Susan Boyle of Britain’s Got Talent is an Old Story Made New

By now you may have seen the YouTube video of Britains version of American Idol and the performance of 47 year old Susan Boyle.  If you’re like me, you were touched and moved to tears (okay, not a full fledged sob, but more a “welling” of the eyes). I was first turned on to the clip by a friend of mine on Facebook at 10pm Tuesday, April 14. At that time there were 4.4 million views. When I showed it to an associate at 9am, there were 5.4 million views.  By 7pm there 8.6 million views. In the last three hours nearly a million more people have seen it.  Is that remarkable or what?<;/p>

From a groundswell perspective it blows me away, yet the formula is so simple.  When I showed it to our Director of Video Services, Scott Maida, within the first minute he asked, “is this an ugly duckling story?” And I chuckled at the phrase and then answered, “yes, it actually is.”  What was interesting about the observation is that it’s an old story, coming to life in a new, remarkable video.

As we continue to produce video and search for new angles, this clip of the remarkable Susan Boyle is a reminder that old stories can work again and again, as long as the characters are compelling.  Then, when we find a character that can draw viewers like Ms. Boyle, I’ll retire.

Ed Heil is the owner and president of StoryTeller Media & Communications an inbound marketing and public relations agency and video production company based in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Ed blogs on topics related to inbound marketing, social media, media relations, news media, video production and crisis communications.

Tags: Video of the week

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