This company found the secret sauce of going viral

So, if you have seen the famous subway rat dragging his pizza slice home or the rat taking a selfie it was the work of an Independent Australian production studio, The Woolshed Company.

They seem to have cracked the code on how to go viral. So, from shark attacks to lightning strikes, bears chasing snowboarders to drones falling into Burning Man -no matter what they produced- the world watched. They shared and then they argued like hell over their authenticity. And guess what, it was this debate over authenticity that propelled each videos’ viral success.

The Woolshed Co. experimented with concept creation approaches (figuring out what people want to click on next), production techniques (stock footage, editing, CGI and compositing etc.), distribution, and seeding strategies – all to maximize share-ability and entertainment value as the campaign progressed.

In a press release, the Woolshed Co. Managing Director, Dave Christison, said the content series was envisioned as a social experiment to explore the creation and distribution of ‘new media’, with the process involving The Woolshed Co. “strategizing, creating, releasing and then integrating the learnings into the next piece”

He adds, “We learned what worked, what didn’t, and what are absolute ‘must haves’ for any viral marketing campaign. Whether the story went for twenty seconds or two minutes, we aimed to take audiences on a ride that may shock them, make them laugh, make them cringe, but most importantly entertained them, no matter how brief, and no matter how questionable,”

Now they have released the results of their “Viral Experiments” explaining it as a part of the two-year social experiment exploring the phenomenon of ‘viral’ videos and shareable content. If we talk numbers here’s what they say, 8 unique videos, 500,000+ comments; 1.6 million+ likes; 164 years of YouTube watch time; Worldwide news coverage; 205 million+ online view.

Australia's The Woolshed Company spent 2 yrs faking #viral #videos. Were you fooled? #ViralExperiment https://t.co/4TB5iRJmZ7

— Brian West (@MrBrianWest) July 13, 2016

Christison continued, “we set out to better understand exactly how to create short-form, highly shareable, snackable’ content, that is capable of reaching worldwide mass audiences, without the luxury of pricey media buys, ad campaigns, publicity strategies or distribution deals,”

These videos and stories around them were viewed in 180+ countries around the world. They made news headlines in the countless news and entertainment services, including all three commercial networks in Australia - Network Seven, Nine, and Ten. Not only that, they managed to grab eyeballs internationally as well, right from NBC, FOX, CBS, CNN, Sky News and ABC (USA) or networks across Europe, UK, USA, Japan, Russia, Canada, China and South Korea. Print and online publications also contributed to the buzz, with The Guardian, Sky News, News Limited, The Independent, The Mirror, The Sun, The Telegraph and Time Magazine all sharing the content, and then weighing in on the debate.

So, in short with smart camera work and extraordinary creative skills, they did manage to fool us into their large scheme of events. Either confuse or convince seems to be the secret to going viral! Anybody listening?