The Future of Publishing: created by Dorling Kindersley UK

Nice work guys!

150 blog posts and 100,000 views so far according to the Viral Video Chart.

The concept behind the video is 100% copied from 'The Lost Generation,' a viral video made by a student which has generated an unusual pattern of attention, with little spurts of interest every few months. The video was uploaded in November 2007, and yet appeared in the top 20 in the Viral Video Chart only a few weeks ago.

Absolutely nothing wrong with creatively recycling a fantastic concept, it's the lifeblood of viral video.



Now it is somebody's turn to do a spoof version.

Viral Video Legacies Part 2: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

There was a big surprise for me in the ViralVideoChart today - a book trailer in the top 20!

It takes a real bookworm and webgeek to get excited about this, but I am both and I'm proud.

At its peak it reached number 17, with 51 blogs and Tweets today. Most of the views came from blog posts like these:

Topless Robot
Scifi Wire
Reddit
Popwatch

Viral pass on (email, IM) accounted for about a quarter of the views, and a spot on the YouTube homepage give it a medium-sized boost too.

It looks like once again, that story of a famous director (Tim Burton in this case) interested in making the film is what gave the video the biggest viral push, but I'm certain that the Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters book trailers built up a fan base that made for a fertile seed-bed for this new video, just as all those other viral video celebities did.

So, without further ado, here is the video:



Well done HachetteBookGroup and well done Seth Grahame-Smith - I salute you both! And hurrah for the power of bloggers!

Viral Video Legacies Part 1: OK Go, Dancing Matt and Evolution of Dance

The new OK Go music video went online yesterday, and is number one in the Viral Video Chart today. Oh my God, that is fast.

This band has a long history of creating viral videos to promote their songs. In this latest, they use the traditional 'domino effect' trick to create a video that is difficult to stop watching (unless you're me and you've seen two hundred similar videos.) But is it really that good? Judge for yourself:



Time will tell whether the world considers it as good as the first, but one thing I do know - it was the brilliance and originality of their first videos that brought this new one to the attention of 1.2 million video viewers and 2,622 bloggers/Tweeters today.

Here was their first:



The success of each video builds on the last. Even if the subsequent videos aren't as good as the original.

This is why Dancing Matt has released no less than three versions of his Where the hell is Matt? videos so far.

And why poor old Mr 'Evolution of Dance' (this web-celeb had the top spot in viral videos for years before Susan Boyle kicked him to the kerb) still manages to get about 50,000 views per day.

Last year, VisibleMeasures, (one of the most reputable sources of information on viral spread along with my own lovely Unruly Media) wrote a blog post on the new phenomenon of sequels appearing in the viral video world, and how they boost views of originals too. Even if they are never as good.

I draw your attention in particular to this quote:

Before the launch of the sequel, the original Evolution of Dance clip had settled in to an average daily viewership of 130,000 views per day. Since the sequel was released, this daily viewership has surged over 75% to more than 240,000 new views everyday.

So where is all this leading? To the first book trailer viral video legacy, to be discussed in Part 2, coming soon...