This social video from ABC.es has some atypical features for a social video, and it’s success offers some good lessons for publishers. It’s a simple look back at Barack Obama’s presidency through the lens of the White House photographer that has drawn huge numbers. It currently has nearly 10 million views, 161,000 shares, 87,000 reactions, and over 2,000 comments.

Let’s take a look at this runaway success and what it does differently:

Things start out typically enough, with some basic text-overlay to set the stage over a square aspect ratio. The square format is always a good move on Facebook, as it affords the video greater space in users’ feeds, regardless of device. From here, though, the video deviates from the norm.

The introductory text-overlay is the first and only instance of text in the video. There is also no voiceover telling a story, but there is some music for those with the sound up.

Without voiceover or text, how is the story told? Here, it’s done purely and effectively with visuals. The photographic assets are high-quality, fascinating, and humanizing. Their quality and personal nature lead the viewer on a journey about Obama and his presidency.

Not only are the visual assets incredibly strong, the topic of the video is very timely. When Obama’s 8 years in office came to an end last month, his presidency was a hot topic all over social and news media. ABC.es tapped directly into that conversation and audience interest.

Another outside-the-norm feature of this video is its length. The piece runs a full 2 minutes and 41 seconds – more than double the “ideal” one-minute (or less) length for Facebook video’s. Despite the runtime, the time flies by.

The creators never linger on an asset very long, jumping from one incredible photo to the next. In every moment there is a new, stunning image to hold the viewer’s attention.

This piece bucks some of the standard “best” practices of social video. It’s a longer video, nearly entirely free of text-overlay and without voiceover. It also uses exclusively still assets, no video footage. And yet, it has been a runaway success.

It serves as a reminder that best practices aren’t written in stone – they’re tips that are known to get results. Pushing outside those standards can still result in great videos and huge audience impact, especially when tackling a timely subject with high quality assets.

In short, publishers and their creative teams should always be ready and willing to experiment in their video creation efforts. Trying something different can really pay off!