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Anatomy of a Successful Viral Video

younggogetter.com — there was a video post (Trust Me Im A Professional) that hit the front page of Digg.com today, where in a video supposedly shot in 1984 a motivation speaker talks a woman into doing a trust fall where she smacks her head on the floor. -- It is called a viral video. Made specifically to fool you into talking about it.

Who dugg this? Made popular Aug 23, 2007

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43 Comments

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  • xxpor, on 10/10/2007, -4/+16Successful viral video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBGIQ7ZuuiU
  • eastbrook, on 10/10/2007, -1/+9And the biggest mystery of all... the mullet.
  • superdoop9, on 10/10/2007, -1/+8I can see how this could happen. There is a lot of things you can do with video and graphics that fool a lot of people into things that aren't real. Sometimes it's tough to judge it. Thanks for telling us about it.
  • TroubleInMind, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5Wonderfully subtle -- this comment delivers.
  • rkuchiki, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4I think "Will it Blend" is the most successful Viral Video advertising...
  • Junkyarddawg, on 10/10/2007, -6/+10I really tried to read this, but all I got was "Hello, please hire our ad agency".
  • danarama, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4not true viral is created, enhanced, perpetuated... soooooooooooooo many examples and a lot simply suck as video. i agree if a client mentions it it's probably a stupid idea though.
  • SeaMowse, on 10/10/2007, -2/+5Funny how I figured this out. Before I read the rest of your article, I viewed the video. To me, it looked completely fake. She fell onto a gymnastics mat - I could tell by the way she bounced when she hit the floor, and the way she used her arms to 'break' her fall made it obvious to me that she was in on the stunt. Then when I clicked back to your article, I could see that I was right.
  • MikeonTV, on 10/10/2007, -3/+5So was it 1984 or 1994? This is *****. We need to get to the bottom of this!
  • Junkyarddawg, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3Possibly. Many of the "spontaneous" viral videos were really made by ad agencies or companies with the intent of becoming viral videos - "will it blend" and "Hillary 1984" are two good examples.
  • blacklilyninja, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2haha i dont get rickrolled often but that one was well deserved
  • bobcrotch, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3"This video was made to make you talk about it"

    No *****? Really? Are you sure it wasn't a video hack?
  • jbmercha, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Anyone else read "a Successful Viral Video of Anatomy"?
    /Member of the National Dyslexic Association (DNA).
  • eNthem, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1We were all fooled... since we are talking about it.
  • Kitsune818, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Real viral is better. Cok-lit Raain!
  • merrickx, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Wow, you never would think this was a viral video... there doesn't seem to be any obvious motivation and it looks a lot older than the popularity of viral videos is.
  • BigManOnCampus, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1And getting it passed around is easy to do, just visit every news aggregate site and post links to the video as often as you can. Eventually one of them will get noticed and bingo... effect achieved.
  • dotlizard, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1"#3 Mullets Scientists still can’t explain why some people still think mullets are cool or why the rest of us can’t help but love them." Yay mullets!
  • mlostracco, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1This video and ad campaign on a fictional summer camp where kids learned to shoot AK-47s and lob grenades (http://www.digg.com/offbeat_news/Canadian_Summer_Camp_Teaches_Children_To_Shoot_AK_47s/ ) outraged Torontonians this week who didn't realize it was an awareness campaign for a charity. Residents were running around tearing the posters down, completely outraged that children were being taught to fight and navigate minefields...which was the whole point of the campaign. It's just that the kids who ARE learning this aren't the Canadian ones.
  • thelab101, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1I wrote this a few months ago, a perspective from a creative in advertising on viral video

    http://www.laboratory101.com/?p=15
  • cicovc, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1I had the same question
  • i208khonsu, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1How to make people watch a video about making people watch videos.
  • felchdonkey, on 10/10/2007, -4/+4There's nothing more annoying that when a client says, "let's put a viral video on our site!" One client even said, swear to god, "you know what's really going to be big? This YouTube thing. We should put some viral video on our home page."

    News flash, suits: you can't MAKE a video "viral." You can only make it good, and hope it gets passed around.
  • dreamvalley, on 06/07/2009, -0/+0Inspiration comes in Tough times
    Every time When we saw success of Gandhiji,Amitabh bachchan and successful cricketers but How did they handle their tough times.Watch this Very Inspirational
  • inactive, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1BULLCRAP
    "Scientists still can’t explain why some people still think mullets are cool or why the rest of us can’t help but love them."
    You mean Mr hanky the scientist?

    The author is a *****.
  • inactive, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1No, I'd blame it on bad company. Your mom is a dirty talking slut.
  • PureForm, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1Wow, such strong words from such a little boy. Does your mommy know you use those words? Shame on you.
  • nakp88d, on 10/10/2007, -1/+0OMG! How did you guys fall for this.You just made it viral for real by digging it up to the front page.
  • spazmaster, on 10/10/2007, -1/+0successful viral in the netherlands: http://www.maakjijstraksnaam.nl
    some dutch scientific research points out that your success in life is linked to your name.
  • walnutcrunch, on 10/10/2007, -1/+0Now this is viral video... Otters holding hands http://youtube.com/watch?v=epUk3T2Kfno
    Nothing to do with the Vancouver Aquarium, other than a guest shot it there, but the payoff in positive PR for the Aquarium is huge. Pretty much every national broadcaster in North America, Japan and Europe did a piece on it and it has over 7 million views on YT. It's a perfect storm of PR but you can't create a piece like this. So many things go right from a story point of view and from a reality point of view. Actors just cannot sound like real people.
  • Anrkist, on 10/10/2007, -2/+1Video or it didn't happen... or did it?
  • Klak, on 10/10/2007, -2/+0no you got me!
  • SublimeRuin, on 10/10/2007, -3/+1video is good......
    http://www.battlemyass.com/videos.html
    http://www.battlemyass.com/dearjoe.html
    http://www.battlemyass.com/wwtd.html
  • jonshipman, on 10/10/2007, -3/+1blast!
  • dannydowney, on 11/05/2007, -3/+1The internet is way cool, interesting post.
  • danarama, on 10/10/2007, -3/+1...taking notes...
  • howea, on 10/10/2007, -3/+0hahaha, now thats what I call Neuralgia ... I mean nostalgia
  • howea, on 10/10/2007, -3/+0hahaha, now thats what I call Neuralgia ... I mean nostalgia
  • mattdiggsit, on 11/05/2007, -4/+0who the hell is rick roll? is that guy for real? I recognize that song...
  • cicovc, on 10/10/2007, -6/+2Huh? What are you talking about?
  • devoted, on 10/10/2007, -5/+0its basically all about how you fit the babes in the funny story. Check this one for example - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xywPkRPO5s4
  • shorty9, on 10/10/2007, -6/+1Thankfully, the internet is still full of COOL viral videos that became popular by natural selection, and not by schemes. And they are far better and will be longer remembered, I'm sure. http://tinyurl.com/2j5kua
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