"Ask A Ninja" Interview

Interview With Ask A Ninja's Doug Sarine
I just recently had the chance to sit down with Doug Sarine and ask him a few questions about his wildly successful Ask a Ninja series. His series has pulled in as much as $100,000 a month from sponsors. So, I asked him three questions:

1) Why do you feel your series has been so successful?



2) Do you have any advice?



3) Is there anything important happening behind the scenes?

Secrets to the Viral Video

Rule #4: Repeatablity
Rule #4: Repeatability

Imagine you've hit upon the perfect idea. You film it, and it gets a million views. Great! Now, how about a sequel? Because, when someone hits upon your amazingly funny and engaging show, he's going to want to see more. And if you have more to give him, you're golden, and if not, then you're just one more one-hit-wonder.

And why wouldn't you film several episodes? If it takes all that effort to film a show, wouldn't it make sense to film several episodes since they're there anyways? The ten episodes of Turbo Dates 2 were filmed over three days.

Once you've hit on a winner idea, why do just one? Hollywood loves sequels. And here in the mobile entertainment industry, it makes so much sense. From a viral standpoint, if you've finally found a funny video, you're gonna want to watch a second, and a third, and a fourth. That is, if there are more.

But if you want to get picked up to play on Sprint and Babelgum(which is on the iphone), it takes so much time and paperwork to seal the deal that it only makes sense to go through the trouble if you've got a series.

Tune in Later this Week for Rule #5: Evergreen!

Rule #3: Clear Genre

A Music Video, like Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend" (yeah, she might have gamed the system, but she's still second for most views on YouTube), is nearly always obvious. If you don't know the title and the singer, the music throughout the whole clip will give it away.

But you probably don't want to compete with Avril. That's cool. If you're making a comedy, the viewer needs to laugh almost right away. Why? Because that's how you prove it's really a comedy (because most comedies are funny). If it's action, you gotta blow something up, or hit somebody.

If it’s a comedy, you need a laugh within 10-15 seconds maximum. It annoys and frustrates viewers if they don’t understand what they’re

watching right away.

And the crucial element is speed.  As the graph below shows, the audience doesn't have time to wait around for you to explain what you're doing:

Audience Attention Span
Video length    % of Audience who watched the entire video
10 sec.                   89.61%
20 sec.                   80.41%
30 sec.                   66.16%
60 sec.                   46.44%
 2 min.                   23.71%
 3 min.                   16.62% 
 5 min.                     9.42%
Source: Tube Mogul

 Tune in Next Week for Rule # 4: Repeatable!!!