I posted the Father’s Day videos about a week before the big day and the hits were a mild trickle at best. I would excitedly come upon an occasional email sent to my account that a comment had been left. By day 5 the main video had reached just under 500 hits and I was happily resigned to the fact that my viral marketing idea had kind of flopped on its face. Oh well. It had seemed to be a good idea when it struck me in the shower six weeks earlier. At the very least all the people involved could share the video with their dads and I could do the same with mine.
And then Father’s Day arrived. Strangely, I tossed and turned that night, literally imagining a flood of email comments in my inbox. I did expect that there would be a little more activity and if the hits broke a thousand I’d be all smiles, but the dream seemed like a ridiculous exaggeration.
Wrong.
Upon opening my computer yesterday morning I encountered what can only be described as an email deluge. I tried to keep up with it but realized fairly quickly that it was going to be near impossible. Like someone reaching to close the valve on an overflowing toilet I changed the YouTube settings to halt sending me notices.
The views counter seemed to freeze at 22,554 and I left for Father’s Day dinner feeling vindicated, yet expecting that would be it. Then, two hours later, my ever-faithful associate producer, Tracy, called to share that the views were now around 68,000 and we were at the #1 spot on the YouTube.com homepage.
I’m still a little dizzy with excitement even as things are starting to subside. The video as of this writing has about 144,00 hits. The comments I’ve received have been so touching and heartfelt.
Making this film — no — making films in general is ultimately about connecting with people in a heart-to-heart manner and to do so with this many people is incredibly uplifting for me. So, if you watched the videos and shared a comment on YouTube, I thank you. This has been a very special 24 hours for me personally, soaking in people’s reactions and their outpouring of feeling. God bless YouTube for allowing a small video like the one I posted to be shared by so many so quickly. What an amazing site.
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