Spreadable media

Faris Yakob has been very vocal in his belief that it's impossible to "produce a viral" and that we should instead be talking about "spreadable media" - content that is produced with the intent to make people voluntarily propogate it:

"Further, as I've endlessly pointed out, if you let people mess with your content, it gets more spreadable - because people suddenly have a personal stake in its propagation - this insight was at the heart of propagation planning"

The new video from ex-Roll Deep Crew member 'Wiley' (and notoriously fickle label jumper) is a fine example of this theory - it just begs to be messed with and the early signs are that it could become a bit of a phenomenon ... with a really unusual audience of office workers:





Not only is this a very clever bit of production and an idea that builds on the "single take" heritage of some classic videos (Massive Attack's 'Unfinished Sympathy' and The Verve's 'Bitter Sweet Symphony'), but it's also quite blatant in it's invitation to be ripped off by fans (last frame).

So far the crazy kids at Atlantic have posted their attempt, so we're yet to see if something with such a blatant call to action delivers results?






Of course, it helps that this is a great tune produced by Mark Ronson and featuring an incredibly catchy Daniel Merriweather vocal.