#034 Why Did That Video Go Viral?
Listen to the Generation Social Media Podcast on Apple Podcasts | SoundCloud | Spotify | YouTube | Google Podcasts | RadioPublic | Overcast | Anchor | Castbox | Breaker
How does a random cellphone video of a middle-aged man skateboarding, chugging juice, and jamming to a 40-year old banger from Fleetwood Mac go viral on a platform for Gen Z? A viral video might just be as lightning in a bottle as Fleetwood Mac's songs topping the charts, but there are replicable elements you need to draw inspiration from. Honeywave owner Taylor Grote, and Chatterkick COO, Kelsey Martin talk influencers, finding content creators, and creating relatable, engaging human stories.
Biggest Takeaways From This Episode
It's a video that had everyone talking, CEOs and celebs skateboarding, and OceanSpray Cran-Raspberry juice flying off the shelves. The stats speak for themselves:
2.3M views within 7 hours
66.1M+ views
11M Likes
15B Media impressions for Ocean-Spray
Fleetwood Mac's song became a chart-topper 40 years later
Why Did It Go Viral?
Gen Z didn't know Dreams by Fleetwood Mac is dope. Now they do.
Cruising on a longboard is COOL.
It was an undeniable vibe.
DoggFace has been creating really authentic content that breaks through the noise. He makes life look fun; he's the source of good vibes that everyone needed!
You can not make a viral video. It is lightning in a bottle. You can take the elements of authentic, relatable, good vibes, and partner with content creators or make storytelling content yourself.
How to Leverage Viral Or Great Content?
Have a solid social listening strategy
Look for people making content about your brand.
If a creator is making content, connect with them! Hook them up with some swag, shout them out, create a partnership to leverage the content.
Hear Taylor's story about a missed content opportunity by Home Depot or Sioux City at 11:30 in the episode.
Seriously... google Dads rap at Home Depot, you'll see what he's talking about!
Go The Micro-Influencer Route
If you have the budget and support to build an influencer program, we highly encourage a micro-influencer route.
Really define your audience niche and build your audience persona
Find a creator who makes really great content and has a proven track record of being a great storyteller, regardless of how many followers they have
Give the creator the expectation of the final product: We want you to make something about you having a good time with your friends with this product
Give them creative freedom
Approve the final content
Have them post on their channels and create an agreement to also use their content in your multi-channel approach
Hear Taylor's story about being a micro-influencer for Budweiser at 16:30 in the episode
Forget the program, find creators and get them your products.
Don't make ads; create content! If you don't want a full program, find content creators and partner with them like a creative contractor.
How can your product or service create a relatable human experience? Get your product in the hands of a content creator, and give them the space to shoot an entire experience.
For example, if you're an RV company. Get an RV to an incredible content creator to make a vlog about going to the Grand Canyon with dad for the first time. Or a funny documentary-style video about a dad flexing at the campsite with the new RV.
Get inspiration from incredible videos from Josh Berendes.
If you don't have a product, don't worry, your business IS the experience. It's the experience you provide your clients, the experience you provide your team.
For example, have a videographer come in and just get to know your team and your clients. They're MADE to be story investigators. After a few hours, they'll tell you the story. Then, let them follow that person around for 3 days and make a documentary-style video about that story and the impact of your experience. These types of videos are incredibly powerful in recruitment campaigns.
Get inspiration from incredible videos from Ceara Kirkpatrick.
Want your question to be answered on the generation social media podcast? Tell us what it is here!
Transcript
This text below is a straight up audio transcript of the episode. In our humble opinion, we think the audio podcast sounds much better in its original form. We have not edited the transcription below so there are indeed some grammar errors (some quite funny, in-fact).
So this wouldn't be a social media podcast If we didn't talk about the biggest trending piece of content on TikTok ever. So I'm Kelsey Martin and I'm Taylor Grote. We brought Taylor Grote back onto the episode of the podcast to talk about the most viral piece of content on TikTok. Now, I guess for the three of you, maybe that haven't heard about this, I'm going to just like set the scene a little bit and then we're going to dive into like, why you think this went viral. Give me your thoughts. And I know Taylor has like specific feels on TikTok in general, but just to set the scene. So doggface208, which his name's Nathan, by the way. 420Doggface208 by the way. Nope. It's just doggface208. Oh yeah. You messed that up.
He upped his public image, I guess. Yeah.
He, he changed it. Well, his URL is that or used to be that he's now changed. Yeah.
You see, like, if you look 420doggface208 and then it's just Doggface208
It's probably his name. His username is still 420doggface208. So what an intro we're really like killing it. But anyways, so Nathan posted a video on TikTok. He's just like skateboarding, chilling, listening to Dreams by Flatwood... Omg. Should we restart this? No, you're all right. It's Fleetwood Mac...drinking cran raspberry ocean spray. So he posts this video. He literally almost decided not to post the video. His truck broke down, hopped on a skateboard recorded this video couldn't even hear the music cause the wind was so loud, caught the last part of it. I guess, singing post the video within seven hours of posting the video gets 2.3 million views on TikToK. Now the video is about 66.1 million views on TikToK has 11 million likes and is completely started like a across platform trend from people like replicating this both on TikToK and off TikToK. It's completely set like a cultural phenomenon, I guess like maybe in my opinion, more so than other like viral videos have in the past. So give me your, like, why did this go viral?
Oh man, I got some thoughts on
This. I mean get into it.
Number one. I think that what it has to deal with is the largest demographic on TikToK generation Z didn't know how much of a slapper Dreams by Fleetwood Mac is. So they were like number 1, wow, this song's dope. And then number two, anybody who has ever written a longboard knows that like the best feeling in the whole reason you have a longboard is like those long stretches of road where it's got a gradual decline and you can just, you know, have a good vibes the whole way down. You don't got to worry about exercise. And number three is just like breaking this down. Right? I think that the whole thing of like be, you know, your truck breaks down, but Oh, well I got this bottle of ocean cran ocean or something like
Cran raspberry ocean spray
Cran Raspberry ocean spray. And you're like, all right, I got this bottle of juice. I have a long board and it's a nice day. I'm going to go just skateboard the rest of the afternoon. And like, I think that the vibe there is just undeniable. So yeah, I think that that's like, I guess I've been a fan of Doggface since like probably, and I'm not a TikToK fan in general. I hate to say that as somebody who's involved with social media, but it's different. It's just not, not my type of content that I'm really searching out for. But I think that from the beginning he's been somebody I've been aware of because he is like such a, all of his original videos were just like him dancing inside of a warehouse where he works. Yeah. Like he'd be doing like dance scenes from movies through like, and it was funny too. Cause you know, he's like a middle-aged dude and he's like around all of these other middle-aged guys or older guys that are working at a blue collar job site doing like warehouse work. And you can tell everybody else like, what the hell? And there's this guy who's just like dancing, like nobody else's there. Yeah. So from the beginning, he's just been kind of like a, a source of good vibes. And I think that the skateboarding video just brought that to the masses.
Yeah. It was like all of the things just kind of combined, but I think that's the, I really dislike the word viral in like a lot of sense of it just cause I feel like, you know, you know, as a content creator, as businesses come to you and they're like, help us make a viral video, like it is like lightning in a bottle. It's the same concept of like even artists who put out albums have no idea really like which song is going to hit and which one isn't. Yeah. So, but it's all about just like the purity in the content creation side of it and just making something that you just like thoroughly enjoy. Yeah. But this one, I just, it's super interesting. Even if you look at the video, I'm just going to throw out some of the hashtags that he used in this video.
It's like #420souljas I can't even read that. What I want to say. I was like #feelingood #H2O #cloud9 #happyhippie #worldpeace. It's just like a bunch of random hashtags. And I think you just had to go with the whole vibe of the content. Now, like ocean spray obviously got a major lift in sales in general and like impressions. So they actually counted like 15 billion media impressions from this one piece of content that they didn't even like commission or have any like promotion on. But, and they're saying that they're seeing an immediate impact and retailers are having troubles, keeping the product on the shelf.
That's that's crazy. And I guess like I just, I use Apple music and they recently did the whole update for iOS 14 and I kind of put the the music that's like top of charts or whatever at one click away. So I clicked it and this was two weeks ago or whatever, I click it. And number one or like the number six song in the nation was
Dreams by Fleetwood Mac, yeah. They're topping charts and now their old albums are getting like high volume of streams. So now they do slap, but like, it's crazy because obviously that song was released over 40 years ago. But on the same context of even if ocean spray had like realized, okay, Nathan, like you're a really great creator and they would have paid him to do this. Like no advertiser ever would have been able to just use Fleetwood Mac's song, like and create a piece of content and use that like for free. And they would have been a whole level of like licensing
In the meeting at the marketing agency that would have put that together. They would have said, I got this creator, good vibes, real feel good, dude. People love him. What's his name? 420doggface208 people would be like, cut, no, no, find us one of the dancing Jake Paul kids or whatever. That would have been the instant. Like I, I mean, I don't think that I would have never pitched it in a marketing meeting because I know it wouldn't have made it outside of his username.
Right. No. And I think that that's part of the, the thing when you really break down like the influencer model, I really don't think that there is a defined influencer model right now, but what businesses are categorizing as influencers is finding an audience member in your space that has the most followers and is in line with your brand and then reach out to them and have them like do content for you. Whereas like he would have never landed on anybody's influencer list. I mean, that's not really fair to say, never, but like he wouldn't, but like for a lot of brands, right? Like I'm assuming like ocean spray again, if they were in that meeting and they were pitching influencers that are aligned with our brand, they probably would have went with somebody that had 5 million followers and trying to like get them to create content with just somebody dancing with the bottle.
Yeah. Yeah. It's like usually when people think of influencers, especially brands, they either think of like girls who are wearing bikinis in every photo or they think of those like rich kids from California that take triple their recommended dose of Ritalin everyday that are just off the walls. Cause that's it, those are I, for some reason when influencer marketing became a thing, I think a lot of agencies or businesses put those people in their head is like, Oh, it's
The people with the people with
10 million followers. Those are influencers when it's not necessarily about that.
Well, I think it's really interesting that what I like about ocean spray did, so they were listening and saw this happening and then, you know, they went and they got him a truck and they got him like I'm sure a lifetime supply of the cran raspberry, but they really did like get something moving quickly to help him out and to kind of like capitalize on the moment. Which both is kind of like eww, but also the fact that they were listening and in tune with like, regardless of his name and using like 420 hashtags and 420 in his name, like leveraging that and then using it to like help him out and then working a marketing plan off of that, as opposed to them just saying like that, let that just be what it is and like ride that out.
Yeah. That's the truth. And I mean, I've seen so many opportunities blown by businesses or even different organizations to promote something on social media that has caught fire that they didn't do anything about really because of some, can I give you an example? Right. So I made a music video like three years ago now that went viral. It, I think between it did like a quarter million views on YouTube, but then it on Facebook through all those like resharing meme accounts or whatever it was on unilad, it was on ViralityTV or whatever it was on. You got memed, basically. it was Dope. Yeah. It was on like the top five of the content re-shares. And it did like 50 million views between all of them. Like it was one of those deals where I went to, I looked at it before I went to bed and one or two of the accounts was over like 1.3 million views.
And I woke up the next morning, it was 35 million views on that video and I was going, Holy crap. But anyways, that video was filmed in front of home Depot because one of the people in the video worked a part-time job at home Depot. So they went in and asked and they were like, yeah, sure, go ahead. And we filmed out front of home Depot and in the garden section. So we didn't get in anybody's away. And like that video did 50 million views. And it said at the first line of the rap or the song was got a house in Sioux city. Right. And so it's a local group, DAD song, is called go to work. I don't think I plugged that yet. Dad go to work as the name of the song. And it's, you know how some Sioux city out in front of home Depot, neither the city of Sioux city, or even like any organization within Sioux city nor home Depot took any type of initiative to like go, Oh shoot, these guys already created a piece of content That's going crazy. I can hop in on this. Like we were on NBC's nightly news. We like we had all of, we had TV shows like segments on the news go like, bring it up, watch it on TV. They all did like the reactions to it. Still nothing just crickets.
Do you think that, so I guess like to take the context of ocean spray listening and seeing this is happening, then deciding to take action. Like, do you think that those places either just like weren't aware of it and weren't listening and watching or they just like, literally don't know how or were too terrified of it because it was rap.
It's a little bit of the, I don't know how, I don't even know where to start. Don't even know that it's a thing that they should go, Oh crap, this is going crazy. And we have a tangential relationship to it. Or, and I think that it's one of those deals where especially like Sioux city is going, Oh, it's a rap song
we don't want that to like brand us, even
Though I don't think that there is really a cuss word in the song. I think that they it's a really good song by the way. Yeah. I mean their first album did have cussing on it. So the album that, that song was on and I, that song didn't have cussing on it because from the start they were like, Oh, we want this video to be on Ellen. Sorry. There's we want,
Please watch like the visual version of it. I'm keeping that in there where Taylor just like snaps that nd out of the air.
But from the start they were like, we want this to go on Ellen. And I was like, we'll see. Yes. I think I'd probably made 40 music videos up to that point.
The memes were like, dad's murder trap beat.
Yeah. Yeah. It's like, whose dad? Come get your dad or something like that. Yeah. So, I mean, it was, and it was really easily memorable. It was like content that people can relate to. And it was about like mowing the lawn, doing dad stuff. So, I mean, if there was ever a company that could have promoted it, it would have been home Depot. Because if you look at the YouTube comments, it's like, Oh, dope. They're out in front of home Depot, even look at them in the lawn and garden section. So
Yeah. So I guess like, if you were a brand and you're listening to this and you're like, okay, well, I don't know what I would have done in that moment, but like the first piece of advice, like we could say is, go look for people who are already making cool content about your brand. Yeah. Like just start there and see if that even does exist. I think in manufacturing or some of these other like industries, it's, they're probably not going to find somebody that's already making music videos or making content about their brands. But if I'm a business listening to this and I obviously see, and like everybody wants a viral video, like how do you break that down and take the concepts of what like Nathan did with this video and build that in either into an influencer program or make that content yourself. Like, what is the key that you think that there needs to be in the content?
So I think that a business should go into it. Number one, you should know what type of business you are and like who your market really is. Right. Is so like ocean spray is something that's going to sit on every grocery, every grocery shelf in the nation, right. Everybody can go grab a bottle of juice. Right. Or, but you go to some of the other brands that it's like, maybe you are a manufacturing brand and you manufacture something that is meant for RVs. Okay. There's your crowd. Right. And then you segment down to who you're really looking for. I'd say that number two is give the creator that expectation of the final product, not in terms of here's what we want you to do, but just, we want this video or we want something that is about you having a good time with your friends and then going go create it.
So we're kind of talking about, Oh, we're going down the influencer space in a way. Or we're what really, what we're saying is like breaking down the constructs of like kind of take the whole model of like what you think an influencer is and how that, that model should go of finding somebody who's in your audience with a top number and like take that and set that aside. What we're really talking about is focusing on people who understand content and find a content creator who is naturally good with these tools, that's social, like what they are, tools, cameras like cameras in the way that you, whether you do it on your phone or your insane set up here. Like these are tools that people are like expressing their creativity. So find a content creator who is really good, who can, is obviously is storytelling in some way to, to either directly to your specific audience or not, and start a relationship and have that conversation. So you identify them, you talk to them about your brand and then give me the next steps.
Yes. Okay. So I can actually probably give a real-world example go through this in, I think 2018, 2017, maybe I had at the time probably had less than 3000 followers on Instagram, but
Which the buzzword term is what micro influencers. Yeah.
I would have been a micro-influencer and I guess I specifically made content about Sioux city and Iowa in general. Like all of my stuff was either like very Sioux city specific like warehouse districts and stuff like that. And kind of like the dirtier side of Sioux city, I guess I call it gritty. Yeah. The realer side to Sioux city plus. And I did like a lot of like farm or not farm, but like rural content. Right. So, and it was, all of my stuff was, is still pretty centered around like those two topics. Right. And Budweiser reached out and said, Hey, we are doing this 50 States campaign to, for the America cans for the 4th of July. We've selected you to be the representative from Iowa. And, you know, I wasn't, I definitely wasn't the person in Iowa with the most followers.
I, you know, there's more everybody who has some level of fame is more famous than me in Iowa. Right. And but they were like, we think that you represent what we're going for pretty well. And it's like, I guess I do, I do drink cheap domestic beer. So you hit the nail on the head. Yeah. And I, I just wish Busch light would have reached out honestly, but they, they kind of gave me some parameters when they reached out, they said on the 4th of July, we just want you to share a video of you doing something that is recognizably Iowa. It's a, it's an Iowa view with the Budweiser can in your hand. And like either being with friends or being alone, but, you know, and then they gave the parameters, like nobody under your 21 can be in the photo. There can't be anything going on. Yeah. You can't look like there couldn't be any cars or any other motor vehicles
In the photo. They kind of gave you like a very narrow.
Yeah. Well, I guess like, they kind of really what it was is just like, it's you having fun with Budweiser in Iowa? And they, and I, I think what I had to do was send them a few different photos and like, they had no part of like the actual production process, but I just, a week later I sent them back like five different photos. I was in Okoboji for some, out on farms for some that kind of stuff. And they were like, any one of those will work. So go ahead
They had to approve the content that you were going to post.
Yup. Yup. And then not necessarily, I guess yeah. Approval would be the word for it, but you know, like I said, they, they gave the green light to everything I sent over and the, I could do anything I wanted for the caption. I just had to say like this Bud's for you. I think with the #thisbudsforyou. And then I had to do the ad stuff or whatever, and this was before they had the whole like designation of ads. So it was just like you had to have on the first line, I think, #ad. Yeah. So yeah. And then that was, I guess that's a good example though, of like a major national brand going with somebody who fits what they're trying to do and let them do their thing rather than
They vetted you as a creator. And then just was like, here's an opportunity. I think didn't you, did you, you had to buy the case, right. Or they sent you?
It was pretty dope? They sent me, I got paid for it, plus a 24 pack of beer, plus a bunch of like exclusive Budweiser merch was only for the creators for that thing.
So you got some swag and got paid for it. Like, did you do one post
or Mulitple posts? One Post. And I like, I don't think I can talk about like the money, but yeah.
But so you did one post that gave you swag, basically. It was like a sponsored post. Yeah. But so like, to me that story that you just told is like very much in line with like what people think is like traditional influencer model, but more like a micro influencer route. How can like taking that again? It's way easier to conceptualize this for Budweiser.
Right. And I guess that's from that's from the start. That's good. That's going, we want to do an influencer campaign. Right. Where would the Doggface thing, I mean, I wasn't in there for the conversations or whatever, but it's more just taking conversations going on about your brand and being a member of that conversation or being a part of that conversation. So I guess I don't really, I can't really tell you off the top of my head, if ocean spray did anything besides like promote it share it promote. Yeah.
After the fact, all they really did was, I mean, they made, they made content out of getting him the truck. They publicly acknowledged and like gave him super props. And I think the CEO, which, who used to be the an executive at Tyson foods, by the way, he was only in the job for three months when this thing went viral,
He better claim credit for that too. Isn't
That insane? I think that's crazy. But basically they didn't spend any money on the content. They weren't a part of it. They just recognize it and are now kind of like riding the coattails of that. I think they did end up hiring Doggface as a content contributor and have brought him kind of into the fold into some of their marketing strategies that they're doing now. But as far as that, like they had nothing to do with that piece of content. And I think that's what people are chasing is like, how do I make a viral piece of content? But you have to kind of break down this video is like, there was nothing commercial about this whatsoever. It was authentic moment in shot on a cell phone. There was no production value of it. It was really just vibe, like just the vibes of like exactly what he put out. And I think that businesses then get to the point of like, okay, well, what do I do with that? Like how do I, how do I either recreate that? And I think this video in particular breaks the constructs of you don't have to do a formal influencer campaign. Like just find people who make really cool content and have conversations about having them make content for you.
Right. And I know, I know I've had this conversation with clients a million times pretty much any time I've pitched when they want a really social video, I don't want a commercial, thank God. Number two is, but when I'm in those conversations, I always try and reiterate the fact over and over and over i's like, we don't want, you don't want to start with your logo. You don't because people go, ah, that's an ad, next, you know? And it's like, if that would have started like ocean spray
And then it's like,
I just, my truck just broke down and I'm skateboarding down the street with ocean spray.
And if you have wrote this, it's like, this is terrible.
Right. Yeah. And it's like in, you know, in that version, there would have been like him holding up the ocean spray bottle and be like, life's all right cause I have ocean spray and that would have been the whole commercial. And that would have been stupid. That would have never worked right.
And would not have gone viral. No.
And I guess like, that's the thing to me is that I've always tried to get like, let's get your, your product can be in the video. Right. But like, let's try not make an advertisement for your product. And I think that that's something to be aware of. If you're even trying to reverse engineer the success of this video outside of just reaching out to somebody, right. Is like, don't make an ad. Stop making ads.
I think that like, that should be the slogan for influencer campaigns. Just working with content creators in general, like don't make ads, just create content
And I guess in terms of probably to get back to your original question of how do you get involved with that if you're a brand? Reach out and do exactly what ocean spray did, they're like
Like find a network of creators that are really good content creators, but don't ask them to make you an ad. Just say like, Hey, we really love what you're doing. Yeah. Like here's some product. If you make content with this, like, we'll keep it coming. I don't know. Like you'll get more products. I think where, where things tend to go left in this scenario. And I have nothing against this brand, but like bang energy drink is all over TikTok. And what you see is like, you know, the creator doing the trending dance, just holding a can of bang. And it's like that weird product placement of like, I mean, I guess, but it's so not authentic whatsoever that it still is like, you don't even have to say that that's an ad. I know that they gave you that can it's like, but this was different. I don't, he obviously didn't make this content to promote ocean spray. It just happened. But like he didn't go into this, like making an ad.
No, no. And that's, I guess you could even do go further in like everything that's really had like cultural revivals due to I guess like artist mentions or creator mentions like think about Levi's 501s nobody had a pair of Levi's five Oh one before kid Cudi started talking about having 501s in his songs. Right. But like, I can't remember, Levi's ever attaching themselves to kid Cudi on that. I, nobody wore Converse before Wiz Khalifa started to like, it wasn't a widely worn shoe.
But like you can't, you cannot manufacture these moments though. So how do you take this, these concepts of the art and all of this and, and draw inspiration from this as a business,
I guess like part of it comes from positioning yourself as a brand. What does, what is your brand right position, your brand as the thing you want people to know it as, and then, you know, part of it is lightning in a bottle, right? Is you can't, you can't just, if, if making viral videos was a real science, everybody would have viral videos, I'd be able to like, and then there wouldn't be viral. Yeah. I don't know how my one, my one video that did 50 million views just struck the right cords.
Right. Is that entertainment value at the right time? And this obviously with him just like legit having a good time and just taking a ride and drinking ocean spray and not having a care in the world during a time where a pandemic, like everybody's talking about politics and pandemic, it's like the two point of like everybody's topics. And he just was like, well, I'm just going to have a vibe on my own.
And I think that, yeah. Going with like, cause I feel like that is the real Zeit Geist of this time is like, let's all just calm down and enjoy a good vibe for the day because everything you turn on social media, especially right now, right? Every, even like viral videos are what Candace Owens thinks about Joe Biden this week. Or, you know, like what Joe Biden's son is doing or like it's like, and I feel like everybody is okay, that doesn't matter to me when I was growing up only nerds watch C-SPAN. And now I'm supposed to have an opinion on international treaties. I don't care. You know what I mean? Like, and even though like, there's the exhaustion of thinking that you're supposed to care and having doing all this research every day and then you come across a video of a dude with head tattoos, skateboarding down the street, listening to Fleetwood Mac drinking juice. And you're like, that is what I wish I was doing right now. You know,
Like that cool factor that you just can't define. So I think not to disappoint anybody from like a, you can't do it. So don't try. But I think like the one strategy is like find content creators who are making good, like just great at storytelling and content. And that can align with your brand vision, like you were saying, and your brand audience. So like, that would be one route if you're listening to this and you're like no clue where to start, stop on that. Like that concept is like, we would never just bring in 10 different content creators because there's too much, like we've got to go through legal and we got to go through compliance. Like that is like tough hill to climb. Can we share ideas on how you can at least take the trends of authenticity and meaningful engagements? How can you produce a video that incorporates more of that and less like commercially produced storylines?
I guess a piece, a guideline that I tell a lot of companies I work with is you want your video to be like a really good video that your cousin who kind of makes cool content or that makes cool content did, right? You don't want it to be like this super well polished thing. There's time and place for that. Don't get me wrong. But, but we're talking about social content. If you're trying to make a true piece of social content. Really. You can boil it down to that video was about having just feeling good vibes and not caring, not having any real cares, even though your truck just broke down. Right. And that's what people latched onto and you can go, I'm good at that. And you can go even as a brand go, all right, what do we want? What do we want our feeling to be in a video or an advertisement. Right. And what's a feeling that we generally love. And like, close your eyes. Think about your like happy place, right? Or your, a moment from your life that you are like, this is
Hear are some of the like eyes rolling when they're listening to this though, it was like, you get in a boardroom and you're talking about like, let's, let's talk about our feelings. Let's really think about stories. It's just like, people start checking out. Cause they're like, well, how do I tie this to again, I, and just using manufacturing because it's notoriously a place like a space where you get stuck. Because again, you immediately think of that, the grittiness of it all. And you forget about the stories. Every single brand, every single industry has individual stories of the humans that are working there, your clients, the process of it, all that you can break down to those like human relatable moments. And I think that's where people get stuck in those conversations of like, if I go into a manufacturing board meeting and say, let's all think about our feelings, people are just going to be like this guy's crazy. I'm out.
Right. And okay, so that's keep going. Let me, okay. So manufacturing, can I, can I just get like some manufacturing, thoughts and examples? Okay. Number one, watch. Well I guess what are you manufacturing? You know, if there's an end industry that has a definitive use for yours, if it's a RV, I will go back to if you're manufacturing something for RVs. Right, right. What are the things that people who are into outdoor camping and an RV are into. Right. And I guess
That like, let's slow down a second because that is, that's the, that's the factor right there of like, instead of you going, like, what do people into the RVs, like, what are they into? Well, they're into RV accessories. They're into like, forget that you went into, what are these like human beings who are hopping in an RV? Like what is their passion things? And it is outdoors. It's the experience.
Why do they have an RV? There's two main reasons that somebody has an RV. Number one, they're retired and they wanted to see America. What it, you know, so, okay. What do people who chose to live This nomadic lifestyle as retirees. What do they into they're into cool experiences. They're into seeing big sites. So like doing a video where somebody is using your product at the Grand Canyon and like, okay, here's a good example for a video. My dad's never seen the Grand Canyon. He'd like to see the Grand Canyon. Somebody should give me a camera, give me their RV product. And I'll film a vlog of taking my dad to see the Grand Canyon for the first time in an RV. And this product that you know, was used in the RV is like, what made it all possible?
It was a, it's a part of the experience. It isn't the point of the video itself.
Exactly. Nobody cares about that. Nobody cares about your, a hitch, your new hitch. Right. But other than you and all your employees, because it's super important to them. We care about, I care. I care about it. I don't know about Kelsey, but I do, but you can go, you know, so you take that and it's like the Grand Canyon experience is what the video is about or something even more local, you know? Or the other segment is going to be like families with kids who want to have camping weekends. And they want to like take the, take the RV out to the Lake for the weekend and get a nice spot. They have friends with RVs and it's about... You can go two ways. You can go with the wholesome experience where you're out, like doing, making smores with the kids in front of the RV, right.
That's one option or number two is the dad, the, the new dad on the block pulled up, flexing on everybody else with his RV. And some people are going to be into that. But either, you know what I mean? Like either way you talk about like the, you take the end result emotional part of it, which sorry to use emotion again, but it's like the, the human part of it, right? You take the end result what the human experience and what our wants and desires are. And you go, all right, the video is about that. And who makes videos in this space? There's if you go on YouTube and you type in outdoor of log or like camping blog, you're going to find my buddy, Josh Berendes, who like makes crazy cool content about his travel experiences. Yeah. @berendefilms on Instagram, my boy.
But yeah, he's like you find somebody like that who makes crazy videos, where he travels through the Galapagos for the weekend to go make a video and you find a way that your product can help him do that and you give him the product. Right? Yeah. And I'll promise you that it's going to be far more worth your money than hiring a commercial crew to come into your office, make a commercial and try to run that that commercial on Facebook. Because you know, whether it's the difference between paying some creator, maybe $1,000 plus material costs or paying a nice, like a high-end commercial company, $10,000 to come in and make you a super polished commercial. The influencer authentic experience video is going to outperform the big polished one tenfold. Yeah. Yeah. Love it. I mean, unless you really script the placement and the targeting and all that.
Ooh. Yeah. I'm talking to like the nerdy side of things. I mean, I think kind of going to, so we talked about, I guess, like an influencer route that you could go and giving them the space to create social content and then publishing on there's. The second one kind of what you just talked about is finding a creator and enhancing their experience with your product or service. And then, I mean, I just want to talk about it just because it's another option of like, okay, so how could I partner with Honeywave or Chatterkick and in creating this experience? And I feel like you've done this before in again, like it's not our favorite way to do this, but like, it really is that like documentary style, like storytelling. And you can do this with like, whether your objective is to sell a product or create a like really cool recruitment video, but it's, it's still about like capturing the stories, the human stories.
Yes. I think that a big piece for a company who's listening to this and goes, I want to do that. What's the actual, like actionable steps break it down is if somebody reaches out to me specifically, Honeywave, people are generally getting in touch with us more about like a video they want to do. Right. But if they get in touch with me, and this has happened many times, but if it's like a marketing department manager who approaches the situation, like, okay, there's a, if they hire Honeywave and they hire the company, they're getting a company to company experience, right. If they reach out to me directly and they want to use me as an influencer, but are expecting me to return, basically work as a video agency for myself as an influencer, but operate like a video agency to, you know, return, meet this deadline. And we want these three key points and we gave you a script, you know, that we want you to say these four talking points I pass on. I never get involved with those honestly. And I usually don't even return the message because I'm like, I, I'm just so interested in it.
Is there a way that, that, again, like we know that the virality of this is like the lightning in the bottle scenario, and we talked about different ways of like reaching out to content creators and having this, leveraging this strategy as a part of your experience. But is there a way to partner with an agency to create some sort of storytelling content that in all honesty, like some of our friends and brands are not going to just go into the space of reaching out directly to the creator. Cause there's a lot of risk in that. Yeah. I mean, maybe not as much as people think, but there's risk in that. How can you, or how can a business, like, let's say, well, we'll drop the manufacturing thing. Like let's go to finance. Cause that's another one that has a lot of layers of like legal and compliance. How can a financial institution take this same concept of authenticity and meaningful content and partner with a video agency to replicate replicate in the best way? That's the best term though.
Yep. Okay. So number one, I'd say if you're the business hire, if you're the business going into this. Know that you should stay out of the way I get like in the, not in like a rude way, but like letting in like the creative development of it. Well, you can be involved in, I guess I would say be involved to the extent that you can say no to an idea. Like, does it represent us well? Yes. Like that's, that's not a good, like we can't, or you know, in the financial industry, like we can't talk about this or this. Like we, we kind of have to maintain some strict guidelines on these things. So let's stay away from that. I'd say those are the kinds of guidelines you should be giving. But we want I think that you should say like, these are the emotions that we like.
And when somebody comes back to you and says, okay, we want to film this on an iPhone 11, let it do it, let them do it. Like, cause I know that there's a lot of capital as somebody who owns a camera that costs as much as my car, there is capital and showing up to a video shoot from the perception-wise of, with a beautiful camera that can create view beautiful images. But if you look at these videos that catch lightning in a bottle on, on the internet, they're rarely shot with like high end equipment. Right. So don't, don't be scared to do it that way. Right. You guys don't be scared to let them do it that way. And
If you're partnering someone or even just taking this advice of like, if you're the marketer and you're going to go capture these stories.
Right. And I, and I think that like what you, what you also can look at is it's relatively cheap, right? If you, if you're willing to do test it and see what happens because you can't, like I said, you cannot manufacture a viral video, but
you can manufacture authentic content.
DoggFace has 735 videos on TiktoK. Right now I just looked it up. Yeah. That the 99.9% of the world only knows him for the ocean spray. Right. Right. So he was in, he's been doing that same type of content since day one. Right. So it's like, what, what is the difference there, there really wasn't a huge difference. So it was just that specific moment was the right moment. Right. So I think that you should focus more on a shotgun approach than a sniper approach. Don't put all your eggs in one basket, but just kind of like spread it out and go, like, we want to test it. We want to see what works. Right. We just want to keep going, keep going, keep going. And you know, sent like set a budget and see like how many people can we get our product to for this budget? How many like sponsored posts are pretty cheap. Like for most micro influencers you can pay between like $100-$250 for a post. And like, it's been a, it's mutually beneficial because they're getting, they're walking down the road.
What are your thoughts on doing the same thing for your employees?
Yeah. And I mean like, know your workforce obviously. Right. but I think that there's, you know, in any office there's like the one person who has the bubbly, fun personality. There's the, I mean, like there's the cool guy in the office. There's the like cute girl in the office. I mean, like, there's like a universal truths to offices, right. That if you watch the show, the office, they'll probably be able to break down different types for you, but like put a camera in those people's hands. Let them, let them create the content. And like also, you know, a big problem I have is fighting against bottled shoots where people go, we have three hours to do this and 15 of it, you're going to be talking to this person. He's great. He's been working at this company 40 years. He loves it.
And I go and I sit down and I have like the interview questions with them and they're giving me so many things like, like real human stories and anybody who's like decent at making videos can talk to 10 different people and go that person, that was the one. And then like take a step back and go, let's take two days and follow this guy around with a camera. You know what I mean? Like even if outside of DIY creating on the job floor or whatever, like if you're hiring a video crew, let them follow that guy.
I love like documentary style content. I think there's just like, you cannot go wrong. If you find that like magnetic person on camera or audio, whatever experience like you're giving. But if you find them and they're a great speaker, even if they're just, I mean, they're not in your C-suite or whatever, like whoever it is at your organization, that's a great storyteller and you can really get them on camera and they thrive. Like you said, follow them.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, in Sioux city, we're overloaded with like triumph of the human spirit stories. Cause I mean, if you look, especially in manufacturing or like processing and Sioux city, we have a largely immigrant workforce who came from countries that it wasn't a great situation. And they've like overcome all that to have a family here. And it's like the fact that you don't know about that we don't know about any of those stories because none of them are being told by any business. Like those are just a bunch of opportunities wasted. Not that you should capitalize it. Not that you should go. Hmm. That's a good story. Let's you know, don't come at it from an exploitation route, but I think that if you're a manager or a company, you know, smaller companies, you should be invested in your workforce enough to the point that like you go, that dude has been working here for 10 years and he is shining some light on that and he is unbelievable. And you tell that story. Right. So I think that that is,
Everybody's afraid to do that though Taylor, because they're like, what if he leaves?
Yeah. Well it's okay. You know what I mean? Like I'll do it again with somebody else. Yeah. Maybe, you know, maybe don't do somebody that started that week, you know, but like, yeah. I think that there's, I mean, again, in like the the more blue collar industries, there's there's people who are there, who don't have a ton of other opportunity to leave. And you know, like your long-term employees are and people who are dedicated and loyal to the company cause you've been loyal to them, like share those stories.
But the best thing about social is that he leaves you take that down and you put something else out. I mean, just the volume game that you can really play with. Just K that story. It only has so many days, anyways, there's so much legs unless you like really put it into to advertising, but you can really have a flexible storytelling strategy and you can swap those in and out will help for whenever they work.
I'll give you a, here's the dirty secret of the, the video creative industry. I, people who make videos like me are - will cut price breaks for videos. We really want to make, you know what I mean? So like I would, if somebody goes, Hey, you we have this guy who's dope. We want you to tell a story. We want you to make a story about him. It's not about our company. Right. We're going to share it, but it's about that or this woman, right? Follow her, like get to meet her, come in one day for a quick three hours, get to know them. And then like go back to the drawing board, find out what the story you want to tell is then come in for two days, three days, whatever. And do it. Like, I'd be so more willing to like, I'm, I'm going to find a way to make that work on my end.
It's just a dope idea. Like video creators and especially the work in like the advertising arena are starved for doing projects that they care about. And if you're interested in it too, as a creator, like hands down, the audience will be interested. And if somebody says to me like, Hey, we want to we want to make this commercial for a business. Like I want to make your business look good in that commercial, but I want it to be as expedient. And as like, I want to make my time, I want to make as much money as I can with the time I've allotted. Right. So I'm going to keep it encapsulated. It moves in and moves out and pay the bills. But if somebody comes to me with a project that I'm like, that is amazing. I want to be a part of that.
Then I'm going to, I'm going to make it work for me, whatever your budget is. I can we can maybe meet in the middle, but I'll make it work for me. Right. So yeah. I'd say like when you're a business reaching out to, or thinking about doing these kinds of stories, like if you get your, the creative, you hired interested in it, and if they're interested in it, you're going to have a completely different project or product on the end. Yeah. Yeah. And like I said, make the, the video should be about the person, not about your company. Don't start with a logo. You can do lower thirds. You know what I'm saying? But like don't, and even here's a secret that I don't think that most businesses have caught on to on social media yet you don't need to put your logo all over your videos because all of your information is right there, clickable right above it.
So people who care about a video will click on your, like, they'll find out more about your company, right. That's going to do way more to attract people as recruits then. So what's your favorite part about being here? Well, I really love the friendly atmosphere. People say it a lot, but we're more than a team. We're a family. Like, there you go. That's every video I make. You just read your last script. They think about what you're tired of seeing on Facebook. Like take a step back even don't, don't look at it as like your company or your marketing department. What do you want to see when on social media, you don't want to see a commercial for some other business.
Right? Right. Any of those stories that like you've leaned in on, or you've stopped scrolling on. Yeah. They mean they're usually stories or like they're super entertaining. Right,
Right. And it's, it's rarely like crazy cool video effects. Not like there's a time, again, there's a time and a place for really cool polished videos. But there's also, if you want to humanize your business, tell human stories, right?
Yeah. Well, we went a way a long way. It's not a long ways, but I really do. Like, I love the content that 420doggface208 posted on TikTok. I love that it went viral. I love that these conversations are happening with businesses of like well, What the heck? Like, how do I do this? And super appreciate your, just like ideas on how you could not recreate but like really take this as inspiration and then bring it into your business. Yeah.
Yeah. I think that that's, I mean, just to leave a few cliff notes at the end, like drop the bombs at the end, like go tell human stories. That's why that video went well, it was a universal human emotion that was being portrayed in the video. And it was, you could never book a shoot where you're like, I want the sun to be setting and all that kind of crap. So stop controlling the environment. Really? You can't, you can't manufacture a viral video. Unless like you put a fake Justin Bieber in your video, which has been done, you can find videos about that on YouTube, but you can't manufacture a viral video. So the only way to really get a viral video is to have something that people identify with and want to share and want to show their friends. Right. And people don't want to show their friends commercials. So yeah. And then if somebody created a piece of content that you're mentioned in, don't try and leverage it or, you know, you're going to leverage it. Yeah. Just make it, make it like great job, you know? And if, if somebody's truck broke down and you can swing it, make it, buy him a new truck. Right. Like it's, you don't have to like create don't corporatize everything. Right. Don't don't go down there.
I that's what the social media space in general is like best at best for, for sure. Well, Taylor, appreciate you so much for jumping on here. Taylor, honeywave media. What is your, what's a good place to find you
Instagram, you can find honeywave media at @honeywavemedia spelled like it sounds,
Or you can find me on Instagram @tgrotex thats Tango Golf Romeo Oscar Tango Echo X-Ray. we're going to end it there. That was great. That was a great ending. Stay Woke.