Some of you would have heard and seen it on the news last night: The Mountain Biker that got hit by a red hartbees buck.

Suegnet van der Spuy, one of our BA Brand Building and Management third year students, suggested to Max Cluer Sports Marketing that they post the video onto YouTube after showing it to her lecturer and classmates.

Her brother participated in a mountain bike race at Albert Falls Dam and got accidently run over by a hartbees buck.  A friend, wearing a helmet with a camera in it, recorded the entire event.  Evan was knocked unconscious, but luckily by wearing his helmet his injuries were minor. The company took her advice and after a bit of editing posted the recording onto YouTube on Monday afternoon.  By Tuesday evening they had over 2.4million hits and the video made news headlines across the country, it even caught the attention of international news (such as Europe, America and Russia to name a few).  Evan has been interviewed, with more interviews lined up by news agents such as ABC News, Sky News, CNN, National Geographic and various local news agents!

We often hear from students that as part of their brand communications strategy they will do a viral campaign,  and often we tell students that viral has no guarantee that it will be effective.  I think this ‘case study’ is a prime example of the unexpected power of viral, and also that there is no one clear strategy for what could work.  More than my fascination with this overnight phenomenon, what I find most interesting, is our fascination with accidents, the ridiculous comments posted on YouTube from all over the world and also how brands quickly jump to the opportunity to latch onto the situation.  Already Evan is receiving all sorts of ‘sponsorship’ from various brands, whether their intention is ethical and sincere can be questioned, although we want to be hopeful that they end up contributing to his career.

Vega would like to wish Evan all the best in this overnight sensation, we trust that he is OK considering what he experienced, and that he did not get seriously injured.

Have a look for yourself: Mountain Biker gets taken out by BUCK

Post script:
Vega would like to state that we were not directly involved in the posting of the video. As a Brand Leadership institution we do have an opinion on developments in the local brand communications industry and our involvement was purely that of an interested industry commentator. We apologise for any confusion which our prior release may have caused.

by Naretha Pretorius