Two days ago, DC Shoes, retailer of footwear & gear for Extreme Sports, released the latest of their GYMKHANA video series, titled “DC and Ken Block present Gymkhana FIVE: Ultimate Urban Playground; San Francisco.” This video broke all the records from their previous videos, currently achieving 14 million views in its first four days.
Gymkhana is a form of motorsport where drivers a preset course featuring obstacles such as tires, cones and barrels in timing/speed competition. DC shoes CEO, Ken Block is their president, chief brand ambassor and an accomplished rallycross racer.
Some interesting facts about the DC Ken Block Gymkhana Project’s marketing effectiveness
- Over 135 Million views worldwide with 40+ videos
- Gymkhana 4 was the most shared viral ad of 2011
- 85,541 people commented on Gymkhana on YouTube
Source: DC Shoes Gymkhana Infographics
What can retailers learn from this video series (without putting their co-founder in a rally car and closing streets in San Francisco)
- Consistency and time. In the world of shorter attention span, consistent flow of content is key. In between the large production videos are also video outtakes etc. to maintain momentum
- Cross-selling for success: Gymkhana is essentially the halo campaign to drive awareness of the brand into the entire product portfolio targeting skatboarders and other extreme sport lifestyle consumers
- Partner with other brands: Prominent partners including Ford Fiesta (heavily modified of course), Monster drinks takes most of the limelight during the video, but DC Shoes gets the traffic and the link to the ecommerce site for sales. Sometimes it isn’t a matter of screen time.
- Being genuine with the brand: After all, especially when you are an extreme sports retailer, showcasing that you are part of the lifestyle and your executive/spokesperson genuinely participate in the activities help increase credibility.
Hope you enjoy the video.
p.s.
I live in San Francisco actually have done the Bay bridge exit from East Bay , off the Fremont Street exit (1:22 in the video) down the turn, without drifting my car of course 
But where’s the guy in the gorilla suit with the ladder?
Gorilla suit is so Gymkhana 4, do miss the Epic Meal Time cameo. We now have bacon truck in San Francisco so that would be appropriate. That’s a subject for a different blog
Kenneth you are completely right. These got this right and their videos rock too which does help. Check out devinsupertramp as well for another guy that is being highly successful. The combination of good social media skills and awesome videos is epic! Now if companys could do this better for their brand and products… You would be ON FIRE!
Great blog Kenneth!