On Friday, this video of a high school practice featuring a player doing a back flip during a play was featured on Deadspin and became viral after existing on Youtube in anonymity for a few weeks…
The video jumped from just a few hundred views to a few hundred thousand. Initially, it was a question whether or not the video was something real, something staged, or something faked all together. A day later, we discovered what the viral video was all about – an AT&T commercial featuring reactions of people around the country (including Darren Woodson and Bob Stoops) to the viral video…
http://youtube.com/watch?v=xqOCNp6OUHU
If AT&T planted that video on Youtube in hopes it would go viral organically right before their ad was published, it's one of the best strokes of marketing brilliance I've ever seen. Without having known about the video's existence before seeing the commercial, I would have likely not given it a second thought. But because the back flip was out there and intrigue surrounded its origins, I knew right away that this commercial was a success. It was perfect timing in our short attention span world for the video to hit Friday and the ad Saturday. And, as an added bonus, the ad connecting the viral video to AT&T actually makes sense! How about that!
Now if only that kid can help Bob Stoops win a big game for once.
