Videos in social media sometimes get a lot of attention. If so, and the number of views reaches really high quotes, people say the picture or video gets viral. Usually this happens to videos from teenagers who give make-up tips or funny videos from people getting hurt or falling with their skateboard from a roof. ;-)
Viral videos are an interesting phenomenon and it happened to one of my videos. That's really fantastic! The interesting thing about this, it is a bachata dance video that got a lot of attention and not a make-up video! In this article I try to analyze it from my point of view.
In March 2016 I filmed the two world-famous Bachata dancers Daniel and Desiree, who are probably the most known and hottest Bachata dancers in the world. The filming took place at the end of a workshop at the Frankfurt Salsa Festival 2016. Since then, this video has reached 6 million clicks. WOW - this number still surprises me today!
All in all, if I remember correctly, there were four workshops from Daniel and Desiree and I have put all workshops with explanatory video and dance video with music in my Youtubechannel online. In the first weeks all 4 videos had more or less the same number of clicks. Also, the later viral video had within the first few weeks only an average number of clicks. Usually my videos get in the first month about 200-400 views from my subscribers. But this time everything should be different.
First of all, here is the video: Frankfurt Festival 2016 - Daniel & Desiree - Sensual Bachata II:
About 6 weeks later the hype started! Every day I got new comments about the video on YouTube and a lot of clicks. The climax was in the period from December 2016 to June 2017, where I had over 100 000 views per month. Right now (as of February 2017) the video is about 6.2 Million clicks.
In absolute numbers: About 7 million people have seen my videos (i. e. all videos, ~1600 videos together), almost 6.2 million of them alone this one video!
How did this viral phenomenon come about?
Ultimately, it's not entirely clear when a video will appear in Google's search results as top ranked content. If you currently enter "Daniel and Desiree" on Google, this video will be shown for most users at the top. I can hardly understand how this happened. I tagged it just like all my other videos, it has a usual length and was filmed with the same camera as always.
Therefore there must be other causes that were not in my hands:
- The video is viewed, according to the comments, especially in English and Spanish speaking countries. The video is very popular there, especially in the USA.
- Daniel and Desiree are very much in demand as Bachatal teachers and dancers. Since winning the world champion title, they have had a very high profile among dancers. But that can not be the only reason, since I have several videos of other very popular and important dancers in my channel (e. g. Fernando Sosa & Tropical Gem, Bersaidy Cortez, Eddie Torres, Adolfo Indacochea and many more).
- Daniel and Desiree are from Spain but work worldwide. Bachata Sensual tends to be a slightly more European development. South American dancers tend to reject this dance. That is why the comments from this region are often very derogatory or hostile ("this is not a Bachata, not even a dance"). European and North American comments are more positive and euphoric.
- Daniel and Desiree are young and fashionably dressed. Although this should certainly not play a role in a perfect world, many comments deal with the jeans Daniels, the yoga pants Desirees. Quite a few men seem only to consider Desirees respectable booty - instead of her danceskills ; -)
Typical comments:
- Nada de baile, pero qué culooooooo por dios!"
- Los jeans de Daniel le ajustan mas a el que los mios a mi ???
- Hacen de todo menos bailar bachata xD
- These are the ideal proportions of the female body! All models should look like this !
- wtf was that? are they killing cockroaches? that is not bachata - The music is a typical Bachata Sensual, but not very well known. Nevertheless, it has a high recognition value and catchy character. The original is an Italian pop song about a longing teenager from Francesca Michielin (L' amore esiste) as Bachata Remix by famous Dj Manuel Citro. After listening to it several times, I have to say that both the original and the remix are really great. I love this song! Even if it is lyric wise a bit adolescent ; -)
Francesca Michielin - L'Amore Esiste: Bachata Remix; Original Video.
Typical comments::
- This is not bachata, even the music is wrong.
- Qual o nome dessa musica?
- What song is this??! I love it - In general, the comments, the discussion and controversy about the dance and the two dancers seem to have contributed greatly to the video's success.
Typical positive omments::
- Te hipnotizan .. dios ese daniel da hambree.
- YO QUIE4RO APRENDER A BAILAR ESTO ES MUY IMPRESIONANTE
- Daniel y Desire son los mejores?
- Me encantan como bailan señor uf!!!!
Typical negative comments::
- Me van a perdonar, pero lo menos que hacen es bailar bachata
- No me gustan, no tienen alma bachatera...
- Not sure what to make of this. I get that people incorporate their own style and interpretation to dancing, but this style is over the top for me. It feels like they’re being dramatic simply to be dramatic. I watch it and think to myself, "WTF is this?"
- No se si tienen alma bachatera
=> Anything in between almost does not exist! There are only very positive comments and very negative! - The video from Daniel and Desiree is really emotional! Beyond the already sensual Bachata, Daniel and Desiree manage to create emotions like devotion and passion in this video. The glances and the touches are anything but simply rehearsed. At least it looks real and I always get goosebumps when I see the two of them. The emotional factor is for me personally a reason to watch this video over and over again!
Conclusions on the success of the video
- I think whether a video becomes a viral hit depends on chance, despite the factors mentioned above. The first comments on the video led to further comments. Soon a controversial discussion took place. Everything said in the Youtube commentaries is true: It's not a classic Bachata, neither is the music, because it's Bachata sensual. They dance very sexy, they are well dressed and the dance is simply wonderful :)
My conclusion: The discussion and comments are very important for the success of a video! - Bachata Sensual is popular and worldwide still quite a new phenomenon. I think this is a big part of the video's success! People search a lot for Bachata sensual.
I myself like the sensual movements and the two of them are really sensational dancers! - The video has technical flaws, no lead-in, credits, no cuts and is quite short. From a technical point of view, it could be a lot better, like other youtubers prove. In this respect, one can probably consider video quality as a minor factor.
- Celebrity as an important factor can almost be neglected! The celebrity factor of Daniel and Desiree is not very different from other artists in my channel! Fame is helpful, but hardly a guaranty, as really good videos of Eddie Torres stay with 200 clicks in the same channel.
- The music outside Italy is not very known, but it is a nice song and this helps to recognize the video.
Workshops with Daniel and Desiree are really fun and so instructive
Generate revenue with Youtube?
Since I was asked how much one earns with 6 million clicks, sadly I have to answer "nothing"!
Unfortunately, you can't earn money with videos where copyrighted music is played! Google doesn't allow this and the revenue of the ads that are shown go to the music company (although it's my video and my own and the dancers contribution to the video is much higher than that of the mostly unknown musician). But that's the rules!
But at least it was a good advertisement for my channel (which you can still subscribe to Salsainfo-Videos; -)!
Anyway, many thanks to Daniel and Desiree for the great workshop and the work done for years on a worldwide level! You are an inspiration for many dancers worldwide!
Important - please help: If you want to do me a favour, I need urgently more subscribers (the limit for Youtube is now 1000 subscribers to earn mony from my videos) for my biology and chemestry-sience-channel. This is another of my projects, and I care a ot about it, and I do not want to see it die because of stupid new rules!