It’s the cultural event of the weekend. With more than 20 million views on YouTube in 72 hours, 340,000 spectators during a single screening at the cinema and a broadcast planned on TF1, nothing can stop the rise of the documentary recounting the climb of YouTuber Inoxtag to the summit of Everest.
Posted online on YouTube at midday on Saturday, the film “Kaïzen” broke audience records and generated hundreds of thousands of comments, notably from Internet users far removed from the usual audience of the young 22-year-old videographer.
How can we explain this craze? Why does it unite so many people and what does it say about the new codes of influence? Anne Cordier, professor of information and communication sciences at the University of Lorraine, agreed to analyze the phenomenon.
Inoxtag’s film was released in cinemas all over France and had over 20 million views on YouTube in just three days. What do you think is the reason for such success?
I think of a real and deep need to socialize, to be together, and to feel like they belong to a community, to a whole. Symbolically, that’s what it sends us as a signal: a youth that unites around a person and what they represent, both in their values and in their ambition. A youth that, contrary to what is said, does not cut itself off from the world, but on the contrary, rebuilds society through this event. Because concretely, young people found each other, traveled to see an event that they knew would be available for free online. Symbolically, it’s very powerful.
And then, I don’t have any tangible elements to document this, so it’s just a hypothesis, but I also wonder to what extent the context and the current gloom are not a factor in the success and support of the public. Because well, there are no more Olympic Games, and it’s still more than gloomy, even very dark as a period, and isn’t it also “let’s talk about escape, discovery, positive things, we discuss it together around someone who is rather consensual, and we have fun”.
Finally, what is also remarkable is that it has brought together people beyond the usual audience of this content creator, and this is what my students told me this morning: “We talked about it to others and we got our parents, our older brothers involved”. So yes, there really is a way to rebuild society. And I think that’s really cool…
This intergenerational sharing is what is called retro-socialization in sociology. This means that it is the children who teach the adults and not the other way around. This is something very positive and quite exceptional.
Is this generational sharing a new phenomenon in the world of influence or social networks?
New, I don’t know, but it’s something that children and adolescents are calling for. In the discussions and interviews that I’ve been able to conduct on the subject, many regret being looked down upon, by their loved ones or “in the media”, as they say. Adults, especially politicians, often send them this image of a somewhat stupid youth, alienated by uninteresting content… This intergenerational sharing is what we call retro-socialization in sociology. This means that it is the children who teach the adults and not the other way around. It’s something very positive and quite exceptional. Until now, on the big events of the creators of Youtube, like the GP of Squeezie, very clearly, we didn’t see it. Parents weren’t mobilized, on the contrary, we often saw parents who said “I don’t even know what it is”… there, Inoxtag changes the situation.
The media hype surrounding “Kaïzen” also seems to contrast with the way in which the world of content creators or influencers has generally been presented to the general public until now. How do you explain this shift?
Indeed, there is something new around this documentary. I would like it to be much more general and for it to contaminate the rest. I think that there is still a communication strategy on the part of Inoxtag that is exceptional, extremely well done and which partly explains this craze. And then, precisely, what it proposes echoes adult dreams. The gatherings organized by Squeezie, on the other hand, remain associated with a “youth thing”. Whereas here, the adventure itself is unifying. It also fascinates adults, it appeals to the adventurous or discovering spirit of all generations, and I think that is what brings people together. The relationship to the exploit, to nature, to a form of exceptional exploration… It sends a rather serious image, hence the fact that there is a greater support, including from older generations.
Anne Cordier hails “a masterstroke” in terms of communication. “Inoxtag has succeeded in combining a communication strategy with a long-term educational process and public awareness.”
JOEL SAGET / AFP
While he has based his career on social networks and influence, Inoxtag calls in this film to disconnect and refocus on simple values. What do you think of this paradox?
It’s clever, because with that, he surfs on the big speeches of adults about the digital practices of young people. And the adhesion of these adults to these words of Inoxtag is also very paradoxical: they adhere a lot to this event, which is a pure product of the internet, but at the same time, it reinforces them in their obsession with juvenile connected practices. And so, “stop the screens”, it’s good that it’s Inoxtag who says it. As with many things, we are based on a paradox, because is there really such a great understanding of what connected practices are? When, precisely, we make a film to call for no longer connecting, it’s a bit ambiguous… But in any case, we have a very ambiguous relationship with digital technology in our society.
The success of the film and its media coverage are resounding. The result of a particular communication strategy?
What is interesting is still the whole teasing effect, “I include you in the preparation of the project”, because he recounted this preparation and staged it for months. But his storytelling is designed in such a way that we are on “I will not tell you more, you will know at the end”; he maintained a kind of suspense, and that, for once, allows a build-up of the plot, and it is very strong, it must be recognized.
It’s very striking, because we’re used to content creators doing this kind of storytelling, but over a short period of time, not over a whole year. Obviously, the grandiose nature of the undertaking, climbing Everest, leads to this long period of time, and to this whole preparation part, which itself educates users. I found it interesting, because he managed to combine a communication strategy with a long-term educational process and public awareness. It’s a masterstroke, in terms of communication, frankly.
“TF1 means an audience that is potentially older, for example grandparents, with whom we will be able to talk about it.”
A film shown in cinemas, a colossal budget, impeccable production and a huge success: what does this film say about the world of influence today?
This tells us that there is a lot of porosity with traditional cinema, television or entertainment, much more than before. And for once, we have never had an experience on such a large scale. So this really means to us that we are in a world where all these spheres are porous. And at the same time, it also means that this is the real world. We have always tended to say “there is real life on one side, and fake life on the other, on the internet”, and then “we don’t really know anymore: virtual, not virtual”… An event like “Kaïzen” shows us that everything is part of a single world, which here, moreover, comes together.
TF1 has announced that it will broadcast the film. What is the point when it is freely available on the internet?
It’s not the same experience. People who have already seen the film have seen it with a unique experience: either in the cinema, but not with the same people with whom they will watch when it is shown on TF1; or online, for free, but again, not in the same conditions or with the same people. In fact, it is a diversification of the experience proposals. And in the end, the content matters little: the sensitive experience takes precedence over the content. TF1 means an audience that is potentially older, so for example grandparents, with whom we will be able to talk about it. The grandparent/child bond is very important, particularly in relation to digital technology. Perhaps surprisingly, it is a very strong bond because it is a real bond of understanding: grandparents have much less daily prohibition action on young people, so the relationship they build with them is not the same. There, there will be this pleasure of sharing together. “Usually it’s “Échappées belles” that my grandparents watch, well this time, I also have something to show them, it’s Inoxtag, that’s what it is, and that’s what I do when I’m with my phone.” That means all that, behind.
Whether in terms of content (the ascent of Everest) or form (an ambitious and expensive documentary), this film also illustrates a form of race towards gigantism. What would be the possible excesses of this, in your opinion?
Let’s not kid ourselves, this film is made possible by an economic model that relies on data capitalism. We have to look at all that behind it too, and when I talk about a “masterstroke” in terms of communication, I’m not in adoration of the process.
This scale is also the scale of an economic model that has a priori won and is dominating, that of the capitalization of data, that of traces. This gigantism is also the reign of the blockbuster. So how can we carry weight, in the face, when we offer content that perhaps surfs the wave a little less? It can endanger the creations of authors or content creators considered more intimate, or who are interested in less marketable subjects, for which sponsors are less ready to sign. This necessarily accentuates the consumerist model, even if the message of the film suggests the opposite.
