Internet Marketing and Digital Media Strategy Sydney Australia

Personally, playing guitar on an I-phone sucks (or maybe my guitar playing) but as a weekend musician, Internet video producer and digital marketing boss I was very interested in this story

(Note: I-phone guitar plugged into a 3000 watt PA is pretty cool for 30 seconds or so)

Atomic Tom?

Before today most people in Sydney had never heard of the band "Atomic Tom" but a clip of them performing on their I-phones while on a New York subway has caught the attention of the local media and gone viral.

Irrespective of whether the clips viral success is the result of a carefully planned orchestrated Apple product placement campaign or is just a lucky combination of the right message at the right time, it's interesting to see how the story has evolved, with each derivative article not just a simple quick cut and paste of the predecessor, but a new angle to explore.

Time will tell - but in the Internet world - Time is "Real Time!"

Creating the story

Most stories and campaigns follow a basic theme and structure which goes back to the ancient Greek and Shakespeare plays:  Exposition > Climax > Solution

 "Overcoming adversity - a band's gear stolen..."

Atomic Distribution

October 14, the original clip uploaded via Youtube .

October 15, the clip picked up by Wired - Wired is a monthly American magazine (founded 1993) and on-line periodical that reports on how technology affects culture, the economy, and politics.

October 16, the Wired article then picked up by Mashable - is a leading Internet news blog with a reported 30+ million monthly page views and as of September 2010 has over 2 million Twitter followers and over 275,000 fans on Facebook

October 20, the Mashable article picked up by the Sydney Morning Herald (best summary)

At this time the original clip has 1.7m views.  The non I-phone version of the song just 30K. 

Lesson - not just another song, something different.

Is it Real or a just a Stunt?

Does it really matter? The clip increases awareness of the band and the creative capabilities of the I-phone BUT if you think in terms of lifetime customer value and the "gear stolen" bit is creative license then customer and viewer trust has potentially been compromised.

The Power Of Video

Video is changing the Internet landscape and according to Dan Greenberg we will often remain watching a video three times longer when it has been shared by a friend (somebody/ brand/ organisation we trust).

Today every online word and conversation saved and indexed for later search, retrieval, compilation and analysis.

Tips

• Be creative but keep it real (honest).
• Create compelling events that resonate with your intended audience.
• It's not viral until it's viral - focus on the creative and if it's good it is more likely to spread.
• Quality is a great differentiation strategy and helps rise to the top (but doesn't mean too slick that it's not real!)
• Online video production and Social Media spend will increase from current SEO focus and conventional media advertising.
• Building life time customer trust is essential to long term business survival.

You and the 52

This is Part 4 of a weekly blog looking at Digital Media strategy and "inline" brand engagement.