ICYMI: Renowned YouTuber, Casey Neistat blew everyone’s minds earlier this week when he released the following video:

It already has 3.9 million views as of 6:50 p.m. on Wed., Dec. 21.

It’s the result of a partnership between Neistat and Samsung.

And, I believe it represents the future of content.

Because this is what it’s going to take to get attention and cut through the massive clutter in 2017 and beyond.

A mega-drone donned in holiday lights towing a human being around town on a snowboard and then lifting him high into the air (and if you think it’s a fake, just watch Neistat debunk those theories here).

This one example illustrates perfectly that the future of content is:

• WAY outside the box you’re thinking in now. Again, a guy being towed by a mega-drone and hoisted into the air. That’s some next-level crazy content.
• Interactive and mixed media. You did notice the link to the 360 behind-the-scenes footage at the tail end, right?
• Created by only the committed. If you watch the second video above, Neistat has two interesting statements: 1) He pitched this idea more than a year ago to Samsung, and 2) The Samsung folks worked on building this mega-drone for more than a year! Now THAT’S commitment. And, that’s the level of commitment it’s going to take to win the content game in the years ahead.

The future of content is creating content that’s far outside what you’re thinking about now. Now, that’s going to take time and talent. But, brands may trade talent and time for volume (you’re already starting to see this with brands like Target–go see how many times they posted on Facebook in 2016). Creating one monster, break-through piece of content like this instead of producing 24 smaller pieces might be worth it (read: IS worth it).

The other important and interesting facet to this content case study–Samsung used Neistat as much for his ability to produce amazing content as it did for his reach.

Many brands approach influencers and think only about the REACH they’ll get from the influencer.

“We want her to talk about our brand on your Instagram channel–she has 5.6 million followers!”

“Could you work our product into your next YouTube video. I see your videos routinely get 1.5 million views.”

Reach is the big draw when it comes to influencers–and for good reason. But, CONTENT can be (and should be) equally as important. In this case, Samsung took advantage of both. But, without the CONTENT, Neistat’s reach doesn’t mean much, does it?

I think Samsung is on the front edge of a larger trend around brands using influencers more for content generation than for reach. Content brands will also use on their own social channels.

Back to content for a moment. I know this is a pretty extreme example. I know most brands aren’t going to create videos with huge drones dragging Santa Claus around town. But, the larger point remains fairly simple: Get hugely creative with your social content, or remain irrelevant.

I really do think it’s as simple as that.