Carlton's Blog: Musicians or Marketers?

There rarely has been a time when musicians become active participants in a brand’s marketing process. The maximum you see is a singer belting out a tune that is made especially for the brand (read AR Rahman) or is the use of a popular track to sell the brand. But this to me is just scraping the surface of their marketing abilities. Indie Rock Band ‘OK Go’ is the perfect example of musicians going beyond just song and dance into serious, yet highly effective brand marketing. OK Go knew that their market was a niche market purely by the choice of the genre of music that they are slotted in. They knew that they had to do something exceptional to break out from the boundaries of the genre and hence they decided to adopt the medium of innovative music videos. And from the word GO, they knew they were onto something big. After a few tries with the usual formula for creating a music video, it was ‘Here it goes again’ that really became showcase of their creative ability. ‘Here it goes Again’ has now become one of those iconic music videos with over 13 million views on their official channel. What a great start!

As if that was not enough to display their creative prowess, they went ahead and created another music video for their next song ‘This too shall pass’ that made the Honda Cog spot look like child’s play

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Samsung recognized this talent and collaborated with the group to help them promote their new camera, NX 100. Their idea was brilliant. Stop Motion done for the first time on toast, all shot on a Samsung NX 100. Crossing over a million views in a couple of weeks ... howz that for a cool viral?

The next collaboration - Google, to promote HTML5. Two versions of the video were created. One an interactive one that was created completely in HTML5 and viewed in Google Chrome to promote the browser capabilities

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And finally and most recently, their collaboration with Chevrolet to promote the Chevy Sonic that premiered at the Superbowl. With over 20 million views, this turned out to be the most successful of collaborations

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Ok Go have gone on to make appearances in PBS, educating children about colors in their own quirky manner and expect more collaborations and crazier videos. They are an excellent example of extremely effective marketing through music videos. Lets be honest, I don't believe most people in India would listen to a genre of music like OK Go, but if you promote that genre of music with a smart video the track tends to grow on you. With video reaching astronomical heights when it comes to viewership online, its only natural that brands start using the same for marketing. OK Go to me are musicians by profession but marketers at heart. They know the pulse of their audience and that has lead to their success - creativity being the center of it all.

OK Go’s YouTube Channel

Carlton D’Silva is the chief creative director at Hungama Digital Media and has spent over 15 years in the digital space. He takes insult when you call the digital medium new media…15 years should be old enough! Find him on twitter@TheWordOfGawd