Disney and Dude Perfect have announced a company-wide creative partnership that brings Dude Perfect videos to Disney+, ESPN and Disney’s social channels. Over the next year, the YouTube trick shot group will also make new content tied to Super Bowl LXI, the 50th anniversary of Star Wars and Marvel’s Avengers: Doomsday. Yes. The trick shot guys. The ones who throw ping pong balls off of tall things.
What is Dude Perfect? It is a group of friends from Texas who film trick shots and stunts for YouTube. They have 130 million followers and more than 22 billion views. That is a lot of people watching a ball land in a cup (giggle).
What Disney gets: Some Dude Perfect videos will stream on Disney+. Disney can also post some of their short videos on Disney+, ESPN and Disney’s social media. Dude Perfect will make new videos based on Disney stuff, including Avengers episodes of their show Overtime.
What Disney did not say: Disney’s announcement calls this an “integrated creative partnership.” It never explains what that means. It mentions parks and products, then gives zero details about either. There are no dollar amounts. There is no list of which videos are coming to Disney+. So, stay tuned, we guess.
They have done this before: Last year, Dude Perfect tried to visit all 12 Disney parks around the world in under 75 hours. The video got more than 13 million views in its first day. It also raised more than $1.2 million for Make-A-Wish, and that part deserves real credit.
Our take: Disney’s marketing chief says Disney “has always been a place where great storytellers come to create.” Apparently that now includes grown men bouncing a ping pong ball off a rooftop. We are not the audience for this. But 130 million people are, and Disney can count. If you love Dude Perfect, congratulations, your guys just got the keys to the castle. The rest of us will be over here waiting for one single detail about what an “integrated creative partnership” actually is.
