #87 – (Spotlight Videos) - Education - Italy
• #99 – (Spotlight Videos) - Education - Japan
• #65 – (Spotlight Videos) - Education - South Korea
• #66 – (Spotlight Videos) - Education - Netherlands
• #73 – (Spotlight Videos) - Education - Poland
• #72 – (Spotlight Videos) - Education - Brazil
• #70 – (Spotlight Videos) - Education - Russia
• #81 – (Spotlight Videos) - Education - Hong Kong
• #83 – (Spotlight Videos) - Education - Taiwan
• #67 – (Spotlight Videos) - Education - Czech Republic
• #67 – (Spotlight Videos) - Education - Sweden
• #84 - Most Discussed (All Time) - Education
• #13 - Most Viewed (All Time) - Education
• #1 - Top Favorited (All Time) - Education

Figure 4.1 “Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”

And if you look closely, you'll also notice that the video is 1 hour, 16 minutes, and 27 seconds long. So my decision to watch it all the way to the end wasn't trivial. It's 29 times longer than the average YouTube video. But, I figured that I could click away at any time if the video turned out to be boring.

Pausch's moving presentation wasn't boring. His talk was modeled after an ongoing series of lectures where top academics were asked to think deeply about the question, What wisdom would you try to impart to the world if you knew it was your last chance?

A month before giving the lecture, Pausch had received a prognosis that the pancreatic cancer with which he had been diagnosed a year earlier was terminal. Before speaking, Pausch received a long standing ovation from a large crowd of over 400 colleagues and students. When he motioned them to sit down, saying, “Make me earn it,” some in the audience shouted back, “You did!”

During the lecture Pausch was upbeat and humorous, shrugging off the pity often given to those diagnosed with a terminal illness. At one point, to prove his own vitality, Pausch dropped down and did push-ups on stage.

He offered insights on computer science and engineering education, multidisciplinary collaborations, and working in groups and interacting with other people. Pausch also offered his listeners inspirational life advice that can be applied to one's professional and personal life.

At the end of 1 hour, 16 minutes, and 27 seconds, I was in tears. On New Year's Day, I decided to share a link to the video with my wife and kids. Although there's no substitute for reading the book, the video content is compelling too. And even though they'd just received the book, I decided that once they had watched the video, no one would doubt my judgment.

According to the Viral Video Chart, which is powered by Unruly Media (http://viralvideochart.unrulymedia.com/), “Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” has 32,885 Facebook shares, 1,232 tweets, and 6,519 blog posts. So the video has been shared at least 40,636 times by others who have also watched it.

So, first you decide you watch a video, and then you make a second decision about whether or not to share it with others.

To share or not to share, that is the question. And the answer will depend on whether opinion leaders think a video's content is worth sharing. That's what this chapter is about.

Week 1: Watch YouTube Award Winners

As I mentioned in Chapter 1, the YouTube Awards provided formal recognition to the best videos of the preceding year. The videos nominated were chosen by the YouTube staff, while the winners were selected by the YouTube community.

The winners of the 2006 YouTube Awards were announced in March 2007. There were awards in seven categories: Adorable, Comedy, Commentary, Creative, Inspirational, Musician of the Year, and Series. Each category comprised 10 videos that YouTubers ranked in order of preference.

One of the notable YouTubers who was nominated for several awards but won nothing was lonelygirl15, whose videos focused on the life of a teenage girl named Bree. However, the show did not initially reveal its fictional nature to the audience.

Lonelygirl15 (www.youtube.com/lonelygirl15) began in June 2006 and gained worldwide media attention in September 2006 when it was outed as a hoax by Los Angeles Times reporter Richard Rushfield.

As Figure 4.2 illustrates, “First Blog / Dorkiness Prevails” had more than 3.5 million views when this screen shot was taken.

Figure 4.2 “First Blog / Dorkiness Prevails”

Go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=-goXKtd6cPo to see the latest video statistics. At the time I was writing this chapter, the video statistics showed that it had mixed ratings: 4,844 likes and 3,665 dislikes. And the video had no honors.

For the 2007 YouTube Awards, five new categories were added: Eyewitness, Instructional, Short Film, Sports, and Politics. A general Music category replaced the Musician of the Year category from the previous year. In addition, the YouTube staff nominated only six videos in each category for which YouTubers could vote.

As I mentioned in Chapter 1, “Leave Britney Alone!” by vlogger Chris Crocker was nominated but didn't win.

Let's look at five videos that have not only been watched by millions of viewers, but also had content that a plurality of the YouTube community did vote for in March 2007 or March 2008. They were leading indicators of the social system's norms.

• Monday: Observe “Free Hugs Campaign”
• Tuesday: See “Here It Goes Again”
• Wednesday: Check out “Potter Puppet Pals in ‘The Mysterious Ticking Noise’”
• Thursday: Look at “Battle at Kruger”
• Friday: View “‘Chocolate Rain’ Original Song by Tay Zonday”

Monday: Observe “Free Hugs Campaign”

The 2006 YouTube Award winner in the Inspirational category was “Free Hugs Campaign - Official Page (music by Sick Puppies.net)” As Figure 4.3 illustrates, the video had more than 65 million views when this was written.

Figure 4.3 “Free Hugs Campaign - Official Page (music by Sick Puppies.net)”

At www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr3x_RRJdd4 you can see the latest video statistics. When I was writing this chapter, it had 158,953 likes and only 4,758 dislikes. The video also had 11 honors:

• #1 - Most Discussed (All Time) - Australia
• #1 - Most Discussed (All Time) - Entertainment - Australia
• #12 - Most Discussed (All Time) - Entertainment
• #2 - Most Viewed (All Time) - Australia
• #60 - Most Viewed (All Time)
• #1 - Most Viewed (All Time) - Entertainment - Australia
• #9 - Most Viewed (All Time) - Entertainment
• #2 - Top Favorited (All Time) - Australia
• #41 - Top Favorited (All Time)
• #1 - Top Favorited (All Time) - Entertainment - Australia
• #4 - Top Favorited (All Time) - Entertainment

According to the Viral Video Chart, the inspirational video has 146,270 Facebook shares, 4,520 tweets, and 9,417 blog posts. Why would so many opinion leaders share this content?

“In a society where we don't know the names of our neighbors, and disrespect for culture and community seems rife, one man … Juan Mann, in fact, will change the world; with signs,” says Unruly Media.

Free Hugs is the real-life story of Mann, whose “controversial” mission was to offer hugs to strangers in public places. As the video's description says, “Sometimes, a hug is all that we need.”

Mann's campaign started at the Pitt Street Mall in Sydney, Australia, in June 2004. The hugs were meant to be random acts of kindness—selfless acts performed just to make others feel better. “In this age of social-disconnection most all of us lack that simple human touch from another,” he writes.

“As this simple gesture of kindness and hope spread across the city, police and officials ordered the Free Hugs Campaign BANNED,” he adds. According to the authorities, Mann had not obtained public liability insurance worth $25 million for his actions.

After 10,000 people signed a petition, the authorities allowed the Free Hugs Campaign to continue without the insurance.

Shortly after starting his campaign, Mann befriended Shimon Moore, the lead singer for Sick Puppies. Over a two-month period in late 2004, Moore shot video footage of Mann and his fellow huggers.

In March 2005, Moore and his band moved to Los Angeles, and at first they didn't do anything with the footage. Meanwhile, Mann continued his Free Hugs Campaign throughout 2005 and 2006 by appearing at the Pitt Street Mall in Sydney most Thursday afternoons.

In mid 2006, Mann's grandmother died, and Moore made a music video using the footage he had shot in 2004 to send to Mann as a present, saying, “This is who you are.” In September 2006, the video was uploaded to YouTube.

In October 2006, Mann was invited to appear on The Oprah Winfrey Show after the producer's doctor saw the Free Hugs video on YouTube. Mann made an appearance outside the studio that morning, offering free hugs to the crowd waiting to see the taping of that day's episode. The show's camera crews caught several people in the audience hugging Mann as the morning progressed.

Now, is that inspiring content that you'd share with others? Many YouTubers did. As Mann said in the video's description, “In the spirit of the Free Hugs Campaign please pass this video to a friend and HUG a stranger! After all, you CAN make a difference.”

And is this an inspirational story that you'd have voted for in March 2007? Many YouTubers did.

As Mann added in the video's description, “The response to this video has been nothing short of overwhelming and touching. Hugs to every single one of you who messaged. There has been thousands of emails from all over the world from people seeking to participate in the Free Hugs Campaign and asking for permission. You don't need permission. This is the people's movement, this is your movement. With nothing but your bare hands you CAN make a difference.”

What's the lesson learned from watching the Free Hugs Campaign? It is about emotion.

The effectiveness of emotion is difficult to quantify, but I've come to believe that video content that is nostalgic, inspirational, and even sentimental is well worth sharing. And emotion can be just as effective as any rational appeal, especially when “a hug is all that we need.”

Tuesday: See “Here It Goes Again”

The 2006 YouTube Award winner in the Creative category was “OK Go - Here It Goes Again.” Although Figure 4.4 indicates that the video had more than 5.3 million views, it had more than 46 million views in 2009 before being moved by EMI Music to VEVO.

Go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTAAsCNK7RA and you can see the current video statistics. When I wrote this, the video statistics showed it had 217,358 likes and only 8,374 dislikes. The video also had five honors:

• #75 - Most Discussed (All Time) - Music
• #84 - Most Viewed (All Time)
• #49 - Most Viewed (All Time) - Music
• #13 - Top Favorited (All Time)
• #6 - Top Favorited (All Time) - Music

Figure 4.4 “OK Go - Here It Goes Again”

According to the Viral Video Chart, “There's nothing like watching 4 full grown men execute a perfectly choreographed dance routine. Especially if the said dance routine incorporates treadmills, and the said men are geek-rock quadruplets OK-GO.”

This helps explain why their award-winning video had 178,429 Facebook shares, 1,591 tweets, and 6,326 blog posts.

Originally from Chicago, the rock band OK Go now resides in Los Angeles. The band is composed of Damian Kulash, Tim Nordwind, Dan Konopka, and Andy Ross, who replaced Andy Duncan in 2005.

The music video of “Here It Goes Again” is an elaborate performance of the band dancing on treadmills in a single continuous take. Choreographed by Kulash's sister, Trish Sie, it took a total of 17 attempts to complete the video. Conceptually, the routine is a follow-up to their 2005 viral video, “A Million Ways,” which was also a highly choreographed single-take music video.

The video debuted on YouTube on July 31, 2006. It premiered on VH1's Top 20 Countdown that same day. On August 23, 2006, Kulash appeared on the Colbert Report to talk about “Here It Goes Again.” On August 31, 2006, OK Go performed the dance routine live at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards.

In addition to winning the 2006 YouTube Award for most creative video, “Here It Goes Again” won the 2007 Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video.

Now, would you share their creative content with others? And why did so many YouTubers vote for “Here It Goes Again” in 2007?

On September 21, 2010, Salon's Matt Zoller Seitz asked, “Can OK Go save the movie musical?” after the band uploaded “OK Go - White Knuckles - Official Video” to YouTube.

Seitz observed that Kulash, Nordwind, Konokpka, and Ross aren't professional dancers and don't pretend to be. Seitz said, “They dance about as well as someone with a smidgen of rhythm might dance if he or she spent a couple of weeks rehearsing a routine with a professional choreographer and film crew—and that, paradoxically, is a big part of what makes these videos so beguiling.”

According to Seitz, the band members “restore a sense of wonder to the musical number by letting the performers' humanity shine through and allowing them to do their thing with a minimum of filmmaking interference.” In other words, “musical vignettes” with a parade of fleeting impressions were once fashionable but aren't worth sharing.

Wednesday: Check Out “Potter Puppet Pals: The Mysterious Ticking Noise”

The 2007 YouTube Award winner in the Comedy category was “Potter Puppet Pals: The Mysterious Ticking Noise.” As Figure 4.5 illustrates, it had more than 94 million views.

Figure 4.5 “Potter Puppet Pals: The Mysterious Ticking Noise”

Go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx1XIm6q4r4 and you can see the current video statistics. When this was written, they showed it had 392,925 likes and only 17,847 dislikes. And it had eight honors:

• #44 - Most Discussed (All Time)
• #6 - Most Discussed (All Time) - Comedy
• #32 - Most Viewed (All Time)
• #5 - Most Viewed (All Time) - Comedy
• #5 - Top Favorited (All Time)
• #4 - Top Favorited (All Time) - Comedy
• #10 - Top Rated (All Time)
• #4 - Top Rated (All Time) - Comedy

According to the Viral Video Chart, “Puppet Potter Pals: The Mysterious Ticking Noise” has 199,061 Facebook shares, 6,547 tweets, and 3,104 blog posts.

“Potter Puppet Pals: The Mysterious Ticking Noise” was created by Neil Stephen Cicierega, an American comedian, filmmaker, and musician. He is also the creator of a genre of Flash animation known as animutation. And he lives near me, in Kingston, Massachusetts.

Cicierega's Potter Puppet Pals is a comedy series that is a parody of Harry Potter. It originated in 2003 as a pair of Flash animations on Newgrounds.com and later resurfaced in the form of a series of live-action puppet shows released in 2006 on YouTube and Potterpuppetpals.com.

“The Mysterious Ticking Noise,” uploaded on March 23, 2007, won the 2007 YouTube Award with 33.6 percent of the votes in the Comedy category.

Cicierega has worked on videos with fellow Massachusetts Internet filmmakers and close friends Kevin James, Ryan Murphy, Max Pacheco, and J.L. Carrozza.

Several of Cicierega's short films have been featured on television shows such as G4's Attack of the Show!, The CW's Online Nation, and CBBC's Chute! In addition to Potter Puppet Pals, the director adds regular video content to the NeilCicierega channel on YouTube.

Although Cicierega is just 24 years old, he has been Internet-notable for a while. Back in 2000, when he was only 14, he formed the band Lemon Demon. The band's song/video “Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny” (in which several unrelated fictional characters fight) “went viral” on New Grounds in 2005.

A recurring theme in a lot of Cicierega's work is to play off of preexisting intellectual property and distort it in a way that is often disturbingly incompatible with the tone of source—for example, Mr. Rogers murdering people in “Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny” or Dumbledore being a sexual predator in Potter Puppet Pals. “Ultimate Showdown” and “Potter Puppets” are similar in that they became massively popular by incorporating content that the viewer was already invested in.

Unlike the creators of other videos from this week, Cicierega is someone who is very much aware of Internet memes and was actively pursuing mass Internet appeal via an established method of remixing pop culture rather than accidentally stumbling into it.

What other lesson can we learn from this award-winning video? Sound effects can make a video worth sharing. On the other hand, research has found that using background music is neither a positive nor a negative factor.

Thursday: Look at “Battle at Kruger”

This National Geographic-worthy footage was shot and uploaded to YouTube by a regular guy on safari with his family. The unbelievable confrontation between a herd of water buffalo, a pride of lions, and a couple of crocodiles—along with the surprise ending—has kept people on the edge of their seats since it was uploaded on May 3, 2007.

Clearly this viral video captured the world's attention. As Figure 4.6 illustrates, “Battle at Kruger” had more than 58 million views.

Figure 4.6 “Battle at Kruger”

Go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU8DDYz68kM and you can see the current video statistics. When I wrote this, they showed it had 136,524 likes and only 3,855 dislikes. And it had five honors:

• #2 - Most Discussed (All Time) - Pets & Animals
• #72 - Most Viewed (All Time)
• #1 - Most Viewed (All Time) - Pets & Animals
• #36 - Top Favorited (All Time)
• #3 - Top Favorited (All Time) - Pets & Animals

According to the Viral Video Chart, “Battle at Kruger” has 100,524 Facebook shares, 1,499 tweets, and 4,861 blog posts.

The amateur wildlife video was shot in September 2004 at a watering hole in Kruger National Park, South Africa, during a safari guided by Frank Watts. It was filmed by videographer David Budzinski and photographer Jason Schlosberg.

Taken from a vehicle on the opposite side of the watering hole with a digital camcorder, the video begins with the herd of buffalo approaching the water. The lions charge and disperse the herd, picking off a young buffalo and unintentionally knocking it into the water while attempting to make a kill. While the lions try to drag the buffalo out of the water, it is grabbed by a crocodile, which fights for it before giving up and leaving it to the lions. The lions sit down and prepare to eat but are quickly surrounded by the massively reorganized buffalo, who move in and begin charging and kicking at the lions. After a battle that sees one lion being tossed into the air by a buffalo, the baby buffalo—still alive, to the astonishment of the onlookers—escapes into the herd. The emboldened buffalo then proceed to chase the remaining lions away.

“Battle at Kruger” won the 2007 YouTube Award in the Eyewitness category. A National Geographic documentary on the video debuted on the National Geographic channel on May 11, 2008.

What other lesson can we learn from this award-winning video? Avoid visual banality. If you want visitors to pay attention to your video, show them something they have never seen before.

Friday: View “'Chocolate Rain' Original Song by Tay Zonday”

“'Chocolate Rain' Original Song by Tay Zonday” was the winner in the Music category in the 2007 YouTube Awards. It was also the underdog smash hit of the summer of 2007. The song, with its unconventional lyrics and delivery, struck a chord with the YouTube community and sparked imitations from everyday people and celebrities alike. Even Green Day's Tre Cool got in the mix!

It was clear that Zonday and his tune had pop culture abuzz when he appeared as a guest on both Jimmy Kimmel Live and VH1's Best Week Ever. Now Zonday's popping up in Internet commercials like the one for Dr. Pepper's new Cherry Chocolate beverage, and his breathe-away-from-the-mic move has become a meme of our time.

As Figure 4.7 illustrates, “‘Chocolate Rain’ Original Song by Tay Zonday” had more than 60 million views.

Figure 4.7 “'Chocolate Rain' Original Song by Tay Zonday”

Go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwTZ2xpQwpA and you will see the current video statistics. When this was written, they showed it had 284,129 likes and 64,807 dislikes. It also had six honors:

• #13 - Most Discussed (All Time)
• #6 - Most Discussed (All Time) - Music
• #68 - Most Viewed (All Time)
• #42 - Most Viewed (All Time) - Music
• #43 - Top Favorited (All Time)
• #20 - Top Favorited (All Time) - Music

According to the Viral Video Chart, “'Chocolate Rain' Original Song by Tay Zonday” has 47,434 Facebook shares, 1,729 tweets, and 2,484 blog posts.

Now, here's the backstory on “Chocolate Rain”: Zonday's real name is Adam Nyerere Bahner. The video was originally posted on 4chan.org, an extremely popular, graphic, trend-setting message board. However, the discussion on 4chan was focused on mocking Tay rather than an earnest appreciation of his video. In fact, tons of parody videos were made in response, including ones by non-4chan users.

Although the video was posted on April 22, 2007, it didn't really go viral until July 26, 2007, when YouTube simultaneously featured all of the parody and response videos on its home page.

So, the opinion leaders who turned “Chocolate Rain” into a viral video were the 4chan community and a few members of the YouTube staff. Nevertheless, the history behind Zonday's “success” makes a fun backstory to tell as opinion leaders share his video with their followers.

There is another lesson to be learned here: Catchy songs are worth sharing. Even ones with cryptic lyrics like, “Zoom the camera out and see the lie.” In fact, the piano riff and drum loop are hypnotic. Zonday has said, “I don't know what causes people to listen to my music. If I could speak it, there would be no reason to write songs.”

Week 2: Explore Popular YouTube Videos

Now that you've watched some of the award-winning videos of 2006 and 2007, do you see a pattern? They fall into a variety of categories, including Inspirational, Creative, Comedy, Eyewitness, and Music. Although one is humorous in nature, four are not.

So what do the award-winning videos we've watched so far have in common? In addition to being among the most viewed, they are also among the most discussed and top favorited. I imagine that they are also ones that made their way into conversations both at work and at home because they tell unique stories. Each of these videos has a sense of authenticity and originality, which makes it worth sharing.

This is the key to creating content worth sharing.

Of course, I'm not the only one who understands the importance of storytelling. As Figure 4.8 illustrates, Sony's Backstage 101 online learning center once had an article entitled “Tell a Story with Video.”

Figure 4.8 “Tell a Story with Video”

Unfortunately, Backstage 101 was permanently closed as of April 1, 2010. Fortunately, the first edition of this book captured some of Sony's advice.

For example, Sony advised, “Before you shoot a single frame, you should understand exactly how you want your story to be told and what you want the audience to take away from it. No matter what kind of story you choose to tell, the best place to start isn't with a camera and microphone—it's with a pen and paper.”

Sony also advised that you ask a few key questions:

• Who is your audience? Is this video for a business audience, or is it for your family and friends?
• What point of view will you take? Will you tell it from your own perspective, from that of one of your subjects, or will a third-person narrator do the talking?
• Where does the story take place?
• When do the key events that propel the story take place?
• Why is this story worth telling?
• How will you tell the story? How will your video connect emotionally with the audience?

There's also a language to storytelling. If you don't know how to speak it, you've watched enough movies and TV programs to understand it. Start wide to give the audience an idea of where you are. Cut to medium to learn more about your subject. Get tight to capture the emotion.

With this in mind, let's explore some of the popular YouTube videos from 2008 and 2009 to discover their secrets. Like the award-winning videos you watched in week 1, some tell compelling stories and others have intriguing backstories.

The dramatic revelation of secrets from a backstory is a useful technique for developing a story. It was first recognized as a literary device by Aristotle.

• Monday: Observe “Where the Hell is Matt? (2008)”
• Tuesday: See “Fred Loses His Meds”
• Wednesday: Check out “Susan Boyle - Britain's Got Talent”
• Thursday: Look at “JK Wedding Entrance Dance”
• Friday: View “David After Dentist”

Monday: Observe “Where the Hell is Matt? (2008)”

Matt Harding is best known as “Dancing Matt,” the Internet celebrity who has danced his way around the world—three times.

Harding, who hates the “Dancing Matt” nickname, describes himself as “a 34-year-old deadbeat from Connecticut.” He's actually a former video game designer and a friend of Brad O'Farrell, the technical editor of this book.

In February of 2003, he quit his job and used the money he'd saved to wander around Asia until the money ran out. He built a website at www.wherethehellismatt.com so he could keep his family and friends updated about where he was.

While in Hanoi, a travel buddy said to Harding, “Hey, why don't you stand over there and do that dance. I'll record it.” His friend was referring to a particular dance that Matt does. According to Harding, it's the only dance he does. And he does it badly. Anyway, this turned out to be a very good idea.

Some opinion leaders found the video online and shared it with their followers, who then passed it along to others, et cetera, et cetera. Dancing Matt became quasi-famous and his video clips started appearing on several TV shows:

• The Screen Savers (March 17, 2005)
• MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann (August 18, 2005)
• Inside Edition (August 19, 2005)
• The Ellen DeGeneres Show (October 10, 2005)

The response to the first video brought Dancing Matt to the attention of the people at STRIDE, makers of the Ridiculously Long Lasting Gum. In 2006, they asked Harding if he'd be interested in taking another trip around the world to make a new video. He asked if they'd be paying for it. And they said yes. Harding thought this sounded like another very good idea.

With STRIDE as his sponsor, Harding took a six-month trip through 39 countries on all seven continents. The second video made Dancing Matt even more quasi-famous. In fact, he became semi-famous.

In 2007, Harding went back to Stride with a new idea. He realized that his bad dancing wasn't all that interesting, and other people were actually much better at bad dancing than he was. But, since he'd become semi-famous, his inbox was overflowing with emails from all over the globe. He wanted to travel around the world one more time and invite the people who'd written him to come out and dance with him.

The people at STRIDE thought that sounded like yet another very good idea, so they let him do it. And he did.

Harding released his third dancing video on June 20, 2008. The video is the product of 14 months of traveling in 42 countries.

As Figure 4.9 illustrates, “Where the Hell is Matt? (2008)” had more than 33.6 million views.

Figure 4.9 “Where the Hell is Matt? (2008)”

Go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY and you will see the current video statistics. When I wrote this, they showed it had 149,495 likes and only 2,907 dislikes. This video also had 15 honors:

• #100 - Spotlight Videos - Travel & Events - Germany
• #100 - Spotlight Videos - Travel & Events - Australia
• #96 - Spotlight Videos - Travel & Events - Canada
• #100 - Spotlight Videos - Travel & Events - Ireland
• #99 - Spotlight Videos - Travel & Events - New Zealand
• #96 - Spotlight Videos - Travel & Events - Israel
• #96 - Spotlight Videos - Travel & Events - South Africa
• #96 - Spotlight Videos - Travel & Events - Argentina
• #99 - Spotlight Videos - Travel & Events - South Korea
• #99 - Spotlight Videos - Travel & Events - Netherlands
• #99 - Spotlight Videos - Travel & Events - Brazil
• #4 - Most Discussed (All Time) - Travel & Events
• #1 - Most Viewed (All Time) - Travel & Events
• #42 - Top Favorited (All Time)
• #1 - Top Favorited (All Time) - Travel & Events

According to the Viral Video Chart, “Where the Hell is Matt (2008)” has 208,667 Facebook shares, 9,368 tweets, and 8,689 blog posts.

Harding's bad dancing has brought inspiration and joy to millions of people. One observer said, “It shows that no matter how different we are on the outside, inside we all just want to dance, laugh, and have fun.” But all that bad dancing may not have sold much gum.

Amanda Watlington of Searching for Profit and I have been showing Harding's “Where the Hell is Matt” videos at Search Engine Strategies workshops since April 2007. And unless we point it out, no one notices the mention of STRIDE in the closing credits.

Is there a lesson to be learned here? There is, and it's “brand identification.” Research has demonstrated that a shocking percentage of viewers remember a video but forget the name of its sponsor. And many marketers think it is crass to belabor the name of a sponsor.

So, for the benefit of those who are more interested in selling than entertaining, there is a nonintrusive way to register your brand name: Watermark your video content.

Since August 2008, Harding has been represented by Creative Artists Agency. And in November 2008, he was hired by Visa to star in its “Travel Happy” campaign.

In a press release, Visa said, “Visa's new travel-focused commercial recreates the dance made famous by internet celebrity Matt Harding in his self-made quirky video travel diaries. After tickling the funny bones of millions from the internet community for four years, Matt repeats his signature jig in China, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, the USA and Vietnam—to celebrate how Visa has freed him from the hassle of exchanging cash for each country's local currency as he travels around the world.”

It's worth noting that the Visa card and logo appear prominently in the travel-focused commercial.

Tuesday: See “Fred Loses His Meds”

You don't need to dance around the world to get opinion leaders to share your content with their followers.

You could create and portray a character like Fred Figglehorn, a lonely six-year-old who has a dysfunctional home life and anger management issues. That's exactly what Lucas Cruikshank, a teenager from Columbus, Nebraska, has done.

So, what does Cruikshank's fictional character do? Fred uses his mom's camera and starts posting videos to a YouTube channel.

Cruikshank's hyperactive videos of Fred's helium-voiced character quickly caught people's attention and helped make him the fastest-rising star in YouTube history. Cruikshank's second video, “Fred Loses His Meds,” was his first to break a million views.

And as Figure 4.10 illustrates, “Fred Loses His Meds” had more than 31.1 million views when this screen shot was taken.

Figure 4.10 “Fred Loses His Meds”

Go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9MA0eW8yyw and you will see the current video statistics. When this was written, they showed it had 137,493 likes and 27,267 dislikes. And the video had one honor:

#51 - Most Discussed (All Time)

According to the Viral Video Chart, “Fred Loses His Meds” has 17,221 Facebook shares and 329 blog posts.

Cruikshank and his cousins, Jon and Katie Smet, initially set up the JKL Productions channel on YouTube in June 2006. Cruikshank uploaded his first Fred video in October 2006.

In April 2008, the videos that had already been filmed got added to the Fred channel, and in May 2008, the first official video, entitled “Fred on May Day,” was released.

By April 2009, Fred's channel recorded its millionth subscriber, making it the first YouTube channel to do so. It hit two million subscribers on September 27, 2010.

As this was written, Fred's channel had more than 101 million channel views and over 641 million total upload views.

Cruikshank has made a few television appearances both as himself and as Fred. And in December 2009, he filmed Fred: The Movie, which aired on Nickelodeon on September 18, 2010.

Parents may wonder why anyone—even teenagers—would share Cruikshank's content with their friends, but Fred's channel has been described as “programming for kids by kids.”

According to Cruikshank, the series is intended as a parody of people who “think that everyone is so interested in them.” He believes that viewers either “automatically love Fred or automatically hate Fred, there is no in between.”

The videos primarily consist of Fred speaking to the audience about what is happening in his life. He lives with his recovering drug-addicted and alcoholic mother, whose voice is often heard, and his grandmother. In the first three seasons, all characters other than Fred remained off screen, with the exception of animals.

Several times during the series, Fred mentioned that his father is on death row in the state penitentiary. The fictional six-year old hasn't met his father, who left Mrs. Figglehorn while she was still pregnant with Fred.

Fred has a crush on a girl in his kindergarten class named Judy. He describes Judy as “so mean… yet so attractive.” In almost every episode, Fred sings a song he makes up.

The first season of Fred was sponsored by the Zipit Wireless Messenger, which had several cameo appearances in various videos posted to Fred's channel. Although the collaboration was originally kept low key, Fred now has a separate website promoting the device and has also starred in Zipit TV commercials on Nickelodeon.

Is there a lesson to be learned here? Yes, there is.

Know your audience. Fred's videos get millions of views because Cruikshank knows exactly what kids want to watch on YouTube and appeals to that in a very precise way. Think about the audience you're trying to attract and the kinds of things that audience likes. Incorporate those elements into your videos. It doesn't matter whether or not your video appeals to you or your peers. All that matters is that it reaches its intended audience.

Wednesday: Check Out “Susan Boyle - Britain's Got Talent”

The most watched YouTube video in 2009 was “Susan Boyle - Singer- Britain's Got Talent 2009.” Uploaded on April 11 of that year, it and related videos had more than 120 million views as of December 16, 2009.

But this video is no longer available on YouTube due to a copyright claim by Alain Boublil Music Ltd. The clip was removed in August 2010 just as it reached 96 million views. However, other versions of the video can be still be found on a variety of online video sharing destinations.

As Figure 4.11 illustrates, one of these versions is “Susan Boyle - Britains Got Talent 2009 Episode 1 - Saturday 11th April | HD Quality.” Uploaded to the UKAdvertChannel on YouTube, it had more than 55.9 million views as this was written.

Figure 4.11 “Susan Boyle - Britains Got Talent 2009 Episode 1 - Saturday 11th April | HD Quality”

Go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxPZh4AnWyk and you will see the current video statistics. When I wrote this, they showed this version of the original video had 127,802 likes and 4,469 dislikes. And this stand-in had 10 honors:

• #8 - Most Discussed (All Time) - United Kingdom
• #1 - Most Discussed (All Time) - Entertainment - United Kingdom
• #8 - Most Discussed (All Time) - Entertainment
• #7 - Most Viewed (All Time) - United Kingdom
• #86 - Most Viewed (All Time)
• #2 - Most Viewed (All Time) - Entertainment - United Kingdom
• #15 - Most Viewed (All Time) - Entertainment
• #13 - Top Favorited (All Time) - United Kingdom
• #2 - Top Favorited (All Time) - Entertainment - United Kingdom
• #17 - Top Favorited (All Time) - Entertainment

According to the Viral Video Chart, “Susan Boyle - Britains Got Talent 2009 Episode 1 - Saturday 11th April | HD Quality” has 362,837 Facebook shares, 2,570 tweets, and 15,219 blog posts.

To get an idea of the video statistics that the original version must have had before being taken down, go to Visible Measures, which measures the total audience that has been exposed to community-driven video copies and derivative works. According to its 100 Million Views Club (www.visiblemeasures.com/hundred), “Susan Boyle: Britain's Got Talent” had a total audience of 347,670,927.

By now, Susan Magdalane Boyle's backstory is well known.

Born in Blackburn, Scotland, in 1961, Boyle was nicknamed “Susie Simple” at school. She never married and still lives in the family home, a council house, with her cat Pebbles. She has a reputation for modesty and propriety, admitting during her first appearance on Britain's Got Talent that she had “never been married, never been kissed.”

But Boyle had sung in her church choir. After she won several local singing competitions, her mother urged her to enter Britain's Got Talent and take the risk of singing in front of an audience larger than her parish church. Boyle's performance on the show was the first time she had sung in public since her mother died.

On April 11, 2009, Boyle appeared on Britain's Got Talent and sang “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Misérables. The contrast between her plain appearance and powerful voice stunned both the audience and the judges. Amanda Holden, one of the judges, commented on the initially cynical attitude of the audience, and called Boyle's subsequent performance the “biggest wake-up call ever.”

The juxtaposition of the first impression of Boyle by the judges and audience with the standing ovation and judges' comments after her performance led to an international media and Internet response.

Boyle was one of 40 acts that went on to the semi-finals. On May 24, 2009, she performed “Memory” from the musical Cats. She received the highest number of public votes and went on to the final. Although the clear favorite, Boyle finished in second place in the final behind the dance troupe Diversity.

However, her first album, I Dreamed a Dream, became the biggest-selling album in the world for 2009. Released on November 23, 2009, it sold 9 million copies by the end of the year just six weeks later.

In September 2010, Guinness World Records officially recognized Boyle for the following achievements:

• Having the fastest -selling debut album by a female artist in the UK
• Having the most successful first week sales of a debut album in the UK
• Being the oldest person to reach number one with a debut album in the UK

YouTube and other social media were crucial to Boyle's rapid rise to fame. On the day following the performance, the YouTube video was the most popular article on Digg and made the front page of Reddit. Within three days, the most popular YouTube video of her audition had already garnered nearly 2.5 million views.

On April 15, four days after the performance, tweets about “Susan Boyle” spiked, according to TweetStats. On April 16, five days after the performance, mentions of “Susan Boyle” in blogs spiked, according to IceRocket's trend tool.

Within a week, Boyle's audition video had been viewed more than 66 million times, setting an online record. Within the same time, her biographical article on Wikipedia had attracted nearly half a million page views.

Within nine days, 165 duplicate videos of Boyle—from an earlier rendition of “Cry Me a River,” her audition, the show, and interviews with her afterward—had a combined total of 103 million views on 20 different video sites.

In December 2009, YouTube named her audition the most watched video of the year with over 120 million views, more than three times higher than the second most popular video.

In addition, Boyle's first on-camera interview with her local newspaper was named as YouTube's Most Memorable Video of 2009. The video interview by Scottish journalist Richard Mooney of the West Lothian Courier went viral after being uploaded to YouTube on April 14, 2009.

Other mainstream media also played critical roles in turning Boyle into an overnight sensation. Within the week following her performance on Britain's Got Talent, Boyle was interviewed via satellite on CBS's Early Show, Good Morning America, NBC's Today, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and Larry King Live.

On April 17, Scott Collins and Janet Stobart of the Los Angeles Times wrote, “The case of this previously unknown amateur singer is a compelling study in how viral video can lather its subject into frothy international stardom within hours.”

They added, “Indeed, a full range of emotion—first humor, then shock, followed by warm appreciation and perhaps a dollop of self-reproof for anyone who dares to judge others principally by their appearance—can be extracted from Boyle's seven-minute clip. And that is what makes her story perfect for the Internet, where short clips rule.”

On April 19, Gillian Harris of the Sunday Times wrote, “Now the world knows Susan Boyle's name. The 48-year-old church volunteer's performance on Britain's Got Talent has propelled her from obscurity to global stardom. Boyle's powerful voice, which silenced the cynical judges and those in the audience who sneered because she wasn't groomed or glamorous, is expected to make her wealthy beyond her modest dreams.”

Boyle told Harris, “I know what they were thinking but why should it matter as long as I can sing? It's not a beauty contest.”

On April 20, 2009, Maria Puente of USA Today wrote, “After a week of unabashed hysteria about Scottish chanteuse Susan Boyle, it's time to pause and ask: What's that all about?”

Maybe it was the compelling content of the video: The 47-year-old Boyle, whom Puente calls “unglamorous, unfashionable, unknown,” takes on a skeptical British audience and sneering panel of judges on Britain's Got Talent, including the unsparingly blunt Simon Cowell. “Then, in an instant, she turned jeers to cheers with her rendition of one of the weepier numbers from Les Misérables,” wrote Puente.

Maybe it was Boyle's Cinderella backstory: “Youngest of nine, learning disabled and bullied as a child, caretaker for her dying mother, never been kissed, singer in the choir, possessor of big dreams,” she wrote.

Maybe it was because people tend to root for the underdog. “Or maybe it's just a new reminder of an old truism: You can't judge a book by its cover,” Puente concluded.

Although Boyle was not eligible for the 2010 Grammy Awards, the show's host Stephen Colbert paid tribute to her at the ceremony. On February 1, 2010, he told the assembled stars, “You may be the coolest people in the world, but this year your industry was saved by a 48-year-old Scottish cat lady in sensible shoes.”

Ironically, Boyle's viral videos weren't able to help the three producers of Britain's Got Talent, FremantleMedia, Talkback Thames, and SYCOtv, or the program's distributor in Britain, ITV.

Despite the video getting 103 million views in its first nine days, Eliot Van Buskirk of Wired.com reported on April 20, 2009, that it was not being monetized.

On April 23, 2009, Dan Sabbagh of the Times did “a crude estimate” that indicated the parties involved had left about $1.87 million, or £1.3 million, on the table.

On May 24, 2009, Brian Stelter of the New York Times reported that videos of Boyle's performances in April had been viewed 220 million times at that point, but “her runaway Web success has made little money for the program's producers or distributors.”

Although FremantleMedia Enterprises had hastily uploaded video clips of Boyle to YouTube in the wake of her performance, the show was produced jointly by two other companies and distributed in Britain by another, making it difficult to ascertain which of the four companies could claim the videos as its own.

Before the current season of the show had started on April 11, the parties had tried to cut a distribution deal with YouTube, but they couldn't agree on terms. Why? According to Stelter, “Major media companies have shown varying degrees of interest in these deals, in part because they are reticent to split much money with Google.”

As Figure 4.12 illustrates, at least one of the producers believed “Hoarding is just as human as sharing.” But, isn't it smarter to share buckets of money than to hoard absolutely no money at all?

Figure 4.12 “Hording is just as human as sharing.” (Cartoon by Edward Frascino in the New Yorker, March 13, 1995)

There are three lessons to be learned here.

First, “Susan Boyle - Singer- Britains Got Talent 2009” told a story that was worth retelling to others. On April 14, 2009, Colette Douglas Home of the Herald in Scotland wrote, “Susan Boyle's story is a parable of our age.”

Second, investigate the best routes to monetize your channel in conjunction with relevant partners before one of your videos goes viral unexpectedly. According to people with knowledge of the talks, YouTube was especially interested in a deal because it was essentially losing money by serving millions of video streams without recouping any of the costs. However, the other parties involved didn't realize how much money they would be leaving on the table before the money train had left the station.

Third, when you decide to monetize a video, be certain that you have the express permission from the person who created or produced all of the content within it. This includes, but is not limited to, the following content:

• Music (including lyrics, cover songs and background music)
• Performances (including concerts, events, and shows)
• Movie or TV footage or visuals
• Graphics and pictures (including photographs and artwork)
• Video game or software visuals

Alain Boublil is a librettist, best known for his collaborations with composer Claude-Michel Schönberg on Les Misérables and Miss Saigon.

Although Boublil told the Insider he was “bowled over” by Boyle's performance of his song “I Dreamed a Dream” on Britain's Got Talent, the video “Susan Boyle - Britain's Got Talent” is no longer available on YouTube due to a copyright claim by Alain Boublil Music Ltd.

Now, getting express permission from copyright holders takes work. And having a clip with 96 million views removed because it was finally being monetized without having that express permission is a miscarriage of justice. But that is what appears to have happened.

It reminds me of the famous quotation by Thomas Edison, “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

Thursday: Look at “JK Wedding Entrance Dance”

Based on the lessons learned yesterday, it's seems appropriate to look at the “JK Wedding Entrance Dance” today. Uploaded to YouTube on July 19, 2009, the video was viewed over 3.5 million times in its first 48 hours.

On July 30, 2009, YouTube's Chris LaRosa (technical account manager) and Ali Sandler (music partner manager) said on the Official Google Blog, “Jill Peterson and Kevin Heinz's wedding party transformed a familiar and predictable tradition into something spontaneous and just flat-out fun.”

As Figure 4.13 illustrates, “JK Wedding Entrance Dance” had more than 59 million views when the screen shot was taken.

Figure 4.13 “JK Wedding Entrance Dance”

Go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0 and you will see the current video statistics. When this was written, they showed it had 193,854 likes and 6,919 dislikes. And the video had 10 honors:

• #69 - Spotlight Videos - Hong Kong
• #91 - Spotlight Videos - Taiwan
• #58 - Most Discussed (All Time)
• #4 - Most Discussed (All Time) - Entertainment
• #73 - Most Viewed (All Time)
• #12 - Most Viewed (All Time) - Entertainment
• #21 - Top Favorited (All Time)
• #2 - Top Favorited (All Time) - Entertainment
• #29 - Top Rated (All Time)
• #3 - Top Rated (All Time) - Entertainment

According to the Viral Video Chart, “JK Wedding Entrance Dance” has 440,565 Facebook shares, 11,714 tweets, and 8,827 blog posts.

The video, which was set to R&B star Chris Brown's hypnotic dance jam “Forever,” became an overnight sensation, accumulating more than 10 million views on YouTube in less than a week. But as with all YouTube videos worth sharing, there's more to this story than simple view counts.

YouTube has sophisticated content management tools in place to help rights holders control their content in the world's most popular online video community. The rights holders for “Forever” used these tools to claim and monetize the song, as well as to start running Click-to-Buy links over the video, giving viewers the opportunity to purchase the music track on Amazon and iTunes. The song was even prominently featured on the TV show The Office in a direct reference to the “JK Wedding Entrance Dance” video, during the highly anticipated episode in which the characters Jim and Pam finally tied the knot.

As a result, the rights holders were able to capitalize on the massive wave of popularity generated by “JK Wedding Entrance Dance.” In the first week, searches for “Chris Brown Forever” on YouTube skyrocketed, making it one of the most popular queries on the site.

This traffic was also very engaged. According to LaRosa and Sandler, the click-through rate (CTR) on the “JK Wedding Entrance Dance” video was two times the average of other click-to-buy overlays on the site. And this newfound interest in downloading “Forever” went beyond the viral video itself. “JK Wedding Entrance Dance” also appears to have influenced the official “Forever” music video, which saw its click-to-buy CTR increase by 2.5 times in the first week.

So, what does all of this mean? Despite compelling data and studies on consumer purchasing habits, many marketers and advertisers still question the promotional and bottom-line business value that video sites like YouTube provide artists.

But over a year after its release, Chris Brown's “Forever” rocketed up the charts again, reaching as high as #4 on the iTunes singles chart and #3 on Amazon's best-selling MP3 list in the week after “JK Wedding Entrance Dance” was uploaded.

What lesson can be learned here? If you are a rights holder, consider using YouTube's Audio ID and Video ID tools. Using YouTube's copyright tools is free and gives you control in a couple of ways:

• You can identify user-uploaded videos made up entirely or partially of your content.
• You can choose, in advance, what you want to happen when those videos are found, including make money from them, get stats on them, or block them from YouTube altogether.

Friday: View “David After Dentist”

The next popular YouTube video that we'll examine is “David After Dentist.” Uploaded on January 30, 2009, it was the second most viewed video that year and created the catch phrase, “Is this real life?”

On March 18, 2010, Etan Horowitz of CNN wrote, “If you spend any time on the Internet, you've no doubt seen ‘David After Dentist,’ the YouTube video of a woozy 7-year-old boy in the back seat of a car, struggling to understand the effects of anesthesia.”

As Figure 4.14 illustrates, “David After Dentist” had more than 76 million views when this screen shot was taken.

Figure 4.14 “David After Dentist”

Go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=txqiwrbYGrs and you will see the current video statistics. When I wrote this, they showed it had 217,015 likes and 14,359 dislikes. And the video had seven honors:

• #61 - Most Discussed (All Time) - Comedy
• #49 - Most Viewed (All Time)
• #8 - Most Viewed (All Time) - Comedy
• #8 - Top Favorited (All Time)
• #5 - Top Favorited (All Time) - Comedy
• #23 - Top Rated (All Time)
• #7 - Top Rated (All Time) - Comedy

According to the Viral Video Chart, “David After Dentist” has 326,934 Facebook shares, 10,790 tweets, and 6,737 blog posts.

Here's the backstory: In May 2008, David DeVore took his son David Jr. to a dental surgeon to have a procedure done to remove an extra tooth. The condition is called Hyperdontia. His wife, Tessie, also wanted to go. Unfortunately, she had a big meeting planned for the same day with executives coming from all over the country, so only the Davids went to the dentist. David Sr. had just bought a new flip video camera and decided he would use it, along with his cell phone camera, to record the day's events. After the procedure, the staff came out to get the father.

David Sr. says, “I noticed grins on their faces when I walked in. David (Jr.) was in rare form. I had to help him to the car, strapped him in his car seat and then proceeded to record him as I had planned. There was no coaching or editing. I just filmed what I was seeing and hearing. The deep questions David asks show his deep thinking that we have come to know as part of his personality.”

David Sr. adds, “Once we got home and got some ice cream in him and a nap, David (Jr.) was fine and fully recovered. That night, I showed it to the family and we had a big laugh. David (Jr.) was rolling on the floor.”

For the next several months, David Sr. shared the video with just family and friends. Then, he joined Facebook and started sharing it there. On January 31, 2009, he decided to post it on YouTube to make it easier to share.

David Sr. says, “Due to the limit YouTube has for the number of emails you can send the link to for private sharing, I chose to make it public thinking no one would think it would be as funny as we did. Shows you what I know!”

By the following Tuesday, the video had 3 million views. At first, the DeVore family didn't know what to think and were concerned that people might be making fun of their kid. David Sr. says, “Once we realized people thought it was cute and funny, we embraced the attention that came with it. We looked at it as a way for our family to have an experience we couldn't have had otherwise. What an experience is has been.”

The DeVore family was soon invited to join the YouTube Partner Program. This gives YouTube the right to sell ads over and next to their popular videos, and in exchange, the DeVore family is given a share of the ad revenue. The DeVore family also sells T-shirts on their website at www.davidafterdentist.com that feature David's classic question, “Is this real life?”

According to Time, “And it's paying off: the DeVores have made nearly enough to cover David's (eventual) college education.”

Again, there are two lessons to be learned here. First, slice-of-life videos can go viral. Who wouldn't share a video that features a kid who asks, “Why is this happening to me?” and “Is this gonna be forever?” Second, if YouTube invites you to include one of your more unforgettable videos in its Individual Video Program, just say yes. An extension of the YouTube Partner Program, the Individual Video Program recognizes the role that popular “one-off” videos play on YouTube. When you upload a video that accumulates lots of views, YouTube may invite you to monetize that video and start earning revenue from it.

To determine whether a particular video is eligible for monetization, YouTube looks at factors like the number of views, the video's virality, and compliance with the YouTube terms of service. If your video is eligible for monetization, you will receive an email and see an “Enable Revenue Sharing” message next to your video on the watch page as well as in other places in your account.

Once you've chosen to enable revenue sharing, YouTube will sell advertising against your video and pay you a revenue share into your Google AdSense account each month. If you don't have an AdSense account, you'll have the opportunity to create one.

Individual video partnerships are not eligible for many of the benefits of user partnerships, like enhanced channel features or the ability to monetize other videos in your account, so you might want to apply to be a member of the YouTube Partner Program.

In its first year, the Individual Video Program enabled hundreds of thousands of videos to earn money, enabled international users from 11 markets to earn revenue from their videos, and helped thousands of YouTube users to become official YouTube Partners.

“Is this real life?” Yes, this is real life.

Week 3: Examine Contagious Viral Ads

On September 19, 2008, Suzie Reider, the head of advertising at YouTube, gave a presentation entitled “Marketing with Video” at The Edge, a creative event thrown by the Boston AdClub.

Reider told the luncheon crowd about the lessons she had learned from her time with one of the world's largest social media communities. And from her point of view, YouTube is the combination of “both media and community.”

One of the concepts that Reider shared was “Create ads that work as content.” As an example, she showed “Amazing Ball girl catch,” a Gatorade commercial directed by Baker Smith of Harvest Films.

As Figure 4.15 illustrates, this video had more than 2.7 million views when this screen shot was taken.

Figure 4.15 “Amazing Ball girl catch”

Go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SqJz0NgnnE and you will see the current video statistics. When this was written, they showed it had 3,588 likes and 279 dislikes.

According to the Viral Video Chart, “Amazing Ball girl catch” has 6,647 Facebook shares and 218 blog posts.

And hundreds of advertisers around the world are following Reider's advice. In fact, so many advertisers are creating viral ads that the Viral Video Chart lists the top 100 “most contagious” viral ads from the past 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days, 365 days, and all time.

The chart is a collaboration between Unruly Media and Contagious Magazine. It ranks viral videos and branded content worldwide based on the amount of times content has been shared on Facebook and Twitter and in the blogosphere.

Since there are so many ads that work as content, you might also want to check out YouTube's Show & Tell channel, which lists 28 viral hits. On December 21, 2010, Chris Anderson, curator of TED, called these “examples of great creative” in his guest post entitled “What makes an ad worth spreading?” on the YouTube Blog.

Using both the Viral Video Chart and YouTube's Show & Tell channel to identify five “ads worth spreading,” let's watch some of the most contagious viral ads of all time.

• Monday: Watch “Evian Roller Babies international version”
• Tuesday: Look at “Old Spice | The Man Your Man Could Smell Like”
• Wednesday: Check out “The T-Mobile Dance”
• Thursday: See “Inspired Bicycles - Danny MacAskill April 2009”
• Friday: View “Ken Block Gymkhana Two the Infomercial”

Monday: Watch “Evian Roller Babies international version”

In November 2009, “Evian Roller Babies international version” was officially awarded a Guinness world record for “the most viewed online advertisement.” As the video description says, “So small yet already incredible!”

Created by the advertising agency BETC Euro RSCG, the “rollerskating babies” video was part of its “Live Young” ad campaign for Evian water. As Figure 4.16 illustrates, “Evian Roller Babies international version” had more than 32.2 million views when this screen shot was taken.

Figure 4.16 “Evian Roller Babies international version”

Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQcVllWpwGs and you will see the current video statistics. When this was written, they showed it had 35,721 “Likes” and 3,204 “Dislikes.” It also had 10 honors:

• #65 - Most Discussed (All Time) - France
• #9 - Most Discussed (All Time) - Entertainment - France
• #7 - Most Viewed (All Time) - France
• #37 - Most Viewed (All Time) - Entertainment
• #2 - Most Viewed (All Time) - Entertainment - France
• #6 - Top Favorited (All Time) - France
• #35 - Top Favorited (All Time) - Entertainment
• #2 - Top Favorited (All Time) - Entertainment - France
• #21 - Top Rated (All Time) - France
• #3 - Top Rated (All Time) - Entertainment - France

According to the Viral Video Chart, “Evian Roller Babies international version” has 576,162 Facebook shares, 8,261 tweets, and 6,040 blog posts.

The ad campaign was launched exclusively on YouTube in July 2009 with homepage ads in Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, the UK, and the United States. It went on to become a smash hit and has proven the value of making big bets on YouTube.

On November 23, 2009, Gianni Pulli, industry leader, France, said on the YouTube Biz Blog, “We've learned from previous campaigns that paid views—like YouTube homepage ads or Promoted Videos—can drive organic views, and branding research conducted by Nielsen in France found that the advertising campaign was the key catalyst in building brand equity and sending the video viral.”

He added, “Nielsen also found that 80% of those who saw the ad on YouTube in France and in the US considered discussing it, and 2/3 wanted to share it with friends.”

Nina Boesch, senior interactive designer at And Partners in New York, says on YouTube's Show & Tell channel, “Babies doing grown up things is always freaky and funny…it's something I would share with friends.”

It's worth noting that Unruly Media provided “video seeding” and social media monitoring for this spectacularly successful viral campaign.

To build buzz and whet appetites, Unruly Media launched two teaser videos two weeks before the official launch of the “Roller Babies” video. One was called “Baby Moonwalk” and the other “Baby Break Dance.”

For “Roller Babies” itself, Unruly Media focused a significant amount of activity on Twitter, complementing the YouTube homepage takeovers that launched the clip in France, the United States, and other countries.

In a case study on its website, Unruly Media says it focused on the “Twitterati and Twitter-focused sites and apps such as Tweetmeme.” Picked up and retweeted within seconds, “Roller Babies” benefited hugely from Twitter's ability to cross national boundaries and surface real-time trends, “leading to the fastest first million views we've ever seen,” says Unruly Media.

To track the global spread of the campaign, Unruly Media fingerprinted the video file—taking a sample of its audiovisual DNA—and deployed web-tracking software to crawl 30 billion web pages looking for matches.

In the case study, Michael Aidan, global brand director of Evian, says, “The combination of seeding and posting the film worldwide on YouTube has helped us reach well beyond our expectations: the most viewed video ad on the web ever.”

Is there any other lesson to learn from this viral ad? Here's an alternative wording: Yes, show the product in use—and, if possible, the end result of using it. You can be realistic. In a video for motor oil, show how the pistons look after 50,000 miles. You can also be fantastic. In this video, Evian showed the sensational effect that drinking bottled water can have on babies. In a video for motor oil, show how the pistons look after 50,000 miles.

Tuesday: Look at “Old Spice | The Man Your Man Could Smell Like”

On February 18, 2010, Christie D'Zurilla of the Ministry of Gossip blog in the Los Angeles Times wrote, “We looked at him. We looked away. We looked back at him. And dangit if we couldn't stop looking at him. Seriously, he's on a horse.”

D'Zurilla was writing about Isaiah Mustafa, who is also known as “the guy who stars in that Old Spice commercial.” Or, as the video description says, “We're not saying this body wash will make your man smell into a romantic millionaire jet fighter pilot, but we are insinuating it.”

Eric Kallman and Craig Allen of Wieden + Kennedy were the creative rock stars behind the “Old Spice Guy” campaign. As Figure 4.17 illustrates, “Old Spice | The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” had more than 26.3 million views when this screen shot was taken.

Figure 4.17 “Old Spice | The Man Your Man Could Smell Like”

Go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=owGykVbfgUE to see the current video statistics. When I wrote this, it had 98,456 likes and 1,638 dislikes. And the video had six honors:

• #40 - Spotlight Videos - Australia
• #76 - Spotlight Videos
• #87 - Most Discussed (All Time) - People & Blogs
• #17 - Most Viewed (All Time) - People & Blogs
• #3 - Top Favorited (All Time) - People & Blogs
• #6 - Top Rated (All Time) - People & Blogs

According to the Viral Vide oChart, “Old Spice | The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” has 376,295 Facebook shares, 10,546 tweets, and 4,213 blog posts.

On October 6, 2010, Mark Sabec, product marketing manager, wrote on the YouTube Blog, “When you consider that the product in question is an everyday hygiene item, the buzz generated by their creative team is that much more impressive.”

The Old Spice guy debuted on February 4, 2010, and helped the Old Spice channel on YouTube get more than 173 million views and over 205,000 subscribers.

It has also been parodied endlessly on the Web, TV, and radio. As Figure 4.18 illustrates, one of these parodies, “Sesame Street: Smell Like a Monster,” had more than 6.2 million views.

On July 25, 2010, Noreen O'Leary and Todd Wasserman of Brandweek reported that sales of Old Spice Body Wash had increased 107 percent over the previous month according to the Nielsen Co.

Figure 4.18 “Sesame Street: Smell Like a Monster”

But on August 26, 2010, Jack Neff of Advertising Age reported that the buy-one-get-one-free and other high-value coupons that Old Spice had distributed during the month could account for most of the brand's sales gains and all its market share gains.

Nevertheless, “Old Spice | The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” was the #5 most popular YouTube video in 2010 and the most memorable marketing campaign of the year. And as for the coupons, no one buys even one bottle of body wash to sit around in their bathroom cabinet. So, I think the 107 percent increase in sales is still a success story.

Is there a lesson to be learned here? Yes, there is.

It's about talking heads. This derogatory term was given to TV commercials that consist of a pitchman extolling the virtues of a product. Some people argue that talking heads aren't creative, but at least one monster uses them because they're above average in creating spoofs of ads worth spreading. I'm with the monster.

Wednesday: Check Out “The T-Mobile Dance”

On February 19, 2010, I taught a YouTube and Video Marketing workshop at SES London. Among the participants were a couple of marketing people from T-Mobile. Now, you'd think that they wouldn't need in-depth training because Saatchi & Saatchi had already created one of the most contagious viral ads of all time for T-Mobile.

Uploaded on January 16, 2009, the so-called “Ambient Advert” lets you watch the moment when Liverpool Street Station in London danced to create the iconic meme, Life's for Sharing. As Figure 4.19 illustrates, “The T-Mobile Dance” was and had more than 25.3 million views.

Figure 4.19 “The T-Mobile Dance”

Go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ3d3KigPQM and you will see the current video statistics. As this was written, they showed it had 43,012 likes and 1,146 dislikes. It also had nine honors:

• #21 - Most Discussed (All Time) - Entertainment - United Kingdom
• #25 - Most Viewed (All Time) - United Kingdom
• #6 - Most Viewed (All Time) - Entertainment - United Kingdom
• #58 - Most Viewed (All Time) - Entertainment
• #17 - Top Favorited (All Time) - United Kingdom
• #4 - Top Favorited (All Time) - Entertainment - United Kingdom
• #21 - Top Favorited (All Time) - Entertainment
• #55 - Top Rated (All Time) - United Kingdom
• #8 - Top Rated (All Time) - Entertainment - United Kingdom

According to the Viral Video Chart, “The T-Mobile Dance” has 149,495 Facebook shares, 5,592 tweets, and 5,045 blog posts.

Here's the backstory according to a case study by MediaCom, which handled the media planning and buying for the campaign: “The nation was in the depths of winter and recession, making many people sensitive about corporate insincerity and dishonesty. In this climate, T-Mobile had to launch a new campaign, one that people could believe in and trust. One that would make people feel good about the brand. So we couldn't just tell people T-Mobile's new philosophy, we had to prove that, Life's for Sharing.”

According to MediaCom, the creative solution to this problem was a technique as old as television: “We decided to create a live event so memorable that people just had to share it. At 11am on 15th January a single commuter started dancing. Moments later hundreds more joined in, including hundreds of genuine members of the public. Everybody there enjoyed a moment worth sharing.”

What did the agency's creative execution accomplish? According to MediaCom, “The event was so memorable the public took their mobile phones out to share it with calls, texts, photos and videos. The dance became news in its own right, covered on national TV news, national press, radio phone-ins and bloggers.”

From the agency's point of view, T-Mobile got £1.2 million worth of free media and press coverage. For example, the Sun newspaper in the UK described it as an “epidemic of joy.”

From the client's point of view, you could deposit the results of its “Ambient Advert” in a bank. The MediaCom case study concludes, “In a recession, T-Mobile had a 52% increase in sales from last year.”

So, why were T-Mobile's marketing people attending a YouTube and Video Marketing workshop a year later? They and their agencies were struggling to come up with another viral hit. T-Mobile had created a couple of other video campaigns that featured “Josh's Band” and “Night in TV ads.” But these hadn't come close to getting the views of “The T-Mobile Dance.”

Why? I think “Josh's Band” and “Night in TV ads” featured creative content designed to be watched, but “The T-Mobile Dance” featured content designed to be discovered, watched and shared.

Or, as Harry Flugelman (Joe Mantegna) says in ¡Three Amigos! (1986), “We strayed from the formula… and we paid the price.”

In fact, if you look closely at the video statistics for “The T-Mobile Dance,” you'll see that the YouTube search terms that generated the most views were the two-word term “flash mob” (more than 798,000 views when this was written), the one-word variation “flashmob” (over 387,000 views when this was written), and “dance” (more than 660,000 views when this was written).

A flash mob (or flashmob) is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place without obvious leadership or prior planning, perform an unusual act for a brief time, and then disperse. These events are designed to be discovered, watched, and shared.

This provides an alternative backstory, which appears in a second case study by Unruly Media, called in to provide social media outreach services for the campaign.

Although “The T-Mobile Dance” was rushed out within 24 hours of the event, the creative for other paid media wasn't going to be available until the end of the following week because of production constraints. MediaCom asked Unruly Media to compensate for this potentially quiet period by making the video ubiquitous online.

Unruly Media quickly got the video out to flash mob fans, who had been carefully identified and qualified over the previous week. Hundreds of bloggers embedded the clip, which racked up 1 million views on YouTube over the first weekend. On Monday morning, Unruly Media took over popular video sharing applications within Facebook to make the video as easy as possible to rediscover and as frictionless as possible to forward on to friends and colleagues during the week-long hiatus before other online creative became available.

The clip spread like wildfire. For every person viewing the video, it was forwarded to an average of 3.6 other people, leading to 1.8 million forwards within Facebook alone. More than 50 T-Mobile Dance groups formed on Facebook, often to organize similar events at other UK rail stations.

If dance is socially infectious, what about a capella music?

On October 29, 2010, “The T-Mobile Welcome Back” was uploaded to YouTube. As the description of the flash mob video says, “Watch arriving passengers be given a welcome home to remember at Heathrow Terminal 5.” The video also uses a super that explains, “No instruments were used in this film.” So, how is it doing?

As Figure 4.20 illustrates, “The T-Mobile Welcome Back” received more than 5.8 million views in its first two months, quickly becoming the second most-viewed video on the T-Mobile Life's for Sharing channel.

Figure 4.20 “The T-Mobile Welcome Back”

There are a couple of key lessons to be learned.

First, as Jacob Cohen, senior strategies - digital at Wolff Olins, says about “The T-Mobile Dance” on YouTube's Show & Tell's channel, “The crowd at the station really makes this video. Flash mobs have happened before but this one got the whole place going and makes you, as the viewer, really wish you were there and able to capture the moment. It just looks like great, sharable fun. Totally on brand.”

Second, according to an aside in Unruly Media's case study, “Dance demonstrates a nuanced and sophisticated appreciation of the types of content that people want to share and the motivations driving them. Eschewing overused viral triggers such as sex, shock, and humour, Dance taps into people's propensity to feel touched, inspired and uplifted.”

Thursday: See “Inspired Bicycles - Danny MacAskill April 2009”

Today, let's take a quick look at Danny MacAskill, a Scottish street trials pro rider for Inspired Bicycles Ltd.

On April 19, 2009, the then 23-year-old released a five-and-a-half-minute street trials video on YouTube set to “The Funeral” by Band of Horses.

Filmed by his flatmate, the video got a few hundred thousand views overnight. And as Figure 4.21 illustrates, “Inspired Bicycles - Danny MacAskill April 2009” now has more than 22 million views when this screen shot was taken.

Figure 4.21 “Inspired Bicycles - Danny MacAskill April 2009”

Go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z19zFlPah-o and you will see the current video statistics. When I wrote this, it had 101,707 likes and 1,770 dislikes. And it had 13 honors:

• #49 - Most Discussed (All Time) - United Kingdom
• #3 - Most Discussed (All Time) - Sports - United Kingdom
• #8 - Most Discussed (All Time) - Sports
• #37 - Most Viewed (All Time) - United Kingdom
• #1 - Most Viewed (All Time) - Sports - United Kingdom
• #11 - Most Viewed (All Time) - Sports
• #5 - Top Favorited (All Time) - United Kingdom
• #72 - Top Favorited (All Time)
• #1 - Top Favorited (All Time) - Sports - United Kingdom
• #1 - Top Favorited (All Time) - Sports
• #9 - Top Rated (All Time) - United Kingdom
• #1 - Top Rated (All Time) - Sports - United Kingdom
• #1 - Top Rated (All Time) - Sports

According to the Viral Video Chart, “Inspired Bicycles - Danny MacAskill April 2009” has 223,537 Facebook shares, 6,781 tweets, and 3,930 blog posts.

The video description says, “Filmed over the period of a few months in and around Edinburgh by Dave Sowerby, this video of Inspired Bicycles team rider Danny MacAskill (more info at www.dannymacaskill.com) features probably the best collection of street/street trials riding ever seen. There's some huge riding, but also some of the most technically difficult and imaginative lines you will ever see.”

On YouTube's Show & Tell channel, Kat Street, CCO of CP+B Europe, Sweden, says, “When ordinary people engage with the brand in an extraordinary way, the brand becomes extraordinary. This video inspires viewers to share the inspiration with other people.”

Julia Rothman, founder/CD of Also Online in New York City, says, “This video blew my mind when I first saw it. I remember sending it out to everyone I knew. It seems homemade and authentic. It was as if some kid decided to show off what he can do, with his friend holding a video cam behind him.”

And Marcos Kothlar, art director of AlmapBBDO in Sao Paulo, Brazil, says, “Truly inspiring work like this elevates brands to mythical status and people will share this like crazy.”

Since the video went live, things happened quickly. MacAskill was featured in the New York Times, joined a Hollywood production as a stunt man, and appeared in a TV commercial for the new Volkswagen Golf Estate. He eventually gave up his job as a mechanic so he could ride full time and now lives in Edinburgh.

Sowerby shot another video, “Danny MacAskill - ‘Way Back Home,’” which follows MacAskill on a journey from Edinburgh to his hometown Dunvegan, in the Isle of Skye. Produced by Red Bull, it had more than 4.7 million views when the screen shot in Figure 4.22 was taken.

Figure 4.22 “Danny MacAskill - ‘Way Back Home’”

Only one week later, a video MacAskill shot with his clothing partner Dig Deep in London hit the Web, dropping jaws all over the world once again.

What's the lesson from this example? Demonstrations that show how well your product performs are ads worth spreading. And demonstrations don't have to be dull.

Friday: View “Ken Block Gymkhana Two The Infomercial”

Today, let's watch “Ken Block Gymkhana Two The Infomercial.” It was named one of Ad Age's “Top 10 Viral Ads of All Time” and was #4 on Ad Age's list of top viral videos of 2009.

As Figure 4.23 illustrates, this infomercial for DC Shoes by Mad Media had more than 21.2 million views when this screen shot was taken.

Figure 4.23 “Ken Block Gymkhana Two The Infomercial”

Go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQ7R_buZPSo and you will see the current video statistics. When this was written, it had 55,350 likes and 1,258 dislikes. It also had five honors:

• #66 - Spotlight Videos - Autos & Vehicles
• #19 - Most Discussed (All Time) - Autos & Vehicles
• #3 - Most Viewed (All Time) - Autos & Vehicles
• #1 - Top Favorited (All Time) - Autos & Vehicles
• #2 - Top Rated (All Time) - Autos & Vehicles

According to the Viral Video Chart, “Ken Block Gymkhana Two The Infomercial” has 223,252 Facebook shares, 2,900 tweets, and 1,602 blog posts.

The video description provides the backstory: “Riding on the success of the first Gymkhana Practice video that grabbed the attention of over 20 million viewers worldwide, the Gymkhana TWO video takes infomercials to the next level. Unlike other infomercials, this one sells the products with great action, cinematography, and a dramatic driving performance—and, no stereotypical cheesy infomercial pitchman!”

Produced to market Block's Rally TeamWorks Collection, the infomercial is filled with great driving stunts, surprises, explosions, and a guest appearance from DC team rider Rob Dyrdek. Filmed at the Port of Los Angeles, the infomercial also features nonstop motor sport eye candy as Block hits the all-new course in a custom-tuned, high-performance, and brand-new Subaru Impreza WRX STI.

On YouTube's Show & Tell channel, Benjamin Palmer, cofounder and CEO of The Barbarian Group in New York, asks, “How many ads have you seen, where when you heard that there was a sequel, you said out loud HELL YES and called a few folks over to watch it with you? How many times have you been excited that there was a sequel to an ad? The first Gymkhana video was 'mindblowingly rad.' The follow up has driving that is just as awesome, but it's now self-aware of both its internet-fame and its advertisingness, and works in some…product placement in a pretty naturally goofy sort of way.”

Speaking of sequels, check out “Ken Block's Gymkhana Three, Part 2; Ultimate Playground; l'Autodrome, France.” As Figure 4.24 illustrates, the video had more than 22.4 million views when this screen shot was taken.

Figure 4.24 “Ken Block's Gymkhana Three, Part 2; Ultimate Playground; l'Autodrome, France”

And what's the lesson learned from these videos? It's about close-ups. It's a good thing to use close-ups when your product is the hero of your video ad.

Week 4: Observe Top Viral Videos

So, how do you create video content that's so compelling even prudent opinion leaders will decide its worth sharing with their followers?

First, as you've seen, it helps if your video tells a story. Although this story can be humorous in nature, it can also be serious. We've already uncovered the quirky and unusual, seen first-hand accounts of current events, and found videos about people's hobbies and interests. As the types of video content uploaded to YouTube continue to diversify, I expect to see videos from new artists and filmmakers as well as people's favorite TV moments go viral too.

Second, the most viewed viral videos are also among the most discussed, most liked, and top favorited. In other words, the stories they tell made their way into conversations because opinion leaders liked retelling them. These stories can be adorable, creative, funny, inspirational, or instructional. But they enable people to inform, educate, and entertain others at home, around the office, or across the globe.

Third, viral videos can come from original content creators large and small. As this was written, seven of the 10 most viewed videos of all time were music videos created by professionals and three were funny videos created by amateurs:

1. “Justin Bieber - Baby ft. Ludacris”—music video with 418,461,822 views
2. “Lady Gaga - Bad Romance”—music video with 323,222,948 views
3. “Shakira ft. Freshlyground - Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) (The Official 2010 FIFA World Cup Song)”—music video with 264,875,342 views
4. “Charlie bit my finger - again!”—funny video with 262,147,582 views
5. “Eminem - Love The Way You Lie ft. Rihanna”—music video with 244,251,719 views
6. “Miley Cyrus - Party In The U.S.A.”—music video with 181,905,044 views
7. “Eminem - Not Afraid”—music video with 173,183,012 views
8. “Evolution of Dance - By Judson Laipply”—funny video with 159,639,278 views
9. “Pitbull - I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho) Official Video”—music video with 157,069,357 views; and
10. “Hahaha”—funny video with 151,977,572 views.

YouTube says it offers “a community for everyone.” I think that YouTube actually offers almost 1,000 “communities,” from broad topics (e.g., Hip-Hop) to narrow ones (e.g., BMW videos).

This increasing segmentation makes creating viral video content that much harder with each passing year. It reminds me of Ken Auletta's book Three Blind Mice, the story of how the TV networks lost their way in the 1980s as cable television started taking more than half of their audience.

The changes in viral video content from “Pokemon Theme Music Video,” which was uploaded by Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox of Smosh in November 2005, to “Smosh: Pokemon Theme Song Revenge,” which was uploaded on November 26, 2010, may seem evolutionary, but considering all the other changes that have occurred in the space of just five years, they are revolutionary.

What should veteran marketers and new YouTubers do? You have two options.

First, you “could use a little churching up,” as Curtis (Cab Calloway) advises Jake and Elwood in The Blues Brothers (1980). So, slide on down and take some action:

• Apply to the YouTube Creator Institute. Announced on March 10, 2011, the YouTube Creator Institute was established to help nurture content creators, existing YouTube partners, and the next generation of stellar YouTube talent with the skills they need to thrive online and offline. The inaugural programs began at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts and the Columbia College Chicago Television Department. To apply online, go to www.youtube.com/creatorinstitute.
• Sign up for an online course like YouTube Marketing, which is offered by Market Motive. Part of the Social Media Marketing Certification course, it is $299 a month for the 90-day self-guided course or $3,500 for the 90-day faculty-led course.
• Register for in-class courses like Social Media Marketing or Digital Marketing, which are offered by the Rutgers Center for Management Development. Part of the Mini-MBA Program, a course costs $4,995.

Second, “You can observe a lot by watching,” as Yogi Berra once said. This may sound like funny advice, but in a rapidly changing field like this one, it's a pretty good way to discover what works, what doesn't, and what's promising. And it's free.

However, knowing how to make a funny video doesn't mean you know how to make a music video. And we're all still learning how to make a viral video in other categories. So, let's watch some of the top viral videos and see what we can observe.

• Monday: Watch “Justin Bieber - Baby ft. Ludacris”
• Tuesday: Look at “Charlie bit my finger - again!”
• Wednesday: Check out “Jeff Dunham - Achmed the Dead Terrorist”
• Thursday: See shows from Next New Networks
• Friday: View the meme, “Play him off, keyboard cat”

Monday: Watch “Justin Bieber - Baby ft. Ludacris”

Super-sensation Justin Bieber's song “Baby” was a chart-topper in 2010. The dream-date video (with a tip-of-the-hat to Michael Jackson) has also become the most viewed YouTube video of all time.

As Figure 4.25 illustrates, the music video had more than 420.3 million views when this screen shot was taken.

Figure 4.25 “Justin Bieber - Baby ft. Ludacris”

Go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=kffacxfA7G4 and you will see the current video statistics. When I wrote this, it had 429,873 likes and 762,700 dislikes. It also had eight honors:

• #1 - Spotlight Videos - Canada
• #27 - Spotlight Videos
• #1 - Most Discussed (All Time)
• #1 - Most Discussed (All Time) - Music
• #1 - Most Viewed (All Time)
• #1 - Most Viewed (All Time) - Music
• #7 - Top Rated (All Time)
• #4 - Top Rated (All Time) - Music

According to the Viral Video Chart, “Justin Bieber - Baby ft. Ludacris” has 2,189,833 Facebook shares, 41,542 tweets, and 5,966 blog posts.

What's Bieber's backstory? He was born March 1, 1994, in London, Ontario. Raised by his single mother, Pattie Mallette, he taught himself to play the piano, drums, guitar, and trumpet.

In 2007, Bieber sang Ne-Yo's “So Sick” for a local singing competition and placed second. Mallette posted a video of the performance on YouTube for their family and friends to see.

In 2008, the 13-year-old Canadian pop-R&B singer was discovered by Scooter Braun, who stumbled across Bieber's videos on YouTube by accident. Braun became Bieber's manager and arranged for him to meet with Usher in Atlanta. Bieber was soon signed to Raymond Braun Media Group (RBMG), a joint venture between Braun and Usher. Bieber was then signed to a recording contract with Island Records by Antonio Reid, who is known as L.A.

Bieber's debut single, “One Time,” was released in July 2009 and reached #12 on the Canadian Hot 100 during its first week of release. It was followed in November 2009 by his debut album, My World, which went platinum in the United States, making him the first artist to have seven songs from a debut album chart on the Billboard Hot 100.

To promote the album, Bieber performed in several live shows, including mtvU's VMA 09 Tour, The Today Show, Lopez Tonight, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and Good Morning America.

Bieber performed Stevie Wonder's “Someday at Christmas” for President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama at the White House for Christmas in Washington, which was broadcast December 20, 2009, on TNT.

“Baby”, which features Ludacris, was released in January 2010 and has become his biggest hit so far, charting at #5 in the United States and reaching the top 10 in seven other countries. In July 2010, his music video “Justin Bieber - Baby ft. Ludacris” surpassed “Lady Gaga - Bad Romance” to become the most viewed YouTube video ever.

On December 31, 2009, Jan Hoffman of the New York Times called Bieber “a creature of this era: a talented boy discovered first by fans on YouTube, then cannily marketed to them through a fresh influx of studiedly raw videos on the Web site.”

Hoffman added, “Justin, his fans passionately believe, is homemade. Long before he released his EP, My World, in mid-November, the YouTube videos attracted millions of views.”

Braun also recognized the appeal before flying Bieber to Atlanta. “I wanted to build him up more on YouTube first,” he told Hoffman. “We supplied more content. I said: 'Justin, sing like there's no one in the room. But let's not use expensive cameras.' We'll give it to kids, let them do the work, so that they feel like it's theirs.”

Bieber continues to upload videos to YouTube and has opened a Twitter account, from which he interacts with fans regularly. As this was written his Twitter account had more than 6.4 million followers.

Is there another lesson here?

Yes, watch comments, but not too closely.

Most videos enable users to leave comments, and these have attracted attention for the negative aspects of both their form and content. The comments to “Baby” are no exception.

On December 13, 2006, Lev Grossman of Time said, “Web 2.0 harnesses the stupidity of crowds as well as its wisdom. Some of the comments on YouTube make you weep for the future of humanity just for the spelling alone, never mind the obscenity and the naked hatred.”

On November 3, 2009, the Technology Blog on Guardian.co.uk said YouTube's “dedicated army of commenters” had developed a language of their own. “Juvenile, aggressive, misspelled, sexist, homophobic, swinging from raging at the contents of a video to providing a pointlessly detailed description followed by a LOL, YouTube comments are a hotbed of infantile debate and unashamed ignorance—with the occasional burst of wit shining through.”

On July 26, 2010, Rick Silvestrini, product marketing manager at YouTube, wrote on the YouTube Biz Blog, “Comments can provide valuable feedback and additional information about your videos and your audience. Viewers will tell you what they like and don't like about your videos. But you need to have a bit of a thick skin since there will always be haters and trolls; don't take them too seriously.”

Tuesday: Look at “Charlie bit my finger - again!”

The most viewed video of all time in the Comedy category is “Charlie bit my finger - again!” As Figure 4.26 illustrates, the amateur video has more than 263 million views.

Figure 4.26 “Charlie bit my finger - again !”

Go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OBlgSz8sSM and you will see the current video statistics. When this was written, it had 539,230 likes and 64,639 dislikes. It also had 16 honors:

• #1 - Most Discussed (All Time) - United Kingdom
• #14 - Most Discussed (All Time)
• #1 - Most Discussed (All Time) - Comedy - United Kingdom
• #2 - Most Discussed (All Time) - Comedy
• #1 - Most Viewed (All Time) - United Kingdom
• #4 - Most Viewed (All Time)
• #1 - Most Viewed (All Time) - Comedy - United Kingdom
• #1 - Most Viewed (All Time) - Comedy
• #1 - Top Favorited (All Time) - United Kingdom
• #2 - Top Favorited (All Time)
• #1 - Top Favorited (All Time) - Comedy - United Kingdom
• #2 - Top Favorited (All Time) - Comedy
• #1 - Top Rated (All Time) - United Kingdom
• #4 - Top Rated (All Time)
• #1 - Top Rated (All Time) - Comedy - United Kingdom
• #2 - Top Rated (All Time) - Comedy

According to the Viral Video Chart, “Charlie bit my finger - again!” has 899,016 Facebook shares, 17,676 tweets, and 7,044 blog posts.

In the video description, Howard Davies-Carr, father of Charlie and his older brother, Harry, says, “Even had I thought of trying to get my boys to do this I probably couldn't have. Neither were coerced into any of this and neither were hurt (for very long anyway). This was just one of those moments when I had the video camera out because the boys were being fun and they provided something really very funny.”

The Davies-Carr family lives in England. Howard uploaded the video onto YouTube so it could be watched by the boys' godfather, who was residing in the United States. Howard chose YouTube because the size of video file was so big that it couldn't be sent by email.

“Charlie bit my finger - again!” went viral and ranks #1 in Time magazine's list of YouTube's 50 greatest viral videos of all time.

What lesson can we learn from this amateur video?

Great content can come from anywhere. During 2010, more than 13 million hours of content was uploaded to YouTube by the greatest diversity of content creators imaginable.

And at last count, YouTube had around 15,000 content partners worldwide. These range from established media companies such as National Geographic to amateurs like Davies-Carr.

As a result of the success of their father's video, Harry and Charlie have gained stardom. And HDCYT's channel on YouTube says, “We do run adverts on this channel as we are YouTube partners. This generates money which is mainly going towards the boys' future or treats we would not normally have bought.”

On November 1, 2009, Maurice Chittenden of the Sunday Times of London said, “Web experts believe the Davies-Carrs could be on their way to a £100,000 windfall, largely from adverts placed on screen around the video.”

On June 18, 2010, Diana Ransom of the Wall Street Journal wrote, “Davies-Carr won't say exactly how much his family has earned from the video, but the added income made it more possible to afford a new house, he says.”

Elixir Interactive CEO Fionn Downhill, who suggested that I include this viral video in the first edition of this book, recently asked, “Do you think Charlie knew what he was doing?”

Wednesday: Check Out “Jeff Dunham - Achmed the Dead Terrorist”

The most viewed video of all time in the Entertainment category is “Jeff Dunham - Achmed the Dead Terrorist.” As Figure 4.27 illustrates, it had more than 125 million views when this screen shot was taken.

Figure 4.27 “Jeff Dunham - Achmed the Dead Terrorist”

Go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uwOL4rB-go and you will see the current video statistics. When I wrote this, it had 427,667 likes and 19,238 dislikes. It also had eight honors:

• #51 - Most Discussed (All Time)
• #3 - Most Discussed (All Time) - Entertainment
• #14 - Most Viewed (All Time)
• #1 - Most Viewed (All Time) - Entertainment
• #4 - Top Favorited (All Time)
• #1 - Top Favorited (All Time) - Entertainment
• #8 - Top Rated (All Time)
• #1 - Top Rated (All Time) - Entertainment

According to the Viral Video Chart, “Jeff Dunham - Achmed the Dead Terrorist” has 344,446 Facebook shares, 4,408 tweets, and 5,447 blog posts.

Dunham is an American ventriloquist and stand-up comedian. He has performed at comedy clubs across the United States since the late 1980s and has also appeared on numerous television shows, including Late Show with David Letterman and The Tonight Show. In January 2008, Dunham was voted the top comedian in Comedy Central's “Stand-Up Showdown.”

Dunham's act includes seven puppets, known by his fans as the Suitcase Posse. Although each puppet has a backstory and Dunham brings them all to life, the one that's gone viral is Achmed.

The skeletal corpse of an incompetent suicide bomber, Achmed is used by Dunham to perform comedy based on the contemporary issue of terrorism. He is known for yelling, “Silence! I kill you!” to people in the audience who laugh at his customs.

The dead terrorist first appeared in Spark of Insanity and made an appearance in the Very Special Christmas Special, singing a song called “Jingle Bombs.” The special's November 2008 premiere was the highest rated telecast in Comedy Central's history.

A TV commercial for a ringtone featuring Achmed was banned by the South African Advertising Standards Authority in 2008 after a complaint was filed by a citizen stating that the ad was offensive and portrayed all Muslims as terrorists. The ban angered Dunham, who issued a statement that read, “Achmed makes it clear in my act that he is not Muslim.” In fact, the puppet jokes when asked about this that a label on him says, “Made in China.”

In October 2008, Dunham told Fox News, “I've skewered whites, blacks, Hispanics, Christians, Jews, Muslims, gays, straights, rednecks, addicts, the elderly, and my wife. As a stand-up comic, it is my job to make the majority of people laugh, and I believe that comedy is the last true form of free speech.”

There are three serious lessons to learn from this funny video.

First, characters are above average in their ability to change people's attitudes and opinions.

Second, there are advantages to being the only ventriloquist who uses a character named Achmed the Dead Terrorist.

On October 9, 2009, the comedian Bill Engvall told Jon Mooallem of the New York Times that the Achmed character was “a genius marketing move.” Engvall framed the advantages of “Jeff Dunham - Achmed the Dead Terrorist” this way: “How many times a day is the word 'terrorist' Googled? But that (video) still pops up there near the top of the list.” (It's usually in the top five organic results.)

Third, humor is hard. Very few stand-up comedians create funny videos that are funny. Unless you're one of the few, don't try.

Thursday: See Shows from Next New Networks

The most-watched video of 2010 was “Auto-Tune the News: Bed Intruder Song!!! (now on iTunes).”

In the strangest transformation of the year, the Gregory Brothers took the quirky television interview Antoine Dodson gave after his sister's attempted assault (itself a viral video) and turned it into a chart-topper.

As Figure 4.28 illustrates, this episode from the News Show had more than 56.7 million views when this screen shot was taken.

Figure 4.28 “Auto-Tune the News: Bed Intruder Song!!! (now on iTunes)”

Go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMtZfW2z9dw and you will see the current video statistics. When this was written, it had 420,487 likes and 8,446 dislikes. It also had five honors:

• #2 - Spotlight Videos - Australia
• #88 - Most Discussed (All Time)
• #95 - Most Viewed (All Time)
• #29 - Top Favorited (All Time)
• #9 - Top Rated (All Time)

According to the Viral Video Chart, “Auto-Tune the News: Bed Intruder Song!!! (now on iTunes)” has 698,865 Facebook shares, 20,443 tweets, and 1,652 blog posts.

The #2 most watched video of 2010 was “Key of Awesome: Tik Tok Kesha Parody: Glitter Puke - Key of Awe$ome #13.”

The pop music parody loomed large in 2010 thanks to BarelyPolitical's take on Ke$ha's “Tik Tok” and the popularity of Key of Awe$ome, a weekly musical comedy show that's been seen over 100 million times.

As Figure 4.29 illustrates, this episode from the Celebrity & Entertainment Show had more than 55.4 million views when this screen shot was taken.

Figure 4.29 “Key of Awesome: Tik Tok Kesha Parody: Glitter Puke - Key of Awe$ome #13”

Go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7n8GqewJ2M and you will see the current video statistics. When I wrote this, it had 161,707 likes and 7,657 dislikes. It also had four honors:

• #3 - Spotlight Videos - Australia
• #97 - Most Viewed (All Time)
• #83 - Top Favorited (All Time)
• #51 - Top Rated (All Time)

According to the Viral Video Chart, “Key of Awesome: Tik Tok Kesha Parody: Glitter Puke - Key of Awe$ome #13” has 297,064 Facebook shares, 7,827 tweets, and 618 blog posts.

Key of Awesome was produced by Barely Political, which is also the home of Obama Girl. Barely Political is part of Next New Networks, which is a leading independent producer of online television networks.

The two shows were a big part of the success of Next New Networks, which got more than 1.2 billion video views in 2010. So, how did they do it?

On December 13, 2010, a post by Tim Shey on the Next New Networks Blog said there were three key drivers for the company's dramatic growth:

Betting on new talent for a new medium “We launched the Next New Creators program last December so that we could work with more of the top emerging creators in the space, and one year in, we've added over 65 Next New Creators series that already represent more than 50% of our monthly viewership,” said Shey.

“Working with new talent required a new model, and without Next New Creators program, we wouldn't have gotten to work with the Gregory Brothers and had the #1 video on YouTube in 2010,” he added.

Consistent programming, not just viral hits Shey said that “viral” video and “episodic” video don't need to be mutually exclusive. “In fact, the best episodic series often use a highly viewed, shared, and blogged video to bring in new fans and loyal viewers,” he added.

Both the Gregory Brothers and the Key of Awesome regularly and consistently create new episodes to grow their fan base. The Gregory Brothers' schmoyoho channel on YouTube now has more than 715,000 subscribers, and BarelyPolitical's channel, home of Key of Awesome, just passed the one million subscriber mark. As a result, new episodes of each series regularly break the one million mark in views.

Optimizing for how audiences watch online Shey said, “For the past few years, some of the most important sources of audience in online video have been subscribers, search results, and related videos, and the most successful web series optimize to increase the impact of all three, focusing on great packaging in terms of branding, metadata, and thumbnails to stand out in search and related video results, and including calls to action within programming and packaging that drive viewers to subscribe on YouTube, social networks, or in email.”

He added, “In 2010, we saw two other massive impacts on audience growth: effective cross-promotion of episodes, shows, and channels using tools like YouTube annotations, and increased viewership coming from sharing on networks like Facebook and Twitter.”

On December 15, 2010, Claire Cain Miller and Brian Stelter of the New York Times reported, “YouTube, the video site owned by Google, is in talks to buy Next New Networks, a Web video production company, according to two people briefed on the discussions.”

According to Miller and Stelter, “That production role is what YouTube is most interested in, said two people briefed on the discussions.”

Now, who might those people be?

If Captain Renault (Claude Raines) in Casablanca (1942) ordered me to “round up the usual suspects,” then I'd start with a bed intruder and a Kesha look-alike, who've got barely political motives.

There are a couple of lessons to learn from the success of these two shows and the latest news leak. First, shows that mash up news and spoof celebrities are above average in their ability to go viral. Second, if you are going to leak a story, leak it to the New York Times. According to Newsknife, it was the top news site of 2010 based on appearances of their stories in Google News.

Friday: View the Meme, “Play Him Off, Keyboard Cat”

Last but not least, let's examine the meme, “Play him off, Keyboard Cat.” On May 25, 2009, Ben Parr of Mashable added Keyboard Cat as a bonus to his list of “Top 20 YouTube Video Memes of All Time.”

What is a meme? According to Wikipedia, it “is a newly coined term for ideas or beliefs that are transmitted from one person, or group of people, to another. The name comes from an analogy: as genes transmit biological information, memes can be said to transmit idea and belief information.”

What is the Keyboard Cat meme? As Parr explained, it is a viral video sensation “in which painful stunts and regrettable mistakes are followed by Fatso the cat playing the keyboard.”

The video that Parr embedded in his post has been removed “because its content violated YouTube's terms of service.” Copyright issues with Warner Music Group forced YouTube to disable the audio from the video.

But, as Figure 4.30 illustrates, another version is still on YouTube and “Charlie Schmidt's 'Keyboard Cat'! - Original!” had more than 11.6 million views when this screen shot was taken.

Figure 4.30 “Charlie Schmidt's 'Keyboard Cat'! - Original!”

Go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=J---aiyznGQ and you will see the current video statistics. When this was written, it had 61,095 likes and 3,150 dislikes. It also had one honor:

#85 - Top Favorited (All Time) - Comedy

According to the Viral Video Chart, “Charlie Schmidt's ‘Keyboard Cat’! - Original!” has 82,191 Facebook shares, 2,153 tweets, and 1,072 blog posts.

Although this 54-second-long version does feature Fatso the cat playing the keyboard, this isn't preceded by any painful stunts and regrettable mistakes.

What's the backstory?

On May 15, 2009, Mark Milian of the Los Angeles Times wrote, “On its own, the Keyboard Cat video might elicit a smile and a chuckle. But when the adorable feline pounding its paws on a musical keyboard is preceded by an awkward, pain-inducing video of someone falling down an escalator or screaming at his parents, you have the latest Internet meme.”

Schmidt filmed the original Keyboard Cat two decades ago but uploaded it to YouTube in June 2007, where it initially received a moderate number of views.

In February 2009, Brad O'Farrell, who was 22 years old at the time, saw the potential in Keyboard Cat and obtained Schmidt's permission to reuse the clip.

O'Farrell, who worked for My Damn Channel, appended an abbreviated version of Keyboard Cat to the end of a clip showing a person in a wheelchair tumbling down an escalator. That's when the meme really began to catch on.

The idea was to append Keyboard Cat to the end of a blooper video to “play” that person offstage after a mistake or gaffe, like getting the hook in the days of vaudeville. The meme became popular, Ashton Kutcher tweeted about it to more than 1 million followers, and more than 4,000 such videos have now been made.

“You can create a joke or a catchphrase, but you have very little control over whether or not it catches on,” O'Farrell told Milian. “But I still did intentionally do a lot to try to get it to catch on.”

For example, O'Farrell (who, as mentioned earlier, is technical editor of this book) emailed YouTube's editors at [email protected], who take suggestions from users and are always on the lookout for videos of interest, and his Keyboard Cat video landed on the site's home page,

“Keyboard Cat, it seems, could make anything seem funny. As more videos of injuries, domestic disputes, and, well, more injuries were getting the Keyboard Cat treatment, the juxtaposition appeared to mesh tragedy and comedy with Shakespearean-like elegance,” Milian concluded.

On May 18, 2009, Keyboard Cat was further popularized during a “toss” from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart to The Colbert Report with Stephen Colbert. At the 2009 MTV Movie Awards, Andy Samberg's opening monologue suggested that award winners whose speech went on too long would be played off by Keyboard Cat. Kato Kaelin also spoofed Keyboard Cat in a segment of Tosh.0 entitled “Keyboard Kato.”

As Figure 4.31 illustrates, Ellie Rountree of Rocketboom interviewed O'Farrell about the Keyboard Cat craze on May 15, 2009.

Figure 4.31 “Keyboard Cat: An Interview with Brad O'Farrell”

There are two lessons we can learn from the meme. First, “fail videos” and cat videos are both popular on YouTube. So, guess what happened when O'Farrell combined them in the “Play him off, Keyboard Cat” meme? Second, when Warner Music Group forced YouTube to disable the audio from the video, it won the copyright battle, but it may have lost the “remix culture” war.

On July 15, 2009, Caroline McCarthy of CNET News quoted one commenter on the muted YouTube video, who wrote, “I hate you, Warner Music Group. This video is hilarious and promotes a song that would otherwise never reach the ears of young people. What is wrong with you? When did the music industry go so wrong?”

Now that you've learned how to create content worth sharing, the next chapter will teach you how to customize your YouTube channel.