Branded entertainment is increasingly common in the United States. And this particular medium – YouTube – is filled with it. As well as millions of other non-branded pieces of entertainment. So to stand out in this world, we knew we had to do something really special.

Technology rules our world. And to continue pushing boundaries, we need future generations to embrace technology’s foundation — science. This pursuit, to get today’s youth to admire scientists the way they admire athletes and actors, became IBM’s mission. So they asked us: How do we spread the word about science? Our solution was to make the world’s smallest movie. Each frame is made of hundreds of atoms (yes, real atoms), moved to their exact placements by the scientists at IBM Research — Almaden. The frames are combined into an animation, which is now the Guinness World Records ™ record holder for World’s Smallest Stop-Motion Film. The scientists themselves made the movie, along with promotional materials like movie posters (all also made with atoms). And buzz was generated by word of mouth — we premiered the film live in a Brooklyn science class before it went live to the world as part of the Tribeca Online Film Festival, then promoted on social media networks with bonus content like additional video shorts and infographics. Proof that when you create something unique, it gets people talking.

The audience was drawn in by paid media like banners, print ads, and online video pre-roll, and by word-of-mouth social media initiatives and press outlets like Wired, Buzzfeed, and Mashable. All assets were compelling to the audience because they teased the most impressive aspect of our content piece – it was made with atoms.

IBM loved this simple, shareable way to spread the word about science and data storage, and the film was accepted into the Tribeca Online Film Festival and shown at the New York Tech Meet-up and the World Science Festival. The film, now in the top 1% of all most-watched YouTube videos, surpassed 1 million views in 24 hours, and 2 million views in 48 hours, with more than 27,000 likes. It was trending on twitter on its release day and totaled more than 21,000 social media mentions with 96% positive sentiment, increasing IBM social mentions by 137%. As of submission, the film garnered 2.4 million news impressions (not including television coverage) and 23.6 million impressions overall, effectively reaching all targets — the science, tech, film, education and entertainment communities — with a strong global reach (33% of online activity from Europe, 10% from China and 8% from India, Australia and Japan).