Liz and Intern Zac have watched and analysed the biggest videos on YouTube from the past year to tell you why they work. This month we're taking a close look at the Dude Perfect team.
Dude Perfect, Real Life Trick Shots 2
The number 2 most watched video in 2018 with over 156 million views at time of writing since its upload in January 2018.
Liz Says:
"Dude Perfect are known for their trick shots and stunts edited over upbeat music. It even says as much on their wikipedia page! This video typifies the content they have become famous for with fast edits of incredible stunts. As users we are now familiar with this format so we understand what is coming next and how much we're going to enjoy watching this video. What I LOVE about Dude Perfect is that these guys are the grandaddies of this genre. It's a familiar format because they made it familiar. Cool huh?"
Intern Zac Says:
"This video along with all other Dude Perfect videos I have seen is impressive to say the least. Many believe that their trick shots are fake which is understandable because the trick shots they perform seen all but impossible. I do not agree with those claims. The concept of this video is very simple: a bunch of guys do trick shots with everyday items. This everyday aspect seems to make it accessible to a wide audience."
Liz's expert opinion (the Why!):
In order for a video to perform well on YouTube the first 48 hours are key. You need to get good views, watch time and engagement in that time period to help YouTube's big machine understand that platform users are going to love your video. This leads to more favourable listing in search returns and recommended viewing. Having a huge subscriber base is clearly going to be an advantage here and Dude Perfect have 39 million subscribers waiting for trick shots and stunt content.
This video outperforms many of their uploads. Why is that? For starters Zac is right again (2 months in a row... nice one Zac!). Using household objects really is part of the charm. A lot of the props are instantly recognisable by a global audience. We could all have a go at some of these stunts and so we feel like any of us could be these guys. We feel instant empathy and generating any emotion in your audience through videos is a winner.
From a video geek perspective, the first 15 seconds are a great lesson in video optimisation. We get a quick representation of what's to come, teasing us into watching the rest of the video. We then get a title frame to make sure we know this is from Dude Perfect so anyone who has heard of these guys knows the stunts in this video are going to be of the highest quality. The backing music is great but the video also works really well with the sound off. This gives it an advantage as we can watch it the minute it has been shared with us with the sound off, even if we're at work, school, commuting or on the toilet. The video is well optimised for search too with the most relevant key words of "Dude Perfect" and "Trick Shots" repeated multiple times throughout the metadata.
This video was sponsored by a jewellery company in time for valentines day. There are a couple of jewellery stunts and some mild logo placement included that is not off putting to the audience. I would love to see what kind of click throughs or increase in website visits the company achieved. In terms of ongoing global reach, they got a good deal regardless of how much they paid!
Enough of the geek and back to emotions! These stunts are so satisfying to watch and generate simple feelings of absolute joy. This is one of the best ever examples of pure, unchallenging, joyful entertainment on YouTube.