Viral? (or how we are being sold to in the new age)
-
I have a friend.
A trench Musician with a lot of mileage under his belt.
We had a discussion about what has happened to the ladder you have to climb to be successful in the internet age.
We started with the music industry, but it became evident that it is no different in most industries.
So I would like to get your take on the process of connection, and reaching target audiences (markets), and the ways in which we are being unknowingly targeted ourselves by companies that are being created to devise ways of reaching us.
Here is an example to kickstart.
-
I'm reading up on its here http://www.sharethrough.com/
-
More reading here Mike.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2011/12/19/30-under-30-dan-greenbergs-sharethrough-redefines-online-video-and-advertising/What I find interesting is they are making advertising become content. In a sense this is a very subliminal way to channel people like me who are very suspicious of anything that smells like advertising without confessing that it is.
My interest is piqued because ( back to the music analogy) in the music game it used to be kosher to send a demo tape to an A&R man, radio DJ, etc., and there was a chance it would get listened to.
Now if you send an unsolicited file, you can be sure it will be trashed.
You can't blame these people, the internet has given us the power to connect, and therefore overwhelm. I read one guy who said it wasn't unusual to get over 1000 of these a week. Big files clogging up their email systems and generally pissing them off.
So now it's the You Tube route.
But that's where companies like Sharethrough come in. So in actuality thos "Viral" videos and adverts are getting substantial help along the way.
I believe it is Sharethrough that won't charge unless you get 100,000 hits.
Since this seems to apply across all fields, not just music, it seems to me we have taken the power away from the big corporations, (you know empowerment), and given it back to..... well according to the above Forbes link.... the big corporations.
Sweet move. -
I dislike being lied to or being deliberately misled. If an advertiser wants me to pay attention to their ad, no matter the format, make it engaging and/or entertaining; but by all means let
me know that it is a sales pitch of some sort. The recent car sales video featuring the tune by Fun (We Are Young) was pretty cool, and I knew they were pitching a car. But making a video and carefully releasing it on the Internet with planned bumps from media outlets and the corporate monetary support to make it happen seems dishonest to me, a forgery if you will. I suppose it's just the way of things now.My opinion of a true viral video it that a real amateur group or individual put something together and it was "discovered" by the Internet at large. Lifted up by the masses if you will, not by some corporate marketing office trying to tell me what I should think "cool" is.
Jmo.
-
You have a point Jeff, as even though you might have valued the VV at the time of viewing, it would probably drop in your estimation if you learned it was for 'sales' promotion!
Still everyone has an angle of some sort ...... ever Mother Teressa, her own way!
-
@escapeartist said:
My opinion of a true viral video it that a real amateur group or individual put something together and it was "discovered" by the Internet at large. Lifted up by the masses if you will, not by some corporate marketing office trying to tell me what I should think "cool" is.
Jmo.
I guess after what I have been reading, that I am now questioning all of these internet successes.
I'm also wondering if it is now possible for someone (some product) to be successful without these tactics. -
-
@mike lucey said:
You have a point Jeff, as even though you might have valued the VV at the time of viewing, it would probably drop in your estimation if you learned it was for 'sales' promotion.
That is true.
-
The old expression, 'Take everything with a grain of salt!', should go a long way when considering these things
Advertisement