It is no secret to anyone who understands communication that context for information is of paramount importance. It is hard for any consumer of content to fully understand/grasp/enjoy messages or content unless they have some measure or metric to judge something as cool, interesting, or downright incredible.
My most recent revelation related to context came from a new video of the expert trials rider Danny MacAskill titled Cascadia. In the video, Danny completes some jaw dropping trials lines across the roof tops of Gran Canaria. Since its launch, the video has gone viral, netting over 7 million views in less than 5 days on YouTube.
As a fellow rider and mountain biking enthusiast, Danny’s expoits are nothing new. From ‘Imaginate’ to The Ridge, his talent on a bicycle is second to none.
What is interesting about his collection videos are the numbers of views on similar videos featuring his riding. For example, MacAskill’s film Cascadia is already approaching the view totals from his video last year titled Epecuen. And with the current growth rate, I would expect Cascadia to exceed the total view numbers of Epecuen within the week. The same is also true with The Ridge (39,923,096 views in 1 year) and Imaginate (44,247,757 views in 2 years). In half the time, The Ridge attained over 90% of the views of Imaginate.
This got me thinking about why only some of his videos click with a massive audience, even though the level of riding is always incredible. My first thought was the level of promotion and the prominence of the channel the video was posted to on YouTube. Unfortunately, with the similar size of RedBull and GoPro’s following on the social network, it is difficult to say that online subscribers were a contributing factor. To further prove this point, Cut Media (the YouTube channel where The Ridge was posted) has just under 110,000 subscribers, where RedBull (where Imaginate is posted) has almost 5 million subscribers.
Though there is no hard data or science to prove my theory, I think the reason for the difference in performance for these videos can be accounted for by context. In the case of Imaginate vs. The Ridge, everyone is familiar with the scale and peril of a mountain adventure, where fellow riders will be more likely to appreciate the abstract nature of Imaginate. The same goes for Casadia vs. Epecuen, more people in the YouTube audience appreciate and are drawn to the lively cityscape of Gran Canaria than the destroyed beauty of the abandoned town of Epecuen. With the beautiful location, cars and pedestrians moving around, and even the laundry hanging out to dry, Casadia is easier for audiences to relate to.
With this in mind, next time you or your company set out to create a video that you want to appeal to the largest possible audience, consider the context of your information (who/what/when/where/how).
-Nate