You have probably heard about the dancing guy phenomena by now. His name is Matt Harding and he’s a regular fella who is happily dancing his way around the world. Literally. In his latest video on YouTube called, simply, Dancing, he is seen strutting his stuff in 69 different locations around the world, in some pretty amazing places like Tonga and Timbuktu.

Matt, truth be told, is not one of the world’s great dancers. He does this kind of frenetic jig that looks like step aerobics on Red Bull. But his dancing isn’t what makes the videos so appealing. It’s the sheer fun of dancing uninhibited wherever the hell you feel like.

Matt started making and putting these videos on YouTube in 2004, and in 2005, a marketing company called GoldNFish saw one and thought they would be a fun way to help launch a new sugarless gum called Stride. Stride simply paid for Matt’s travels and filmed him along the way. A small Stride logo appeared intermittently in the 2006 video and the new video ends with a Stride credit. That’s it. Matt never wears Stride gear and never chews Stride gum.

So where’s the USP and the Key Benefit and the 200 Page Analytics and the reams of Consumer Testing Data? It’s not there! But what is there — and is better than all of that stuff — is pure delight. It’s fun to watch the videos and fun to see how the people in them, particularly kids, love joining in.

The latest video, which has been up a month, has already been viewed 5 million times. Millions of people have sought out these quirky, infectiously fun videos and have come away with a smile and a positive brand impression of Stride, which, by the way, is now the fifth-best-selling brand in the sugarless gum category, with $42 million in sales so far for 2008. That’s some pretty big results for such a little idea.

Steven Stark is a writer and creative director but not much of a dancer — sober or otherwise. You can see his work and read some of his other musings here.

Article Tags: Beneath the Brand | dancing guy | matt harding | Steven Stark | stride gum | Talent Zoo | Viral Marketing | YouTube
Filed under: Branding, Marketing Innovation, Social Media Marketing, Strategy, Viral Marketing, Visual Identity