Socially Adept

ABC's i-Caught Doubles Traffic to Popular Video

A few weeks ago, I posted on the premier episode of ABC's new show i-Caught.  During the show, several videos were featured, including the incredible "Battle at Kruger" video in which a baby water buffalo escapes the jaws of several lions and crocodiles.  At the time of the premier episode, the video had 7,861,609 views.  Today, that number has doubled to 15,018,379 and CLIMBING! (Content can be viral more than once!)

Consider that the video was launched on YouTube 3 months ago and that ABC's i-Caught premiered the video 16 days ago, that's pretty impressive.  Clearly, there is a way to bridge traditional and social media together to extend the life of your campaign.  There is no question that as a result of i-Caught, the Battle of Kruger video was launched into another stratosphere in the world of online video.  My guess is the same success was had by the other featured videos as well (but I wasn't able to move fast enough to capture all of the stats.)

There is no question that launching your content on social media platforms should be the first step moving forward.  If you've done your job effectively, it won't be long before that content makes it's way into the traditional media (TV, Radio, Magazines, Newspapers).  If you've missed the mark, you're investment was probably minimal compared to traditional advertising, PR and marketing efforts so you can afford to take another chance.

And for those of you who think that corporate content won't transcend to the traditional level... keep watching i-Caught to see just how wrong you are.

ABC's i-Caught A Must See

As I type this, I am watching ABC's premier episode of i-Caught, a television show dedicated to telling the back story of some of our favorite viral videos.  So far, they have featured this incredible video called Battle at Kruger, the famous Thriller wedding dance and the other side of the viral phenomenon - the embarrassing disaster videos that have drastically ruined the lives of everyday people like this.

I love this show.  Instead of just trying to hijack the content currently viewed as popular online, they are taking the time to look into the back story of each video.  I enjoyed listening the the couple who danced to Thriller talk about how the video has affected their lives.  On the flip side, seeing the pain the wrong video can cause is essential and compelling.

This shows recognizes the power of Social Media and Consumer Generated Content (or whatever we are calling it this week) and effectively expands on the stories that people clearly care about based on the YouTube views.  They specifically detail how these videos came to live online and what caused the overwhelming success (metacafe, etc.).  Essentially, this show has the ability to introduce social media to an entirely new audience.  If it takes off, we may see the number of blogs and vlogs climb from what ABC stated during the show is currently 93 million.

The big question is, will ABC take the extra footage and make it available online for those who may have missed tonight's episode?  If I visit YouTube tomorrow and visit the "Battle of Kruger" video, will I see a branded clip from tonight's episode?  I hope so!  What better way to promote the show then post a response video to each of the existing videos they just exposed to a whole new audience?  I am sure each person featured would approve a response video from ABC.

At the time of this post (10:42PM ET) there are currently 7,861,609 views for the Battle of Kruger.  Let's see what that number is tomorrow and the next day.

On a side note, ABC is also using i-Caught to discuss how Myspace and social media are helping people solve crime.  People are actually putting photos of suspects online in an effort to catch murderers and thief's.  They asked the question, "Is this helping or hurting the case?"  Good question... thoughts?