I think when people say viral I think they mostly just mean something that
everybody's talking about on the web. Content is shareable when it hits people
emotionally and makes people feel like they're proud to have it be associated with their
identity. I kind of call it the new advertainment. Make us great content and make
it good enough that they'll want to pass it around to their friends. Internet comedy specifically, I
think that everyone's just getting good at
being funnier faster. Because people have such a shorter attention span for online stuff.
That's what I love about online is that it's now
created this opportunity where you can make two to five minute videos
and have them matter. People remember them. It has a timeless appeal.
One of the interesting things about viral video is there is actually no
generally agreed upon definition. A lot of people like to use the word viral to describe
something that
takes off or is popular. For me, what counts as viral is: are people inspired to share with their
friends?
Oftentimes it's not even the
video itself that's so important.
It's what you think of the video.
It's what your reaction to that video is.
We're entering this new era in media where it's not just about serving your own needs. It's about
finding things for your friends and the people in your life
and people are becoming curators and publishers themselves. It's what the video
says about us when we share it.
I like to be the funny guy so i share the funny video. And so i think what you're seeing
now is the web is maturing, social signals are becoming a bigger and bigger
part of it and there's going to be a higher bar for content creators to make things that
people actually want to watch and share.
From two thousand 'til two thousand six,
accidental would be the key word in characterizing these videos.
It's an extension from America's Funniest Videos. Some of the most prominent themes
will include cats, babies,
schadenfreude moments, repetitive types of music videos, animations, and
borderline obnoxious songs.
About two thousand six, there was the emergence of a remix artist community
on YouTube. Their primary role is to take an existing clip and, totally re-contextualizing them,
it took to the idea of viral culture to the next level. From there people
in the professional fields of video production started taking notice. Videos
like dick in a box, like a boss. These videos totally took the absurd humor that
has been running through internet videos and they just introduced them to a much
wider audience. That was the checkpoint where mainstream and internet culture
is really converging. How do we one up from there?
That's the driving engine that this convergence is bringing about.
Viral video has been fantastic for comedy.
As much as we try to predict what's going to be a huge hit on the internet, you never totally
know. And we try our best and there's things you can do. For example, I try to
always start from a place of
relatability. Like some topic that people have experienced before in some way.
Six Girls You'll Date In College. You're just like my dad.
You'll keep a picture of her to show to friends.
She will not.
With internet video, you just have to cram it. It's visually like
Hey keep watching! Don't click away! Hi! HI! HI! We try to keep everything very visual,
very fast and within like ten seconds everyone needs to be aware of
why is this funny, where its going to go. Another thing is
it's just, it's more about the execution of a concept that touches on a cultural
nerve. Pop culture. That's the thing that's being consumed the most. We did
have a One Direction parity where we just
totally called them
like the seventh sign of the
apocalypse.
And all the One Direction fans were like we
love it!
As long as you're covering things that they're interested in
they don't care what you say. People are a lot more likely to share with their friends a video that
they feel relates to their own lives in some way. But we're always surprised by what ends up becoming really popular.
Early on, brands started looking at You Tube creators and the so called viral videos they were making
and thought hey we can do this ourselves.
Initially they were trying to get free advertising. That they could mimic what was
going on on You Tube and with a gag or a funny joke
or a cute animal or a baby they could
replace their television advertising. Avion babies was sort of the first major
super successful viral campaign.
It reached over a billion views on You Tube. Just an amazing success. But what they found
over time is that these things cost money so
they're investing more in it.
I like power!
Old Spice did
hundreds of videos that were funny and made that campaign last over time. What's
interesting are start-ups out there and some established companies that are using video
as their only marketing strategy.
The dollar shave club
launched basically on a funny video. Another example is the orabrush guy.
Their strategy is a hundred percent video.
Videos that appeal to people's emotions also really work. Like the Google
campaigns do.
And those can be incredibly powerful but
you know they're not mentioning anything specific about Google. It's not just
trusting that
we can make good content and people will love us for it but it's trusting that we can
make good content that maybe really isn't even about us. This is about brands
creating content that people want to watch and it's really a revolutionary notion.
I love two to three minute stories. Storytelling is almost all I care about.
Motivation or inspiration behind my videos is just whatever I think is interesting at that moment. In two thousand
three the battery in my iPod died
and I was really broke back then so it was a huge deal and Apple wouldn't replace it.
"Apple doesn't offer a new
battery for the iPod?" "No."
We made a three minute movie about it and put it online.
It really exploded. It had about five million views in a couple of weeks and
that predated You Tube.
I always try to get a character
that's leading me through the story.
Whether they care about the specific subject matter or not
if they're invested in the character, it'll drive them through the videos.
I'm a big cyclist so naturally I make a lot of movies about bikes and I live in New York City
which is this amazing backdrop so it inspires you to want to tell that story. And that's
what like texting while walking was. it's hard to invest yourself in a generic
message but if its humanized, if there's a face behind it, it's something to have a
relationship with. So if i have the opportunity to type a title in using
software and it just pops up on the screen or I can draw the title and then film it,
by drawing it and filming it, you're seeing the human hand. You're seeing something I actually created.
I don't make movies for them to go viral. I just make the best movies I can and happen to just
love
three to five minutes. It's my favorite length for telling a story. And certainly that's
what I love about life more than anything else, is experiencing the world
through stories.
We think about viral as entertainment
but we've seen recently how powerful and very dramatic events can also spread
very quickly. So all of these trivial rules that we try to assign
to what becomes popular on the web
don't always apply. Those videos could possibly lead to
a discussion or a bigger debate about an issue, whether it be
interracial issues or bullying in schools. It's now starting to affect
politics. Like at the very start of the revolution in Egypt
there is a video of a guy staring down a water cannon.
it had elements of the Tiananmen
idea.
There's gotta be comforting feeling that somewhere, someone in the world, other people
are seeing the mess that you're in. So what we're seeing is transition from
receiving and consuming these videos
to talking about the video and
starting another chapter.
Now people are raising funds and doing things to actually make things happen.
When we think back and remember many of these moments, we'll remember them
through these You Tube videos. And
that is a very, very different thing.
Ten years ago it would take six months for something to reach it's full viral spread.
Eight years ago it took something like two or three months.
Then it got down to a week and now it's something that things can reach there full viral reach
within a day or two. I actually think were in this You Tube created renaissance of content. I
think it's cool that were in an era now where people are paying more attention to like
how to get to the funnier thing faster. So it is kind of a game, the viral
contest. I think You Tube is still entirely the wild wild west. Five years from now the
stuff that we're seeing
online will be
entirely different than right now. We're in sort of this transitional phase. We're just starting to understand
what happens when you open up the power of video to the masses. We're going to continue to see things that surprise us for the next decades.