Good news: I’m now officially a millionaire. Not in euros and not in dollars, but in a currently more stable currency: YouTube views. Four million viewers on YouTube alone have clicked on my iPad video “Preview on iOS 5”, in which I interact magically with Apple’s tablet and seemingly present the advantages of an upcoming software update.
The video was also embedded on major internet portals across Europe and broadcast several times on German television – and even twice on Japanese TV. After a senior New York Times journalist tweeted the video, Frank Elstner invited me back on his show “Menschen der Woche” – the very programme on which he discovered me for “Verstehen Sie Spaß?” seven years earlier. The English-language video was first embedded by the internet portal Mashable; just hours later it had 100,000 views, and after three days it had passed the two-million mark.
The success was certainly helped by Apple’s keynote two days later, at which Steve Jobs presented the actual iOS 5 update. I had originally planned to use the clip earlier to announce my appearance at the Apple Store in Munich. Then I read that the Apple keynote would take place in early June and, at short notice, changed the text from “the magical iPad” to “Preview on iOS 5”.
The feedback has been a success not only in quantity but also in quality: 96 per cent positive ratings and more than 3,500 comments keep the clip in the all-time top 100 of the highest-rated videos. Reason enough to shoot a thank-you video answering some of the most frequent comments.
I had celebrity support for this from German TV weather presenter Claudia Kleinert and Bayern 3 radio host Stefan Schwabeneder. Very much in the spirit of Andy Warhol: “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.”
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