It’s impossible to predict what the next viral trend is going to be, but if you’re going to capitalise on it to boost your brand, you need to be very quick. February’s Harlem Shake YouTube phenomenon is a prime example of this.
You probably haven’t heard of Maker Studios (a film production company in the United States), but in the past 13 days, more than 17-million people have watched a YouTube video of their staff goofing around at their office, and I’m pretty sure a fair percentage of that figure clicked through to their website link below the video.
How did this happen? Nine months ago, a song called Harlem Shake was released by Baauer. While it is a funky, upbeat tune, it never really took off – until February 2, when a group of young guys published a 31-second video of themselves dancing wildly to this track, sparking a viral wave of knock-off videos around the world.
The concept is simple: one person with a helmet of sorts on their head, dances solo to the Harlem Shake while other people in the background nonchalantly go about life as if nothing is happening. That is, until the beat drops at the 15-second mark and the video cuts to a mass, crazy dance scene for a further 16 seconds.
Maker Studios caught onto this and filmed their own version at their office. They certainly weren’t the only company in the world to do this, but they were probably the most successful. The video cost nothing to make (and can’t have taken very long to produce), so 17-million views is a pretty decent return. Imagine what that sort of free exposure could do for your brand.
Credit to Maker Studios for also linking to the Harlem Shake on iTunes, benefiting the creators of the song.
Watch the Maker Studios version of the Harlem Shake below:
See Cape Town Tourism’s blog about the best Harlem Shake Cape Town videos.