If you’ve been following Red Productions for a while, you might remember a spot we did for TCU Baseball in 2012 called The Grind. It was a gritty, motivational video showing the mindset and attitude that Coach Schlossnagle wanted his players to buy into. We wanted it to be about more than just baseball. It needed to be something athletes would understand, appreciate and rally behind.
This video is probably the most popular piece we’ve ever created. As of this writing, it has around 1.5 million views, all without a single dollar in media spend. This is the original:
TCU Baseball 2012 – The Grind
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNL_DAI19_I?rel=0]
Directed by Chris Rodriguez and written by Scott Porter, the video was hugely successful. What we never would have predicted, however, was how much bigger this would become than one seasonal video for TCU.
Apparently, there is a big market for motivational videos on YouTube. There are also lots of people who want a ton of views on their YouTube channel. It’s pretty easy to rip the audio from a file on YouTube, then use it however you want to. Mix this all together, and you get a whole lot of Rise and Shine! So check these out and see if they look/sound familiar.
Rise and Shine — Athlete and Running Ultimate Motivation, 2.3 Million Views
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuPLxQD4akQ?rel=0]
This video has been copied and re-posted multiple times. Here it is again with another 1.7M views, and here it is branded as a Nike spot for the 2012 olympics. In fact, a funny thing happens in some of these other videos where people credit Nike for creating the original. We’re flattered, but they should know that Nike probably wouldn’t be showing Reebok and Saucony product in their spot.
Rise and Swim — Welcome to the Grind 1.4 Million Views
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tzm6TEManmQ?rel=0]
Best Athlete Motivation And Inspiration, 920K Views
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4b4DJFStVQ?rel=0]
Fitness Motivation 2013, 41K views
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K49GYNxWJkc?rel=0]
Motivation – Rise and Shine
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8RAOmF4el8?rel=0]
RISE AND SHINE/RISE AND RUN
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCgmhIZ6kPQ?rel=0]
Nike – Rise and Shine
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIHWCL-jv5U?rel=0]
LeBron James – Rise and Shine
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q40hei4dzvY?rel=0]
Bodybuilding Motivation – Rise and Shine
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gpje_GeqL74?rel=0]
Best Motivational Wrestling Video – Rise and Shine
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5H1uQKr2MVM?rel=0]
And there are many, many more. Don’t get me wrong, this is part of the game you play by putting content on YouTube. As a content creator, you get access to the biggest viewership network in the world for free, but you have to understand that people will do with your content whatever they want to.
Some of these videos were made by people that legitimately wanted to help motivate people to train, exercise or stay commited to a goal. That’s really awesome. Others just wanted to put something on YouTube that would get a lot of views. That’s less awesome, but it doesn’t matter.
What matters is that we created something that resonated with people in a meaningful way. People all over the world have seen, shared and been affected by a video shot for a small university in Fort Worth, Texas. I wonder how many people were introduced to TCU because of this video. If this was the only impression they got of the school (my Alma Mater), I think I’d be OK with that. The words and images in our video hit on a truth that athletes everywhere felt and appreciated. What more could we possibly want?
Red Productions is a full service video production company in Fort Worth, TX. Aside from awesome sports videos, they also do cool commercial and corporate work as well.
