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How Fenton the dog went from viral video to marketing moneyspinner

Viral video hits such as Fenton chasing deer and Charlie Bit My Finger are becoming brands in themselves
Here boy! Can you spot Fenton? View larger picture
Here boy! Can you spot Fenton?

Even in this year of sporting heroes, one name above all still embodies the determination and athleticism that Britain cherishes. It may be nine months now since he raced into our hearts, but Fenton the dog remains the nation's darling.

So, naturally, he has a book coming out. Find Fenton! is a collaboration between author Stuart Cooper and illustrator Martin Berry, who have hidden the world's most famous black labrador in a variety of London settings for the inquisitive reader to root out. "It was a lot of fun to do," says Cooper, who has never previously made a book out of a viral video. "It's a whole new world to me."

A new world, but a rapidly expanding one. Fenton's antics in Richmond Park may not quite constitute a cultural milestone, yet that 47-second piece of mobile phone footage has now been viewed more than 6.9m times, making it a valuable brand. Indeed, its rights are now being managed by a specialist company called Viral Spiral. Besides the Fenton book, it has launched Fenton mugs and T-shirts, and is in talks over licensing an ad campaign.

And besides Fenton, Viral Spiral also represents the rights holders of the sneezing baby panda, the babbling twins, and the behemoth that is Charlie Bit My Finger (now viewed more than 479m times). "Over the past year, we've done probably 10 or 12 ad campaigns, for Coca-Cola, Samsung, Sony PlayStation, Google, T-Mobile, Norton AntiVirus," says the company's founder, Damian Collier.

There is now also an official Charlie Bit Me!!! app offering users various Charlie-related games and funny noises. "It's just fun stuff basically," says Collier. "At one point, Ellen DeGeneres tweeted about our app and that gave rise to about 100,000 downloads. It's been very successful." Naturally, the family of Charlie Davies-Carr are cagey about details, but they admit the clip has already earned them more than £100,000.

But of course, under British law, it is the people who make a film, not the people in it, who own the rights. This means that neither the zoo where the panda sneezed, nor Fenton's owner, will see a penny of the profits. So yes, there is money to be made from filming your pet being cute. Just try to train it to be cute indoors.

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Here boy! Can you spot Fenton?

Here boy! Can you spot Fenton?