One of the greatest things I learned from my dear friend, Ien Chi, is the art of storytelling. If you don’t know Ien Chi, he’s achieved over a billion views, supported Apple, Nike, and NASA, and—most importantly—gave me the principles that helped me achieve over 25+ million views organically.

No follow-for-follow, buying subscribers, disingenuous practices, just pure and elegantly designed principles that can touch the hearts of billions. And as a treat, I’ll share these principles right here.

Context over Content

One of the major principles for storytelling is Context over Content. For instance, let’s take a painting. You put the painting on the street. It might attract a few people. Now, let's put that same painting in front of an audience, behind a red velvet line, carpet, a glass case, etc. All of a sudden, that same painting has more value. The painting (content) never changed, but the context shifted.

Now let’s take a viral video that we may have seen. Do you know those viral videos of a father from the military being reunited with their child? Why are those videos so touching? Let’s say we take away our knowledge of the father being in the military, and we just played the video of them being reunited with their child. Although beautiful, it would just be a video of a parent loving their child. The knowledge of us knowing he’s in the military helps us see the gravity of this moment. This long separation gives us the context of why that moment is instantly more valuable.

If you watch 95% of viral videos, Hollywood blockbusters, etc. they are all following this same principle. Let's take the popular franchises Batman and Naruto. These franchises wouldn't have their depth if the characters did not have some type of heavy past, an incredible weakness they have to overcome, and a character that got in their way (Context). See the pattern? All these factors add context to the content. The content is the characters Bruce Wayne and Naruto.

Why is it that in romance movies, the nerds, outliers, or awkward, low-income guys always seem to end up with the main girl? It’s all about context. This setup makes the journey even more rewarding and captivating as we watch the protagonist win over the girl of his dreams.

Context is key. Don’t ignore it.

Context is the essence of crafting ideas that can touch billions of people. It is the bridge between images on a metal screen and the heart. This principle and a few others, is what allows your idea to reach billions. By understanding and mastering these principles, virality becomes that much easier.