How Dan Porter Finds and Builds Viral Hits

TL;DR

Viral opportunities can emerge from behavior a company did not deliberately create, as shown by the unexplained “67” meme tied to Overtime Elite player Taylor “TK” Kenny. Dan Porter’s response was to recognize the cultural signal, reject a limited merchandise idea, and connect the phenomenon to a broader consumer concept while preserving the youth-driven meaning behind it.

Transcript

So, this is like a canned water brand, a high school basketball player, and a Tik Tok meme walk into a bar and out comes this. And this is the the story of that. Can I just hype you up like I'm Dana White in the UFC? Because we have here the most entertaining man in business, the guy with the most illustrious career. He started Teach for America. H... Read More

Key Insights

• • Viral discovery is partly an observational skill: Overtime’s team noticed that millions of TikTok views were using Taylor Kenny’s “67” voice clip even though neither Kenny nor the company had intentionally promoted it.
• • The “67” meme is a bottom-up cultural phenomenon: Young users repeated a meaningless phrase, added a hand movement, created jokes, and spread the behavior without needing an official explanation or a centrally managed campaign.
• • Meaninglessness is part of the meme’s appeal: Adults repeatedly ask what “67” means, while younger participants enjoy that there is no satisfying backstory and that outsiders cannot easily understand the joke.
• • Overtime Elite provides substantial distribution: Porter says it is the second most-followed basketball league behind the NBA, has more than 12 million followers, and attracts many fans who watch its games.
• • NIL allows athletes to earn through endorsements: Porter explains that college and many high school athletes can make money from their name, image, and likeness, although they cannot simply be paid to play their sport.
• • NIL earnings are concentrated among leading athletes: Porter says top Power Five quarterbacks can receive $7–10 million for a season, while top basketball players can earn $1–3 million and swimmers or lacrosse players generally do not receive comparable amounts.
• • College basketball can be especially lucrative for women: Porter says the WNBA draft has three rounds and second-round or third-round selections often do not make a team, making college NIL opportunities financially important for some players.
• • Product positioning can expand a cultural opportunity: Kenny first wanted to sell T-shirts, but Porter believed the meme could support something beyond merchandise, leading to a canned-water brand connected to the “67” identity.

Questions & Answers

Q: How did the “67” meme begin?

The meme began when Overtime Elite player Taylor “TK” Kenny was joking with another player while a team was at a beach. Kenny answered a question by saying “67” and moving his hands, referencing a line from a Skrilla rap song. Roughly two months later, Overtime’s team discovered that TikTok users had turned his voice and gesture into content generating millions of views.

Q: Why did “67” become popular on TikTok?

The phrase spread because users could place it into many simple jokes without needing a fixed meaning. Athletes were asked questions designed to produce the answer, while students asked teachers arithmetic questions that resulted in “67.” The lack of a satisfying explanation made the joke more appealing to younger participants and more confusing to adults, which created further opportunities to repeat it.

Q: How did Dan Porter turn a meme into a water brand?

Taylor Kenny wanted to capitalize on the unexpected popularity of “67” by selling T-shirts. Porter believed the opportunity should extend beyond basic merchandise, so the cultural identity was connected to a canned-water concept. The brand combined a player associated with the original moment, a rapidly spreading TikTok meme, and Overtime Elite’s existing audience and distribution across social media.

Q: What does the “67” meme actually mean?

Porter says the meme does not carry a definite meaning. Kenny’s original comment referenced a line from a Skrilla rap song, but the later TikTok phenomenon became valuable precisely because participants could use it without explaining it. Younger users assigned their own cultural significance to the phrase, while adults often became part of the joke by searching for an explanation that did not exist.

Q: What is bottom-up culture in viral marketing?

Bottom-up culture is created and spread by participants rather than delivered through a centrally planned media campaign. Porter contrasts the “67” meme with top-down entertainment such as Stranger Things. Young users took Kenny’s voice, gesture, and phrase, then created their own jokes and situations. Their repeated participation established the cultural meaning and demonstrated their ability to influence media independently.

Q: How large is Overtime Elite’s social audience?

Porter describes Overtime Elite as the second most-followed basketball league in the world, behind the NBA. He says the league has more than 12 million followers, many fans, and substantial game viewership. That audience gave the organization a strong connection to young basketball culture, although the original “67” TikTok growth happened without Kenny or Overtime deliberately creating a campaign around it.

Q: How much can leading college athletes earn through NIL?

Porter says a top Power Five quarterback can make $7–10 million for one season. He places leading wide receivers, running backs, and defenders at $1–3 million, and says a bench player can receive $250,000. Top basketball players can earn $1–3 million, with four or five former players from Porter’s league making more than $1 million in college.

Q: Do NIL earnings reach athletes in less prominent sports?

NIL earnings are concentrated heavily among athletes in football and basketball, the sports Porter identifies as major television and revenue generators for schools. He notes that exceptional cases exist, including a softball player in Texas making $1 million. However, he says swimmers and lacrosse players are not currently earning hundreds of thousands of dollars at the same general level.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Dan Porter describes how Overtime Elite player Taylor “TK” Kenny casually said “67” while referencing a line from a Skrilla rap song. Months later, the player’s voice and hand movement had spread across TikTok, appearing in jokes involving athletes, students, teachers, summer camps, and people who did not understand the reference.

• The meme became powerful partly because “67” had no fixed explanation. Young people could repeat it, invent situations around it, and enjoy the confusion of adults. Porter interprets that pattern as bottom-up culture, where an audience creates and assigns meaning instead of simply consuming culture delivered by established media producers.

• Kenny initially considered selling T-shirts to benefit from the meme, but Porter believed the opportunity could extend beyond merchandise. The resulting canned-water concept combined Kenny’s connection to “67,” Overtime Elite’s audience, and an already expanding social trend, eventually becoming what Porter calls the fourth most-followed water brand in the world on social media.