The video of Ken Block tearing up San Francisco in an insane Ford Fiesta — better known as Gymkhana 5 — was a creative success for a brand that's constantly having to one-up its own crazy adventures. We can now report it was a viral marketing success as well, with approximately 5.1 million views in just 24 hours.
By comparison, Block's glitzier Gymkhana 4 totaled up just 1.3 million views in the same amount of time last year.
GYM5 is like Super Ebola, if Super Ebola could drift and wore sunglasses everywhere.
The series of vehicular gymnastics had already garnered over 140 million views, going back to the success of Gymkhana 1, Gymkhana 2, Gymkhana 2.1, Gymkhana 3, and the previously mentioned Gymkhanas 4 and 5.
It's the most viewed video on the Internet in the past week, despite being up for barely a day. It's climbed to the top of the Viral Video Chart, destroying both Carly Rae Jepson and David Guetta. For that alone we should all be grateful.
It's also been a top five trending video on Twitter, having been shared widely across the blogs.
Part of the success can be attributed to the incredible production value, driving, and prior virality of previous Gymkhana videos. But there's clearly no doubt the Ken Block machine is also extremely aware of what works and what doesn't on the Internet and how to launch a video, with plenty of warning given and exciting teasers.
Now Block's challenge is to find another way to top himself. We have some suggestions.