A Guest Post by Simon Hoskins from Earnest Agency (www.earnest-agency.com)

A sprinkling of skill…

Sports stars tend to exert all the tendencies of super humans when placed in front of a camera and told by those milling around the shoot that what they’re making is a viral! And remarkably the more demanding and difficult the skill, the more relaxed and confident these men and women become when performing it. Federer, Beckham, Kobe Bryant and the like perform skills and stunts that are wild extensions of what they are required to do on the sports field or court every day.

A pinch of curiosity…

Their skills are turned up to 11 to blow everyone’s expectations of what they thought they could achieve. They are each revered in their particular sport – this gives their performance a certain edge of legitimacy that makes people question what certainly would be labelled as fake if performed by a lesser athlete. Their celebrity endorses their flamboyance far more than if Joe Public attempted the stunt.

A slice of brand awareness…

Sports stars are recognised as brands in their own right. A viral concept can hang on this brand framework by creating an interest from the viewer that develops from their feeling of familiarity with that person. Although Federer represents Gillette, Braylon Edwards the NFL and Ronaldinho, Nike, viewers believe they are watching an advert for that athlete’s skills – not for a specific brand. The Hi-Tec ‘Liquid Mountaineering’ viral is an anomaly here because it doesn’t employ the use of famous stars as brand ambassadors to drive its interest. The theme of athletes fitting themselves with Hi-Tec trainers before running a few paces across water is the hook which creates the buzz about the stunt. It highlights that without a famous face most virals need a supremely extraordinary feat to give them the edge and to compete in popularity with the likes of the All Blacks and Cristiano Ronaldo.

All Blacks training

The viral was used to promote the Rugby Channel in New Zealand and created huge chatter about their extraordinary feats. All Blacks Piri Weepu and Cory Jane can get away with passing these skills off as easy and matter-of-fact. Being synonymous with the world’s best rugby team allows viewers to partially suspend their disbelief, especially as their nonchalant manner and easy-going training ground routine makes their skills seem second–nature. The same can be said for the Pepsi viral featuring David Beckham in which his famous long passes have allowed him to feature in a viral set on a Californian beach kicking footballs into plastic rubbish cans from 60 yards. These approaches make the All Blacks viral and the concept feel under-produced and raw and henceforth more natural and appealing to the viewer. Such was their success they produced a follow-up.

Hi-Tec: Liquid Mountaineering

The aim of ‘Liquid Mountaineering’ was to capture the spirit of the brand and to have fun – providing a way to get to know Hi-Tec through the telling of a story and the supposed arrival of a new sport. The viral shares a similar story arc and structure with that of surfing videos. Whereas surfers are chasing the perfect wave and getting involved through their surf gear, these guys are after the thrill of pushing a new adrenaline sport. Amid the false science claims and impossible physics of it all, the one truth is the hydrophobic nature of the Hi-Tec shoes and their ability to repel water. This is the one shred of accuracy that allows the falsities to hang from it.

Roger Federer: William Tell

Federer seems to take a couple of minutes out from shooting a Gillette ad to perform a modern day re-telling of the Swiss legend of William Tell. In what appears to be a break from a studio shoot the footage seems to present a natural extension of Roger’s affable persona. Getting one of the production team to balance an empty can of balls on this head, Federer appears to serve and smash the can off his head with pinpoint accuracy. Cue a stunned production team. He then does it again. It’s clever because the first shot is almost off camera and would provide immediate ammunition for scepticism, but the second is shown far more clearly and serves(…!) to cast a bit of head-scratching. Arguably he is the greatest tennis player of all time…could he do this? It doesn’t seem to be THAT much of a leap of faith to suggest he could…

NFL Pick Me Reebok Campaign

This campaign is all about big names, big feats and big ambitions. They want YOU to pick THEM for your fantasy team…they want to impress and the viral suits as a platform in which to perform some truly awesome stunts on and off the football field. Accuracy levels needed in most stunts are almost impossibly high and with most players the ball disappears off screen and becomes barely visible in the distance. However, for invention and sheer entertainment, this is the real stand-out. Unlike the All Blacks training viral it feels far more produced and far more commercial, although they really notch it up a gear!

Nike basketball: LeBron Rise

LeBron James, when he made this Nike viral, was a basketball player for the Cleveland Cavaliers. This viral wasn’t about what LeBron James had or hadn’t done – it was about the difference between the expectations others may have had of him versus the expectations he had of himself. What has made this a stand-out viral is the version that the Cleveland fans produced that reflected the questions LeBron James was asking himself in the original. Opening himself up for Nike about people’s expectations of him at Cleveland left him open to some wide criticism when he left the club for sunnier and more successful climbs.

This is the Cleveland fans’ reply: