I’m sure we all remember when the Harlem Shake was the hottest video trend on the Internet. Whether you enjoyed the videos or hated them, after looking at these stats… it would be tough to deny the impressive impact Harlem Shake videos had on the online landscape during February and March of 2013. The people over at YouTube Downloader gathered some data and put it into an infographic. Let’s go over some highlights from it, shall we?
In just one month (February 2nd – March 4th), 2,782 years of Harlem Shake footage was watched! Can you believe that number?! That is 27 decades… wait… CENTURIES! Twenty-seven centuries of Harlem Shake footage was watched in just one month. YouTube Downloader found that in 27 centuries, a person could have earned $176 million dollars making minimum wage; earned a bachelor’s degree 50,780 times; or travelled to the Sun and back in a space shuttle 2,313 times. Let’s say you didn’t want to travel to the Sun (and back), but instead you are a homebody. You could have watched the Lord of the Rings Trilogy (extended edition, plus credits) 2 million times.
Even though the Harlem Shake craze is almost two years old, we can still gather some value from one of the strangest viral trends of the past couple years. Let’s look at its value as smart marketing. Comparing the top ten Harlem Shake videos to 2013’s top ten Super Bowl ads, we can see how powerful Internet trends can be.
- It cost $4.2 million to place a Super Bowl ad vs. $0 to upload a video to YouTube
- Average views of a Super Bowl ad: 7.9 million; Harlem Shake: 27.8 million
- Average likes of a Super Bowl ad: 20.5 thousand; Harlem Shake: 127 thousand
While I know it isn’t exactly the same (and it probably isn’t fair) comparing Harlem Shake videos to Super Bowl ads, but it is still interesting how much traction viral trends can get in the world. Thanks again to YouTube Downloader for putting this infographic together!
At Transformation Marketing in Lincoln, Nebraska, we are the all-in-one advertising agency. Whether you want to produce a video featuring your new product or service, or you want to increase your social media exposure… this is what our team does all day, everyday… every minute… between the hours of 8am to 5pm… and sometimes later than 5pm… but not earlier than 8am, because I’m hitting ‘snooze’ at least 4 to 5 times every morning.