WEBVTT 00:00:16.420 --> 00:00:21.927 Hi I'm Kevin Allocca. I'm the trends manager of Youtube and I professionally watch youtube videos 00:00:21.927 --> 00:00:23.593 It's true 00:00:23.593 --> 00:00:28.545 So we are going to talk a little bit today about how videos go viral and why that even matters 00:00:28.545 --> 00:00:32.927 we all want to be stars. Uh celebrities, singers, comedians. 00:00:32.927 --> 00:00:36.545 and when I was younger that seemed so very very hard to do. 00:00:36.545 --> 00:00:43.709 but now web video has made it so that any of us or any of the creative things that we do can become completely famous in a part of our world's culture 00:00:43.709 --> 00:00:47.710 I mean, any one of you could be famous on the internet by next Saturday 00:00:47.710 --> 00:00:51.828 But there are over fourty-eight hours of video uploaded to Youtube every minute [In Text: 48:00] 00:00:51.828 --> 00:00:57.528 and of that only a tiny percentage ever goes viral and gets tons of views and becomes a cultural moment [In Text: < tiny tiny % have more than 1M views] 00:00:57.528 --> 00:00:59.728 so how does it happen? 00:00:59.728 --> 00:01:01.295 three things 00:01:01.295 --> 00:01:05.478 tastemakers, communities of participation, and unexpectedness 00:01:05.478 --> 00:01:07.128 Alright Let's go 00:01:07.128 --> 00:01:20.762 [Background: Oh oh.oh my god oh my god (laughter) wooh oh wow] 00:01:20.762 --> 00:01:26.261 Last year, "Bear" Vasquez posted this video that he had shot outside his home in Yosemite National Park 00:01:26.261 --> 00:01:29.940 In 2010 it was viewed 23 million times 00:01:30.510 --> 00:01:33.777 This is a chart of what it looked like when it first became popular 00:01:33.777 --> 00:01:35.794 last summer 00:01:35.794 --> 00:01:38.861 but he didn't actually set out to make a viral video "Bear" 00:01:38.861 --> 00:01:43.449 He just wanted to share a rainbow because that's what you do when your name is "Yosemite Mountain Bear" 00:01:45.728 --> 00:01:52.745 and he had posted lots of nature videos in fact this video had been posted all the way back in January 00:01:52.745 --> 00:01:54.895 So what happened here 00:01:54.895 --> 00:01:55.848 Jimmy Kimmel 00:01:55.848 --> 00:01:57.036 actually 00:01:57.545 --> 00:02:02.980 Jimmy Kimmel posted this tweet that would actually propel the video to be as popular as it had become 00:02:02.980 --> 00:02:08.611 [In Text: Tastemakers] because tatemakers like Jimmy Kimmel introduce us to new and interesting things and bring them to a larger audience 00:02:08.611 --> 00:02:22.243 [Background: (Music) It's Friday, Friday gotta get down on friday. Everybody's looking forward to the weekend weekend. Friday Friday gettin' down on Friday] 00:02:22.243 --> 00:02:27.161 So you didnt think that we could actually have this conversation without talking about this video I hope 00:02:27.161 --> 00:02:30.311 Uh Rebecca Black's Friday has become one of the most popular videos of the year 00:02:30.311 --> 00:02:32.710 it's been seen nearly 200 million times this year 00:02:33.248 --> 00:02:36.110 This is a chart of what it looked like and 00:02:36.110 --> 00:02:40.895 similar to double rainbow it seemed to have just sprouted up out of nowhere 00:02:40.895 --> 00:02:43.428 so what happened on this day 00:02:43.428 --> 00:02:46.045 Well it was a friday, this is true 00:02:46.045 --> 00:02:47.794 And if you were wondering about those other spikes 00:02:47.794 --> 00:02:49.745 those were also Fridays 00:02:53.806 --> 00:02:57.961 But what about this day, this one particular Friday 00:02:57.961 --> 00:02:59.937 Well Tosh.0 picked it up 00:02:59.952 --> 00:03:01.343 A lot of blogs started writing about it 00:03:01.343 --> 00:03:06.711 Michael J. Nelson from Mystery Science Theater was one of the first people to post a joke about the video on Twitter 00:03:06.711 --> 00:03:09.935 But what's important is that an individual or a group of tastemakers 00:03:09.935 --> 00:03:14.698 took a point of view and they shared that with a larger audience accelerating the process 00:03:14.698 --> 00:03:18.094 and so then this community formed of people who shared this big inside joke 00:03:18.094 --> 00:03:20.895 and they started talking about it and doing things with it 00:03:20.895 --> 00:03:25.005 and now there are 10 thousand parodies of Friday on Youtube 00:03:25.359 --> 00:03:29.341 even in the first 7 days there was one parody for every other day of the week 00:03:33.928 --> 00:03:36.758 Unlike the one way entertainment of the 20th century 00:03:36.758 --> 00:03:40.719 [In Text: Participation] This community participation is how we become a part of the phenomenon 00:03:40.719 --> 00:03:42.778 either by spreading it or doing something new with it 00:03:42.993 --> 00:03:52.627 [music] 00:03:52.627 --> 00:03:57.448 So uh Nyan Cat is a looped animation with looped music 00:03:57.448 --> 00:03:58.412 It's this 00:03:58.412 --> 00:03:59.677 Just like this 00:03:59.677 --> 00:04:03.378 It's been uh viewed nearly 50 million times this year 00:04:03.378 --> 00:04:09.510 and if you think that that is weird you should know that there is a 3 hour version of this that has been viewed 4 million times 00:04:12.111 --> 00:04:15.104 even cats were watching this video 00:04:18.828 --> 00:04:21.963 cats were watching other cats watch this video 00:04:27.195 --> 00:04:28.835 alright but 00:04:29.528 --> 00:04:30.895 [laughs] 00:04:30.895 --> 00:04:33.343 but what's important here what's important here 00:04:33.343 --> 00:04:38.545 is the creativity that it inspired amongst this techy-geeky internet culture 00:04:38.545 --> 00:04:39.811 there were remixes 00:04:39.811 --> 00:04:42.875 [music] 00:04:42.875 --> 00:04:44.478 someone made an old-timey version 00:04:44.478 --> 00:04:48.028 [music] 00:04:48.028 --> 00:04:49.844 and then it went international 00:04:49.844 --> 00:05:05.214 [music] 00:05:05.214 --> 00:05:12.795 An entire remix community sprouted up that brought it from being just a stupid joke to something that we can be apart of 00:05:12.795 --> 00:05:16.061 because we don't just enjoy now we participate 00:05:16.061 --> 00:05:19.927 [violin playing] 00:05:19.927 --> 00:05:21.478 and who could have predicted any of this 00:05:21.478 --> 00:05:24.591 who could have predicted Double Rainbow or Rebecca Black or Nyan Cat 00:05:24.591 --> 00:05:28.794 what scripts could you have written that would have contained this in it 00:05:30.794 --> 00:05:34.595 In a world where over 2 days of video get uploaded ever minute 00:05:34.595 --> 00:05:38.999 [In Text: Unexpectedness] Only that which is truly unique and unexpected can stand out in the way that these things have 00:05:38.999 --> 00:05:41.245 When a friend of mine told me that I needed to see this 00:05:41.245 --> 00:05:45.293 This great video of a guy protesting bicycle fines in New York City 00:05:45.293 --> 00:05:47.443 I admit I wasn't that interested 00:05:47.443 --> 00:05:55.259 [Background: So I got a ticket for not riding in the bike lane but often there are obstructions that keep you from properly riding in the bike lanes] 00:06:05.461 --> 00:06:06.227 Yeah.. 00:06:09.228 --> 00:06:11.711 By being totally surprising and humorous 00:06:11.711 --> 00:06:17.812 Casey Neistat got his funny idea and point seen 5 million times 00:06:17.812 --> 00:06:21.245 And so this approach holds for anything new that we do creatively 00:06:21.245 --> 00:06:24.861 and so it all brings us to one big question: 00:06:24.861 --> 00:06:29.827 [Background: What does this mean?] 00:06:29.827 --> 00:06:34.071 [In Text: What does it Meeeaan?!?] 00:06:34.071 --> 00:06:35.907 What does it mean 00:06:36.107 --> 00:06:41.127 Tastemakers, creative participating communities, complete unexpectedness 00:06:41.127 --> 00:06:44.791 These are characteristics of a new kind of media and a new kind of culture 00:06:44.791 --> 00:06:48.994 where anyone has access and the audience defines the popularity 00:06:48.994 --> 00:06:51.861 I mean as mentioned earlier, one of the biggest stars in the world right now 00:06:51.861 --> 00:06:53.178 Justin Bieber 00:06:53.178 --> 00:06:54.860 got his start on youtube 00:06:54.860 --> 00:07:01.011 No one has to green light your idea and we all now feel some ownership in our own pop culture 00:07:01.011 --> 00:07:03.445 and these are not characteristics of old media 00:07:03.445 --> 00:07:06.095 and they are barely true of the media of today 00:07:06.095 --> 00:07:09.161 but they will define the entertainment of the future 00:07:09.161 --> 00:07:10.391 Thank You