Damn Ad Agencies! Back at it Again…

Damn Ad Agencies! Back at it Again…

In case you missed it, but let’s be honest, you didn’t. “Damn Daniel” was all over your social feeds because the video went viral.

What started out as a 30 second video compilation of a teen boy walking into school with Vans and a friend providing the voice over in the background of “Damn Daniel!” And “Back at it again with the white vans!” took social media by storm. Since being posted in February, the video has now racked up over 7 million views on Youtube as well as others creating parody videos. The hashtag #DamnDaniel was almost impossible to miss anywhere on social media platforms.

How do videos go viral? Ad agencies are tasked daily to find relevant content and try to capitalize on it and often times fail. In the case that a brand can actually be able to get in and gain momentum from something like this, can be a huge brand win. In this case, Vans got in on the action but not as much as other brands like Clorox and Axe.

The two friends on the video ended up on the Ellen Show. Daniel got a lifetime supply of Vans while the friend who provided the voiceover, got a surfboard.

What was it about the video that caused so much attention? Plain and simple, many found it funny. If anything, the story teaches that going “viral” can’t really be planned. It has to be authentic and make the audience connect in some way. Brands can take a note from these two young men who just wanted to be creative and enjoyed making people laugh. It didn’t cost them to post and the video garnered nation-wide attention. Maybe time for marketing to get back to basics.