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Blog Archive - Mon 26th Sep 2011 - Viral Video Boom - Heason Events

Viral Video Boom

26th Sep 2011

The past couple of years has seen a massive boom in viral videos, but plenty of people are not really sure what they are. To put the record straight, and introduce this article:

A viral video is one that becomes popular through the process of Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites, social media and email {Wikipedia}

One of the most popular, and some would say, surprising, genres of viral video is extreme sports. A few years ago a previously unknown trials mountain biker from the Isle of Skye became an overnight superstar thanks to a video he and a friend uploaded to Youtube. His name was Danny McAskill and his life was turned upside down by the attention that the video brought him. The video, called Inspired Bicycles has so far had over 27million hits on Youtube! For a long while it was in the top ten videos of ALL TIME on Youtube. Quite staggering really. Danny was quickly snapped up by the masters of the viral video Red Bull. These guys are churning out a couple of videos a day, as are others, so that we are now literally drowning in the things. I’ve decided to make things a little easier for folk out there who just want to watch the good stuff, and to sort through many of the daily videos, posting a Daily Adventure Dose on Facebook and Twitter. Just follow me on Twitter or Like my Facebook page and you will get to see them. Here are a few examples (and they are not all Red Bull!):

Night Surfing
Cranberry Wake Boarding
Bag Jumping

There are loads more to go look at on the Facebook page.

There are so many good virals out there that at ShAFF this year we are introducing a brand new judging category specifically for them. You might wonder why it’s be worth paying to go to the cinema to watch what is essentially available onlilne. Well, the argument is pretty much the same as my Blog post this time last year: Big Picture, Big Sound System, Big Crowd. However there is another reason which applies to virals. You can watch them again and again and not only enjoy them multiple times, but actually get more from them the more times you watch them in some cases.

I suppose there’s an argument that by doing this I am simply promoting adverts, which is what they are at the end of the day. Well I don’t have a problem with this. We’re subjected to adverts in so much of our daily lives that I look on this as a service to sort out the good from the bad. Of course, I won’t be posting anything advertising the arms trade or Jeremy Clarkeson! I;m aware that a lot of folk don’t care for Red Bull, but if you put aside your loathing for the actual drink, it has to be said that they are doing great things for the world of sport.

So, if you haven’t got the time or inclination to search the net for the best adventure / extreme sports clips then let me do it for you. Even better, come along to ShAFF and watch the best of them on a big screen.

To finish off, here is one of my all time favourites: