✨STORYTELLING CONCEPT: PERI-VIDEO EXPERIENCE ✨ I think there’s definitely something significant to take away from the success of the Minecraft movie. Despite the movie itself apparently being terrible, the memes around it have been strong. Audiences have been going absolutely wild in the theatre, because satire metamorphosizes a cringe thing into becoming uncringe. Most importantly, many of the world’s greatest cultural memes of recent have - quite specifically - been moments of mass shared joy and wonder. The release of Pokémon GO was actually really similar. The app is only kind of fun and has an extremely simple but repetitive mechanic. But I remember leaving my friends house at 3am at night to the local pier to try to catch a rare Pokémon, only to find 20 other strangers at the same peer who, like me, should have all been asleep. So the actual content itself — the game, the movie, the YouTube video — is one thing. But the experience that people create around it is another. ‘Peri-video experience’ requires a higher technical skill and effort than just making a really good video, because there’s a few key elements that require work and a bit of luck. Specifically, thinking about patterns between: - Pokémon GO - Minecraft movie - Ghiblification (OpenAI) 1. Pre-love. Pokémon Go, Minecraft, and anything that goes ultra-viral typically has a huge initial base from which they can accelerate. It’s going to be much easier for people to love something in the direction they already love. Nostalgia (which I’ve talked about in-depth before) also ties into this. 2. Interactivity. This is a very different thing from normal videos. The audiences aren’t passive watchers of the content, but active participants. They make up part of its story, which is extraordinarily unique. There is no extra incentive for them other than they want to be part of the fun, too. 3. Mimetic takeoff on a single social platform. Usually this is TikTok at the forefront, which then spreads to other platforms quickly. In Ghiblification’s case, it was actually X. YouTube doesn’t tend to be the mimetic takeoff platform, due to the fact that (2) is a requirement. 4. New technology could help. An optional thing (e.g. Pokémon GO, Ghiblification, the iPhone — but not Minecraft movie). Physical objects would help, because they become easily shareable and easy to point to. Tangibility also tends to increase the emotional impact of something, because it’s something you can share with friends in person easily and immediately. 5. A kind of shocking novelty and uniqueness. Surprise is usually at the core of the ultra-viral, being the primary emotion there. Ideally, it should be unlike anything ever seen before, to take up its unique space in one’s mind. 6. Lets people create new friends. Culturally impactful ultra-virality like this are inherently pro-social in nature. — These are simply a series of observations about ultra-virality. Ultimately, creating more fun in the world is a great thing.
I write at CreatorSide.io, thinking deeply about YouTube strategy. Plan to write more soon for creators.
