Marketing

VT: RATM, Panic Attack, 9 Year Olds, Jack Bauer V Santa

VT: December 22nd 2009
This is the final list of the best new virals I’ll be posting this year. It’s been a week when social media took on the big guns and won not only with Rage Against The Machine’s chart conquering effort but also a $300 dollar short had Hollywood calling on an unknown Uruguayan film makers door.

1. RATM V X Factor
It was a David versus Goliath battle, with the odds heavily stacked in favour of Simon Cowell. The final X-factor was watched by 20 million people in the UK, 10 million of those voted on the final night, with 6.1 million voting for Joe McElderry to win, which he did. Even with the juggernaut that is the X Factor behind him Rage Against The Machine pulled off the unlikeliest of wins. After all, this years X Factor, with a new show broadcast on Sunday nights, featured a string of high profile guests such as Robbie Williams, Leona Lewis and Black Eyed Peas. All of whom enjoyed significant sales bump’s after their appearance on the Sunday night show, even Michael Bulble enjoyed a career high after his first X Factor appearance of the series. In viewing stats X Factor rarely dipped below 12 million viewers making it the most watched show of the year on TV.

On the flipside, the Rage Against The Machine campaign had no money behind it. And last year a similar effort to get Jeff Buckly’s version of Hallelujah to top the charts, ahead of X Factors version sung by then winner Alexandra Burke, didn’t succeed. She triumphed in that battle selling 476,000 copies of her single. The RATM campaign, with no budget and only social media as its marketing tool, was taking on the biggest brand in UK entertainment. Simon Cowells Syco generates 70% of the income for the Sony label. This ‘V’ Facebook?

Over 1.5 million people joined the RATM campaigns Facebook group with a third of them going on to buy the single. Although McElderry shifted an impressive 450,000 copies of his single it was a full 50,000 behind Rage, making the American metal band the first download only Christmas Number 1. How this affects X Factor in 2010 will be interesting. Surely this isn’t the last time such a campaign will be mounted and what lessons can be learned by Syco (Cowells production company) for next years X Factor winner.

Cowell has offered Jon and Tracey Mortemer, the two behind the campaign, a job at his record label. There is an obvious niche in promoting older tracks that have already paid for themselves making them more profitable, and if it can be done with no marketing spend then it’s even more profitable and much less hassle than having to invest and promote new artists.

Spare a thought for Olly Murs who is playing a call centre in my home town of Waterford today at 1pm. How did this happen, X Factor was only last week and 3.9 million people did vote for Olly (the least bland of the two) to win? Well  X Factor was sponsored by said call centre (Talk Talk), its the largest centre servicing the UK market. Olly was also a former call centre employee. But don’t think about showing up wearing a RATM shirt as you may be shown the door!

2. Panic Attack
A 5 minute sci-fi film made for $300 and shot in Montevideo. Possibly one of the coolest videos I’ve seen in a while and its director, Fede Alvarez, has even landed a $30 million production deal due to the sheer quality of this short.

3. The decade according to 9 year olds

4. The new season of 24 is almost upon us, but in the meantime here’s Jack Bauer interrogating Santa

5. Epson demonstrate the power of their new projector in Extreme Gaming

Related posts:

1. 2010: The Year Video Marketing Kicked it up a Notch
2. LAB: Top 9 of ’09
3. When Music Virals Came of Age
4. VT: Crystal Swing, Tron Legacy, IamAmIWhoAmI, BMW
5. Hurts (UK band) & Their Online Marketing

© 2009 LAB: Luke Abbotts Blog.