In 2019, I shot a wildlife video that ended up on UNILAD with the caption "This might be my favourite video of all time." It crossed 50 million views across social platforms. Zero dollars spent on promotion. Pure organic reach.
People ask me constantly: how do you make something go viral? The honest answer is that you cannot engineer virality with certainty. But after 17 years of creating content through Biricik Media — from Versace Mansion editorials to National Geographic award-winning work to that 50-million-view clip — I have developed a framework for understanding what makes content resonate at scale.
Lesson 1: Authenticity Is Non-Negotiable
The viral video worked because the moment was real. It was not staged, not scripted, not produced with a storyboard. It was a genuine moment that I happened to capture because I was paying attention. Audiences in 2026 have extraordinarily sensitive detectors for inauthenticity. They can feel the difference between a manufactured moment and a genuine one, even in a three-second clip.
This does not mean commercial content cannot go viral. It means that commercial content must contain something real. When I photograph at the Versace Mansion or shoot a campaign for a luxury hotel, the images that perform best are always the ones that captured an authentic interaction — a genuine laugh, an unplanned gesture, a moment of real connection between subject and environment.
Lesson 2: Universality of Emotion
The 50-million-view video worked across every demographic because the emotional response it triggered was universal. Joy. Surprise. Delight. These are not culturally specific emotions. They cross every boundary of language, geography, and age.
When producing content at Biricik Media, I apply this principle directly: the most shareable content is content that triggers an emotional response so fundamental that it requires no context to understand. The viewer should not need to know the brand, the backstory, or the production budget to feel something.
Lesson 3: Technical Quality Still Matters
Here is something the "just be authentic" crowd gets wrong: quality matters. The viral video worked partly because it was well-shot. Not overproduced, but technically competent. The framing was good. The timing was precise. The resolution was clear enough that the subject's personality came through on every screen size.
After tens of thousands of hours behind the camera, technical execution has become unconscious. I do not think about framing and exposure anymore. My hands and eyes handle that automatically. This frees my attention to focus on what matters: recognizing the moment.
Lesson 4: Timing Is Everything (And It Cannot Be Taught)
The single most important factor in the viral video was timing. Not posting timing — capture timing. I started recording at exactly the right moment because decades of production work had trained my instincts to anticipate what was about to happen before it happened.
This is the hardest lesson to convey because timing is experiential. You develop it through thousands of shoots, thousands of moments captured and missed. The same timing instinct that lets me nail a split-second expression during a commercial portrait session is what let me capture a viral wildlife moment. The skill is transferable because it is fundamental.
Lesson 5: Do Not Chase Virality
The most counterintuitive lesson: I was not trying to create viral content when I shot that video. I was simply paying attention and capturing what I saw. The content that tries hardest to be viral is almost never the content that succeeds. Audiences sense the desperation.
Create content that you would want to watch. If it resonates with you genuinely, it has a chance of resonating with everyone.
This is the philosophy that drives every project at Biricik Media, whether it is a multi-day commercial campaign or a spontaneous social media capture. Make it real, make it beautiful, make it emotionally honest. If it goes viral, wonderful. If it does not, you have still created something worth making.
For more insights on content creation, explore the video production tips page or learn about the evolution from photography to AI. Visit cemhanbiricik.com to see my full body of work, or discover what is possible with ZSky AI.