Hello again, it’s been a while!

This morning on Breakfast on One, Marie introduced NZ to this viral video that’s been capturing hearts around the world.

Already being hailed as “Korea’s Susan Boyle”, Choi Sung Bong is a 22-year-old with an amazing story. Abandoned at age 3 at an orphanage, he escaped into homelessness at age 5, and spent the next 10 years surviving by selling gum and energy drinks.

This is a real tearjerker, even before the music begins. The video (just one version, there are several others) has attracted over 5 million views in just a week since it was uploaded. And the Facebook page set up for Sung-Bong has gathered over 30,000 likers already.

Why?

Every minute, 48 hours of content is uploaded to YouTube. Why do some videos get 5 million views, while others don’t?

It comes back to a larger question: why do some ideas take off, and others don’t?

It’s a question that a team of filmmakers took on in creating The Influencers, a 13-minute documentary that asks some of the world’s movers and shakers what it is that makes someone influential.

The filmmakers say they’re trying to find out “what makes a person influential without taking a statistical or metric approach.” However, they do refer to the classic adoption curve referenced in books like The Tipping Point and Crossing the Chasm. They even made a fantastically funky graphic about it (click to enlarge):

What’s not often told is that the adoption curve comes out of research into 1950s farmers adopting new kinds of seed.

While it has been a useful way to look at influence, it’s not the only way. Researcher Duncan Watts did some research into influence, and concluded (somewhat controversially) that what mattered most was not so much the influencer, but instead, the influenced.

More on this in Simon’s NZ Marketing Magazine column in the July-August issue. Stay tuned!

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You did it! After a month of no video or audio comments from Jump In! viewers, we have three. But here’s the weird thing. They’re all from outside New Zealand!

What’s up kiwis? We want to see your face, and hear your voice. And not just so we can save postage when we send your free copy of Joseph Jaffe’s Join the Conversation.

As well as comments from Ron Mader, Gideon Shalwick and Adam Mezei, we’ve also got Simon’s presentation from a recent event hosted by The Internet Bureau.

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• And of course, we’d love to see your comments below.

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