“Double Rainbow Guy” proves that just being yourself is the key to viral success.

July 13, 2010

“Double Rainbow Guy” proves that just being yourself is the key to viral success.

The "Double Rainbow Guy" — You Tube Viral Video Sensation

Who would have thought that a trippy hippie witnessing a pair of colorful streaks in the sky became the newest viral sensation to catch fire on You Tube — with more than 1.5 million views?

Excuse me — 3,702,017.

Recently Fast Company magazine added “The Double Rainbow Guy” to it’s new “Influence Project” — a social experiement to discover the most influential people in America. I think we all expected influence to come from celebrities, media icons or corporations — not a hairy bear like guy living in Yosemite and ooohing and ahhing in ecstasy at something as simple and free as a couple of prisms in the sky.

But maybe that’s the point. Maybe being uninhibited, being real, being yourself is all it truly takes to stand out in a world where there is so much posing and posturing and pretending.

Maybe the Rainbow Guy is telling us it’s ok to be real if we want to be noticed. In fact, it’s better.

The Rainbow Guy caught fire on my Facebook page too today, as a lively discussion about the psychology of “The Rainbow Guy” errupted.

Brooks Cole, himself an online media expert, started the conversation:

“FastCompany reports on the Double Rainbow Guy viral phenomenon. What makes this so viral?

My own explanation? I think it mirrors (and leverages) the same human factors that drive sex, along with sex’s power to drive DNA replication, then taken to the power of network technology. I think the viral key is this:

All viral videos have to be:

a) unusually amazing or demonstrably curious in some palpable way that builds curiosity/intensity/amazement to a climax, and:

b) have to provide some tension+release that carries the seed of its own propagation, and:

c) that the speed and success becomes its own amazement factor, multiplying the propagation.”

Karen McKrystal chimed in:

“And then… leverage the viral video to deeper content, transcendent analysis, all for the convergence of activists & thinkers working to bring forth the new society emerging from the ruins and in spite of the ruinous activities of savage capitalism. End of rant.

What I mean is, this whole viral thing, driven by basic motivator sex drive/power, as Brooks suggests, could be leveraged wider, and not be left to the “rainbow” people alone — here for a moment, then gone. Let’s provoke social DNA evolution, helpl nature do what it’s designed to do anyway. Within the human DNA is enfolded the potential for further and further evolution — into potentials yet barely understood and rarely even anticipated.”

Aneline:

“I hadn’t seen this – that’s so great! WOOO-HOOOOO!!!!! ♥”

Karen:

“What, exactly, are you saying is great? If you don’t mind my asking.”

Aneline:

“That FUNTASTIC rainbow video – and the fact that I’m not the only one who feels this way!!! 😀 ♥ ♥..♪♪♫•*•”

Yes, at least 3.5 million people at last count are either laughing uproariously at the Double Rainbow Guy, or they feel like Aneline.

“WOOOOT WOOOOT !!!!! 😀 ♥ ☼”

It’s great to see happiness can even more contagious than the latest Britney spears rumor.

blog, Facebook, renegade marketing, shameless self promotion, social media, Twitter, viral, viral video, you tube

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Giselle Bisson

I am a storyteller. I am a bridge between the worlds of high tech and high touch. The main communities I build are between thought leaders in Technology, Entertainment and Sustainability. (Kind of like a TED conference.) These are the early adopters, risk takers and super connected connecters who can set your ideas on fire! As a veteran Silicon Valley tech PR executive and product launch visibility expert, I have launched more than 30 paradigm-shifting products and consumer technology companies in my career — products that changed your life and are used by tens of millions of consumers. I was on the teams that introduced major innovations we now take for granted — like email, video editing, ink jet printers and mobile devices. I’ve promoted products that reached 5 million to 40 million customers — paying customers, not eyeballs. We did this almost 100% with free PR and social media — not paid advertising. Increasingly all business must be social, sustainable, sharable and conscious. And I believe social media is the catalyst of this conscious convergence and shift. I’ve learned that it’s not just about “content” or “engagement” — it’s about creating authentic communities around an event that share your news and spread the word for you. I combine social media with press relations, speaking engagements, events, social ads, email lists and street teams to generate waves of awareness that catapult your launch and sustain it. Move forward, into the future. I can help you make a Visibility Shift.

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A writer, content marketer, publicist and event promoter, I have been helping visionary entrepreneurs and event producers get the attention they deserve for over 30 years.

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