Marketing & Media & Social Media 25 Jul 2007 09:20 am
The star-making power of grassroots marketing
We’ve recently entered an era of new media techniques and nontraditional marketing. It is now possible for anyone to exhibit the most creative and out-of-the-ballpark promotion and marketing strategies that would have easily been shot down five years ago. With these creative advancements in our marketing world, anyone can get the word spread about their product, company, television show or even themselves.
New media plays a major role in the e-world—be it podcasts, blogs and social networking sites. Take a look at this article by Stephanie Kang and Suzanne Vranica of The Wall Street Journal about year-old online forum Twitter MTV used Twitter as a promotional tactic to talk up the Music Awards show on June 3rd and they also plan on using it for the upcoming Video Music Awards in September.
Nontraditional marketing is all about two-way communication these days. Crest is asking consumers to choose the next flavor of toothpaste. Recently, MTV asked viewers to vote for the final roommate on the upcoming season of The Real World. Companies are getting consumers involved in the planning stages in hopes of increasing their loyalty.
The same is true for self-promotion. MySpace and YouTube allow users to upload videos, music files and photos, which has proved highly advantageous for aspiring musicians, comedians and models. Having an agent, label or recording contract doesn’t mean much these days—you can join a social network and get potentially just as many people to listen to your music, see your work or hear your stand up routine as you would after being “discovered.”
Above is a great example of how these new media promotional efforts work — Mia Rose. Up until December 2006, only locals had heard of Mia, and then she decided to post videos on YouTube of herself singing her own music. After 20,000 viewers subscribed to her music channel, Mia Rose now has a solo career and a strong international following.
OK Go, an alternative rock band from Chicago, is a second example of YouTube leading the way to their success. The band formed in 1998 and did not have much of a following until the above video was filmed and uploaded to YouTube about a year ago. To date, the video has been viewed over 20 million times. OK Go earned the Grammy award for “Best Short-Form Music Video” in 2007 and the YouTube 2006 Video Award for “Most Creative Video”.
My favorite nontraditional tactic would be The Simpson’s Movie craze that has been occurring lately. Actress Archives and The Seattle Times mention several of the tactics 20th Century Fox Film Corp. is using to market the July 27th opening. We still have all week to find out if the marketing hype was successful with box office sales or not.
Take Snakes on a Plane, which opened last summer, for example. By going to the Snakes on a Plane website, you could send voicemail messages from Samuel L. Jackson to yourself and friends reminding them of the upcoming release. The movie was hyped up all summer long leading to the mid-August big screen release, turns out Snakes on a Plane was number one at the box office through August even though the movie was continually getting low ratings. Just like the promotional rage for Snakes on a Plane release last summer, it will not matter if the movie is rated ten stars or one star, The Simpson’s will probably be number one this upcoming weekend and weekends to follow.
Nontraditional marketing is making vast advances by involving the audience in the promotion. Creative and nontraditional strategies will help keep you one step ahead and generate a whole new following.
Posted by Danielle
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