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The Surprising Way to 60M Views
This week, I want to give you a comparison of what worked, what didn't quite work, and why.
What Worked
This mirror trick has done 60M views on Instagram (25M in the first 24hrs).
I show you a regular mirror and then through my editing powers magically make the glass disappear.
What Didn't Quite Work
Here's a collection of tricks from a recent tropical trip. The idea was to challenge myself to mostly film background plates, get the hand elements in my backyard, and seamlessly blend them together.
It's a fun video and I learned a new, valuable workflow (that saved me on a recent brand deal), but it didn't really get the blessing of the algorithm.
Why?
Jonah Berger wrote a great book called Contagious: Why Things Catch On. He has an entire chapter dedicated to emotional sharing and how high-arousal emotions like awe, amusement, and excitement greatly increase sharing and fuel online virality.
Both my mirror and travel video feature moments of surprise and amusement. But what I think takes the mirror trick to the next level has to do with how the surprise is set up.
Like a good magic trick, I spend a decent amount of time showing you that I'm holding an ordinary mirror (I'm not). It reflects the room and it reflects me. So when it's suddenly gone, I'm soliciting a high-arousal emotion when you realize at some point you were fooled by not paying close enough attention.
In the travel video, I'm still using skillful editing to create moments of wonder, but they lack set up. In nearly every trick, I suddenly do something magical. Rather than being delightfully fooled, you're more likely to be slightly tickled. Not a high-arousal emotion.
One More Example
Here's another recent video that did about 20M views on the first day. It's a bit high-level, but I take a making-of split screen format and sneakily merge it into a single video.
Again, establishing something 'ordinary' (this time, a format), lulling the audience into a sense of understanding, and then flipping it on its head. Surprise! You've been fooled. Leads to a lot more shares.
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