Viral Videos

Ah, the age-old question we ask ourselves when looking at everyday objects: Will it blend? The “Will it Blends?” YouTube series has been hugely successful for the blender company, Blendtec. These short segments, shot in an old-fashioned infomercial-style–right down to the Times New Roman font and cheesy intros–captivate millions his video by Playstation Japan, made to create hype for the release of the game Gravity Rush 2, is quite unique for a video game ad in that it only shows in-game footage for around 30 seconds near the end of the video. Instead of focusing on the game, the story of two sisters and their gravity-defying cat draws viewers in. This think-outside-the-box approach not only caused the video to go viral and get people excited about the game but it also won the company an impressive amount of awards, including a coveted Gold Pencil There’s something about a Rube Goldberg machine that makes it pretty much impossible to turn away. We need to watch to the end to find out what simple task is going to be completed from all of these extravagant, connected movements. But along with the Rube Goldberg machine, this video also has a powerful message. It shows young girls that are tired of their pink, princess toys working together to build something. It perfectly embodies the slogan of the GoldieBlox company: Toys for Future Engineers. Similar to the Tech Insider video, this video answers a question that is of obvious public interest. It also uses bright animation, and smooth captivating transitions, making for an easy watch. The video is entertaining, including many pop culture references, but it is comprehensive at the same time. It takes the topic, in this case, artificial intelligence, and breaks it down into digestible chunks of information. It was also released along with viewers time and time again. The company also encourages social interaction by asking viewers to post their suggestions for upcoming videos to Facebook. When Volvo wanted to demonstrate the stability and precision of their dynamic steering, they did the obvious thing: hired Jean-Claude Van Damme to do the splits between two of their trucks. This video is a recipe for success: Van Damme, Enya, a beautiful Spanish sunset. Of course, we don’t all have the budget for that, but one impressive thing about the video that you can emulate to increase the viral-ability of your own video is that it was shot in just one take! Videos shot in one-take can captivate audiences–especially if an impressive stunt is involved!