Real Russian ICO. Episode 3 | Adviser. How to create a YouTube comedy

Sergey S
HackerNoon.com

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I thought I will die from laughing while making this video. I was literally crying for 2 days editing it :)

When I started to write this article, the video had 39 views.

Birth of the idea

It was a usual day. I was watching prank videos on YouTube and thinking on idea how to get attention to our project in Blockchain space.

For a Paid traffic it was too early and honestly — I didn’t have enough money to test new ideas.

Then I tried to search for freelancers on Fiverr with keywords “viral video, viral marketing etc”. Found 30+ guys offering these services and invited them to participate in viral video contest with the terms of payment based on actual results: $50k for 20 mln+ views, $50k in cash (BTC/ETH)+ $25k in our tokens for result of 30mln+ views, same principle up to 100 mln+video views. 99% of people rejected this challenge.

Next move was to negotiate a deal with famous YouTube Vloggers. I sent 20+ emails (US and Russia). Got just 2 replies and no one was ready to work for the result. Just pay up front and then we can talk. Okay, understand. What next?

You have everything you need

It needs time and an open mind to understand the truth, that in the modern world we have a lot of resources just in front of us. Almost for free.

With this thought, I started thinking “If these guys, who making funny videos on YouTube, can do it — I can also learn it.”

I began to disassemble a single object “viral video” into pieces. So what we have here:

  • the video itself;
  • voice;
  • humor and jokes;
  • a little bit of magic.

It’s already 51 views.

The Video

Because last few days I was watching prank videos, so the video I choose very quickly. I found this guy spontaneously and I was literally crying on his pranks where he’s dating new girls in his car playing different roles: a boxer, a geek, a mafia guy, and a guy from Russian village. The last one hero had 10 mln+ views.

What about intellectual property? I believe with Andrey we can have a deal if my interpretation will succeed.

Voice

I’ll be honest, initial idea was to hire a freelancer with a beautiful British accent.

But then I found a comedian (on Fiverr) who write jokes on any subject. And 30 minutes later decided that my Russian accent can add some value to the video. I have headphones with a mic and can record a sound on my laptop. The only thing I decided to improve is sound quality: cut the sponge for the dishes and wrapped the mic.

Humor and jokes

As you remember the quote above “we have a lot of resources”. I decided to learn comedian skill. Put keywords “how to write jokes standup” in search engine and voila — Step by Step to Stand-Up Comedy by Greg Dean.

I didn’t buy a book but found a short translation in Russian.
I very recommend you to read the entire book. A sense of humor and ability to give birth to jokes — it a very useful skill in daily life.

64 views and first positive comment.

Magic

We share videos or images with friends and colleagues only if….I don’t know why exactly. But I’m sure that today, with exabytes of media circulates around us every hour, I’ll share a link only if it has a value for a person.

I believe that secret sauce on making a video viral — is to laugh at things happening right now. In this particular case, of course.

Today I see a lot of startups from Russia trying to raise capital with help of ICO. And almost all jokes in the video are based on reality:

  • a farmer from Russia launched ICO;
  • ICO Advisers asking a lot of money upfront, but if you chat with other startup founders who deal with them — you will find that they see this useless (in most cases);
  • and of course, you’ll find a lot of news regarding speculations of Bitcoin crazy rise. Of course, Bitcoin is not a bubble :)

Thanks to my new powerful gaming laptop — it took me only 2 days to cut video, add text, record translation and publishes it.

The last thing was video seeding. Here is my list: personal LinkedIn and Facebook page, Bitcointalk forum, HackerNews, Reddit, few small Telegram groups, golos.io, and hashtags “bitcoin, blockchain, ICO, Real Russian, comedy, smart contracts, etc”.

72 views.

It’s going to be viral or not at all.

74.

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Sergey S
HackerNoon.com

International tech entrepreneur, investor, traveler. Writing about Startups, Life, Blockchain, ICO, Tech, Space