I thought about posting this video a while ago when I realized it had over 6,000 views, teaching some of kind of lesson about creating viral videos. But then something happened this weekend.
The Background
About a year and a half ago, my wife and I bought our first Condo. We quickly realized the water in the shower constantly backed up, which meant showering in dirty water, which is kinda gross, but manageable.
Then one day, I stumbled upon this home video some youtube user named RadTech92 made of him using the Zip-It drain tool. (Consider yourself warned that this video is absolutely disgusting, as is every other video I have in this post. RadTech92 Zip It Video)
Needless to say, I thought it might work for me so I went out to buy the tool and give it a shot. Couldn’t hurt right?
The Results
To stay true to the Internet, my friend Elan and I decided to film it. This is the outcome and nastiness that we managed to find:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPSZ5XjyRmk[/youtube]
But you ask, Aaron, why the hell are you showing me this disgusting video?
The point of all this
Well, good question indeed. First of all, as I mentioned in the beginning of the post, I wanted to write about this a while ago and share the success with everyone, but I didn’t feel there was a huge benefit in it. I mean, yes, it is the 3rd video to show up on youtube when you search for “zip it drain tool”, and yes it has over 6,500 views on youtube which is in my eyes remarkable, and yes it is awesome and disgusting at the same time. But the truth is, I wasn’t sure how well it would be received amongst my audience.
Second of all, over the weekend, it was brought to my attention that Zip It had gone ahead and made a montage of all the best Zip It video’s out there, and I am proud to say that I am one of them!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkk0-cReLsM[/youtube]
Well, I guess proud isnt the best word to use.
But thirdly, and most importantly, a couple thoughts come to mind:
- 1. Its remarkable how this “Zip-It” culture came about, with all these users creating and sharing these horrific and disgusting videos.
- 2. I guess anyone who makes a impromptu video, and I mean one thats not scripted, has some regrets on things they said or did (i.e. my stupid Mario Brothers impression attempt) or things they wish they had thought of at the time. But I guess thats what makes it real.
- 3. Zip-It, or whoever is behind this montage, did a really nice job, but I will say this, they should have done a better job leveraging the users. I am fairly certain each and everyone of us would have been more than happy to help them promote this video for free. I am lucky it was even brought to my attention.
- 4. This just goes to show how crucial digital involvement is. I don’t think they will even make a million bucks from a twitter account. But they certainly can make a million views. And those views will establish them as a staple household item that everyone recognizes.
Conclusion
So other than showing off a bit of my success, learning a couple insights that the brand could have done better, thats all I got. Anyone else have any thoughts?