In 1997, the concept of counting ‘likes’ was nonexistent and ‘sharing’ had nothing to do with digital media. Fast forward 20 years and it’s remarkable how different things are.

 
Enter “The Viral Experiment”, a session hosted today by The Woolshed Company. This ambitious two-year project created a series of staged videos, which went viral. The company fabricated footage complete with actors, scripts, rehearsals and ­– of course – digital enhancing.

 
“We essentially started off making a couple of virals in 2014 and had a couple of successes early on. We wanted to find out how best to replicate those results for clients in the future. We received some funding, which gave us the opportunity to create six virals and formulate a strategy,”says Dave Christison, Executive Producer.

 
Then Woolshed posted the videos. Their goal? To find out what it takes for a video to go viral and capture people’s attention. The results? 164 years of total YouTube watch time. 1.6 million likes. 500,000 comments. 205 million views.

 
You may have seen some of these videos yourself and thought they were real. Some of them are twists on ordinary situations – such as two men getting into a “selfie stick fight” on a tour boat outside Sydney Opera House. Others are more sensational, like a man discovering he’s swimming next to a great white shark or a girl almost getting struck by lightning on a beach.

 
So what did they learn about making virals?

 
“A couple of things. First, always treat videos as entertainment. Whether there’s a client behind the project of not, entertainment is the number one priority. The campaign is really secondary. Second, create debate. That could be over authenticity or the probability that something seen in the video could happen,” says Dave.

 
“It’s debate that propels conversation, and it’s conversation that pumps news. We’re never afraid of people calling our videos ‘fake’ within the first 24 hours. In fact, we kind of welcome it because we know controversy is going to fuel the video’s popularity.”

 
These days, we have become more accustomed to deciding whether or not a viral video is “fake”. Could they get away with these clips today?

 
- Mahmood Ali