Lonely in Las Vegas? How about making a viral video then

What do you do when you are bumped off two flights and stuck in lonely, deserted Las Vegas airport overnight?

Shoot a music video on your iPhone lip-syncing Celine Dion’s All By Myself to share with all your friends, of course! This is exactly what Dion super-fan Richard Dunn did and he was amazed when his video went viral with over 3.7 million views – turning him into an overnight internet sensation.

While this is a novel way to channel boredom – and perhaps the start of a new trend on the rise of airport videos (please no!) – what makes this piece of content work?

Richard Dunn says start by being true to yourself. What do you enjoy doing? Think about how you can channel that into your next communication. In a world where so much information is spun, genuine passion for what you are doing always shines through.

His next tip is to be surprising. So much content washes over us because of its sheer predictability. Surprise grabs attention. Surprise is the secret weapon against information saturation.

And finally, Dunn says he made his video to make his friends laugh. Simple, clear intent. While we can’t have this as our brief, what matters is starting with how we want people to feel when they receive our message. Starting with the emotion, and building our message around it, will help dramatically increase our influence and reach.

Richard Dunn is no longer all by himself. Celine Dion also did a response video, saying how much she loved Richard’s video and inviting him to her show in Las Vegas.

Yamini Naidu is a global thought leader in storytelling and business communication. She is a director at yamininaidu.com.au, and was previously a director at One Thousand & One, a company she co-founded in 2004.