Everyone seeks escape somewhere; through video games, books, Netflix shows, music, or even in the endless scrolling of social media feeds.
This is where Oddly Satisfying videos come into the picture.
From soap-cutting to slime, many have found a way to unwind or ease their nerves with such content. Even wildly popular K-pop group, BTS, knows what’s up; and they’ve hopped on the trend with their new single, Butter.
Unlike short Oddly Satisfying clips you’ve seen online, BTS went for a different approach with an hour-long animation of a piece of butter melting.
The animation is almost painfully slow but, it has since managed to get a whopping 17.3 million views as of the time of this writing.
Let it simmer.
What is it about these videos that make them so popular?
The rise of Oddly Satisfying content
The viral quality of Oddly Satisfying content is due to an odd combination of these phenomena – mindless scrolling, stress relief and the desire for instant gratification.
These videos’ orderly, repetitive and seamlessly fluid nature lends it a soothing quality. What with the current pandemic crisis, people find themselves increasingly in need of some sort of quick relief.
According to Evan Malone, a professor of art and film philosophy, two of the most common feelings experienced during the pandemic are powerlessness when encountering massive issues and social and romantic isolation. Apparently, he believes that Oddly Satisfying and ASMR content are able to provide temporal relief to those facing such issues.
However, Oddly Satisfying content has made a name for itself even before this global crisis.
Instagram crowned Oddly Satisfying as the fastest-growing niche in 2018 on the social media platform. According to Google, slime was the biggest DIY trend in 2017. It was so popular that it even caused a national scarcity of glue in the US.
The #OddlySatisfying hashtag is used on Instagram posts every minute on average and there’s been a huge leap in Google searches for such videos over the past few years. In fact, the “Oddly Satisfying” Reddit thread still lives on up to this day and this type of content continue to pervade platforms like TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.
Amidst all the slime, soap-cutting and painting, we have Andreas Wannerstedt’s perfectly looping animations. As of this writing, he has garnered 663K followers and millions upon millions of views.
While his work doesn’t feature real-world objects, the animations are inspired by them, except that he gives them “a little abstract twist, where things are defying friction and gravity to a certain degree”. With that, he ends up with the aesthetically pleasing mixture of stone, wood, metal, and plastic-like objects that appear as if they were fresh out of an avant garde design magazine.
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The science behind its pleasure
Experts describe the sense of satisfaction one gets when everything is “just right” as “Goldilocks feelings”.
OCD-diagnosed or not, the sense of completion and satisfaction Oddly Satisfying content evokes is pleasing to many.
In fact, Professor Robert Colombo states that watching these videos can cause the release of dopamine and serotonin in the brain, which results in feelings of positivity and happiness.
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Multiple reports highlight how Oddly Satisfying videos have the potential to help make people feel calm and relaxed, as mentioned by Sabrina Faramarzi at Wired.
Another study done at Swansea University further supports the feeling of relaxation such content provides after surveying ASMR enthusiasts and finding that a vast majority of them watch ASMR videos to destress, relax and even have a better night’s sleep.
This relaxation is mostly due to the “mirror neuron theory”, as discovered by Dr Anita Deak of the University of Pecs, which states that watching another person perform an action evokes the same neurological response as executing the action ourselves.
Some viewers even reported that such videos give them a “brain massage” or a tingling feeling on their scalp that slowly moves down their neck and spine.
It’s a great mood changer and serves as a stress relief for anxiety.
Professor Craig Richard, the founder of ASMR University, even describes unusual and Oddly Satisfying videos as another category of ASMR and talks about how it triggers and appeals to our brains.
What it takes to market the right content
Up till this day, Oddly Satisfying content still has its way of entertaining, relaxing and providing relief to people. When used cleverly and creatively, it can even be the perfect marketing tactic to reach out to your audience!
Even so, it need not be the only trick up your sleeve – from motion graphics to 2D animation; there are numerous tools we provide at your disposal.
As one of the distinguished animation production companies in Singapore, CraveFX is experienced at churning out marketing content that meets your needs.
