Marketers can learn a lot from Damien Walters’ story. Walters is an exceptionally talented gymnast from the United Kingdom. In the past month, this Youtube video of him performing a series of amazing maneuvers has been watched by almost 2.5 million people. He flips over cars, walks up walls and does all manners of amazing feats that humans don’t usually do. The viral power of his video is just the type of content marketers would pay any amount of money to harness. But no amount of money or media buys could get this sort of unique exposure. Why? Because Damien Walters possesses a talent very few people have, and because of this, he has exclusivity.
Lesson #1: If the product is not unique, the viral medium won’t move it.
2.5 million people have seen Walters perform his stunts. As we learned above, they most likely believe his talents to be unlike anyone else’s in the world. They are wrong. At the time of writing this, Walters is ranked 5th in the world in tumbling. There are approximately four people better than him in his discipline. Why don’t we know their names? There are a few reasons: Walters’s video is packaged with a modern, energetic soundtrack. In the video, he is not only performing in a gymnasium—he is captured in urban environments, in and on moving vehicles, on buildings, in trees—he has taken the skill that four other people in the world can do better than him, and repackaged it in a way that is new and exciting (performing these maneuvers in the urban environment is known as Parkour or Free-running). What does Walters know that his competitors don’t?
Lesson #2: Packaging matters. If packaged poorly, the medium won’t move it.
It’s fair to assume that the common reaction from the people who see Walters perform is disbelief. The stunts he does are jaw-dropping. They are unlike anything most of us have seen. Or are they? Surely, we’ve all seen similar stunts in kung-fu movies like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or in action movies like The Matrix trilogy. The difference is that Walters’ video is authentic. It is done without special effects, equipment assistance or stuntmen (Walters is a professional stuntman). The Youtube video is an organic product of Walters’ passion and talent. It is the real deal, something much more enticing than the staged equivalent.
Lesson #3: Authenticity is at the core of viral’s value. Create something special, and the medium will deliver it.
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Mike,
Very interesting article. Thanks for sharing.
Mike,
Very interesting article. Thanks for sharing.