One of the beautiful things about the internet is remix culture… taking something and making something else.
It’s been at the heart of the internet since it started. Think CassetteBoy back in the day. Or creative commons licences. Or memes.
TikTok has really taken the idea of remix culture and given it an oxygen mask filled with pure mountain air. Baked into the platform is the abillity to re-use and repurpose.
So, the duet can be a video you shoot where you respond to another video, for example.
Or it can be using the audio of another video to create your own take on the original.
Scrollingh through TikTok I noticed four examples of remix culture not in high fashion or pop culture but… cricket.
Cricket? You mean that stale sport played in front of a handful of elderly people?
It turns out that cricket is really embracing remix culture on TikTok.
Why is this useful to a comms person?
Because people like remix culture. They like and share it. It builds your audience because they’ll stick around for your next video. Your next video may be one you really want them to see with a call to action.
I’ve said it dozens of times before but if 80 per cent of your content is not about selling things that’s a decent number to aim at.
Durham cricketers react to a village cricket clip
‘That’s so village’, is a term attached to really bad cricket. It’s the red ball equivalent of being a pub team.
Thanks to the advent of decent cameras and the internet there’s a whole host of clips that are attached under the village umbrella.
Shooting reactions is a well established way of generating content. In this case, Durham County Cricket Club show village cricket clips to a couple of their players and they film their reactions. They then mix the original with the reaction. It’s not hard to do.
The result is a fun clip with LOLs…
Reacting to a reaction video
Even more meta is Worcestershire County Cricket Club’s reaction to a reaction. In this case, football pundit Rio Ferdinand reacts in the studio to a goal being scored.
That clip is repurposed by WCCC as a means of underlining just how good a wicket one of their bowlers has taken.
Clever.
Remixing the audio
David Warner is Cricket Australia’s pantomime villain. He’s been suspended for his role in cheating in the past.
In this clip, they get Warner to lipsync what looks to be a Bollywood clip about violence.
What does the film do? It underlines the player. The player makes a joke about his reputation. It reaches an audience who probably are not listening to Test Match Special.
Conclusion
Remix culture is part of the landscape.
If cricket can do it, why can’t you?