When you talk with someone about social media, Facebook and Twitter are sure to come up, but YouTube is one network that is often forgotten about, even though millions use it everyday. One of the greatest public relations success using this medium is the pop rock band OK Go.
While their albums aren’t top-sellers, and they may not play the largest gigs, these four guys are YouTube gods. After posting a dance practice video of a lip-syncing routine they were polishing for a Soul Train like program in Chicago, the video and the internet made these guys famous. One of their biggest hits on YouTube itself is the video for their song “Here it Goes Again,” in which the band makes crafty use of some treadmills to create a truly unique performance. Within the first day of that video being posted, it had close to a million views.
In a 2010 interview conducted by the social media news site Mashable OK Go frontman Damian Kulash mentions actually reading viewers’ posts on the videos, and that the thrill of their success doesn’t just come from the amount of viewers, but rather the absence of a middle-man between the band and their audience. The relationship is much closer than other bands have with their followers.
The audience is greater than that of other bands too, because not only does their music reach fans of their style of music, but also anyone who enjoys watching amusing videos online? According to MarketingPilgrim.com “49% of people are watching videos daily for an average total of seven hours per week per person.” To open up your consumer base that much is HUGE, and would please any company executive.
While the videos don’t really make the band much money, the exposure and closeness with the audience is something that most bands and companies long for, making OK Go’s YouTube usage a major success story, and possibly the greatest social networking marketing of all time.
Please Click here to check out OK Go’s YouTube channel.
For more relatable reading on OK Go and there PR success, please go to http://www.reelseo.com/youtube-revenue-ok-go/.
I think your point about people just liking to watch amusing videos rings particularly true. People may not remember the title of the song or the band’s name or even that the video had music in it at all…but they will remember a YouTube video featuring guys doing cool tricks on treadmills. The moral I get from the OK Go phenomenon is that it’s all about content. Social media channels are constantly shouting millions of different messages at internet users, and in order to cut through all the noise one must create something particularly original and interesting.
I’m actually obsessed with this video. Whenever someone mentions OK Go I think of this video. They recently did a car commercial I believe? Where they drove the car and hit instruments on the drive? I could be mistaken, but I believe it was this band that did that. YouTube is a great asset if you know how to use it properly. The singer Karmin was on YouTube for rapping Chris Brown’s “Look At Me Now” and now is signed by a record label. And the two dancing and singing little girls who belted out Nicki Minaj’s “Superbass” were sensations all over the country thanks to Ellen Degeneres picking them up. YouTube is a very strong way to get yourself out there, the key is to know how to utilize it correctly. Then again, knowing how to use any social media is the key to making it work.
@ksavela: yes they did do the video with the car company. http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=plpp&v=MejbOFk7H6c
“When you talk with someone about social media, Facebook and Twitter and Blog(you’ve forgot) are sure to come up, but YouTube is one network that is often forgotten about,” 100% you have a great point with that. Speaking of this topic, Lets go to OK GO,
“Look at that they just used the car as there instrument. WTF! The commenter said: (For god sake if they wanna sell that car show this as an advertisement)”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MejbOFk7H6c&feature=bf_next&list=PL0FB9262CF878A34A