'Duck Tron' Races on Vimeo, Quickly Gets 268K Views

Duck Brand Duct Tape is seeing a video go viral – but not on YouTube. It’s taken off on Vimeo to the tune of more than 268,000 views in the past 24 hours without any paid advertising.

The “Duck Tron” video went live on Sunday and had 20,000 views yesterday around noon Eastern Time. Then Vimeo’s film-savvy audience started taking notice, although earned media certainly helped. At 4 p.m., the brand posted a message about the video to its formidable Facebook audience of 4.3 million and tweeted to its 1,900 Twitter followers. It currently stands at 288,000 Vimeo views, while approaching 6,000 on YouTube.

David Rodgers, digital marketing director at Avon, OH-based Duck Brand Duct Tape, said his company didn’t aim for the video to become a Vimeo hit instead of a YouTube sensation. The piece, which creatively borrows from the movie Tron’s light racing scene, was seeded on both video sites at the same time. Santa Monica, CA-based online video company Tongal guided the effort.

“The Internet gods just decided to have the viral take place on Vimeo,” Rodgers said, speaking with ClickZ News on Tuesday. He wasn’t complaining though, stating, “It’s not easy to have something go viral.”