.

So what did this one cost to make?

Like any popular song, an inspired video needs a hook. In this case the ‘hook’ is the band substituting their instruments with iPhone aps to play one of their recent songs ‘spontaneously’ on a New York subway. It feels real so it probably is, and if it’s not, it probably won’t matter. Did they do it in one take? Did they overdub some music in the studio? Was any of this really spontaneous? Perception is reality.

The band Atomic Tom delivered on a very simple idea – play your song using iphone aps instead of real instruments… in a public place. The video is certainly helped by good shot planning and structure: Start slow to limit expectations and build engagment as you go; Include crowd reaction shots to build interest and show that you should take notice of what’s going on; Include close-ups of the instruments to demonstrate how impressive (or ‘improbable’ for skeptics) the feat of playing a 4 inch sheet of glass can be.  And it certainly helps that the song they are promoting is a good one.

Like the experience of  Sons of Maxwell, this video will lift the band from obscurity and guarantee them their 15 minutes. The question remains, are they now on the same viral treadmill as OK Go where their future success is tied as much to the quality of their videos as it is to their music?

It’s a great video, and will no doubt inspire a thousand different (and lesser) variations on this theme.

… and yes, Steve Jobs has to be really happy with this video.

Most companies are not prepared for the impact of social media.

CNN Money recently posted this article about Ann Milch, an irate BOA customer who concluded that the only way to get even with the ‘thieving, scheming bastards’ at the Bank of America was to post a scathing YouTube video letting the world know exactly how she felt. At 400,000 views and 6,000 comments, she has received a lot of people’s attention… including the bank’s. Bank of America has since retracted the 30% interest rate (is that legal?) it was charging her and has reinstated the previous 12.9% rate. Good for them.

Whether you agree with Ann and the vast majority of YouTube commenters that the Bank is evil or whether you  feel, as some do, that Ann would not have experienced this problem if she had simply lived within her means you have to agree that the impact of a single angry customer can have a significant affect on your brand.

It’s tough to know what makes any video go viral. YouTube is filled with angry rants, this one just seems to have struck a resonant chord. A lot of people are hurting right now. Perhaps BOA is just the lightning rod de jour, attracting the current anger and frustration surrounding these difficult economic times.

These are still early days. If a single video can garner this much attention imagine what would happen if the angry hoards got together. Imagine if the conversation started to spiral out of control and you were not part of it. Imagine if the groups and people that are impacting your brand were all playing in a sandbox that you knew nothing about, and frankly had no credibility in. Imagine if the majority of negative word of mouth about your brand was visual and interactive and the only arrow in your quiver was a press release.

Time to engage.

A week ago I posted about Dave Carroll and his band ‘Sons of Maxwell’ getting the run around from United Airlines after the negligent mishanding of his Taylor guitar. Fed up and frustrated with United’s lack of interest  Dave decided to punish the Airline the best way he knew how – he wrote a song about the experience. (Two more songs are in the works…)

At the time of posting the video had an impressive 200,000 hits on YouTube. That was then. A week later the video has been viewed more than 3,000,000 times and the blogosphere is alight with the story. Must be tough sledding in the United PR department.

Sensing an opportunity Taylor Guitars has jumped into the video fray and published (responded with) their own ‘show of support’ video. It’s difficult to estimate but you have to guess the PR value for ‘Sons of Maxwell’ is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and Taylor guitar has probably never been this famous. Like all things viral this will quickly blow over but the entire incident will have left an invigorated Canadian country band, a rejuvenated guitar manufacturer and a discombobulated airline in its wake.

“This is about getting down to business. Because the only chapter we’re focused on is Chapter One.”  What a load of crap! Do advertising writers really believe that cliches and slogans are the most effective way to communicate?

You missed ‘electric’, ‘efficient’, ‘quality’ and many other important ’trends’,  you’ve mismanaged one of the world’s largest and most important companies and now you are in bankruptcy protection… so what do you do?

You release a cliche riddled, generic video with predictable imagery that promises a ‘new beginning’, a’ fresh start’. The only thing missing is the waving flag and Bob Seger music. {Note, I watched the video again after posting and realized there is a waving flag, my bad.} 

This is a watershed moment for GM and its advertsing agency and yes, one day after bankruptcy filing is very early in the game, but if GM wants to signal that things have truly changed then the first signal to the market should be in it’s advertising/PR. This one minute ad could have been created five or fifty years ago, for any company. There is nothing genuine, informative or interesting in this video, nothing to signal to the world that things really are changing – it’s just more of the same.

GM will emerge from bankruptcy protection – it has to. It will be smaller and will have blown out many of the questionable lines it once supported. It will be leaner and perhaps meaner. It will also have to start communicating in a very different fashion. Informative may be a good place to start. Honest is good too. Inspiring would be ideal if that were possible.

Note: Blocking comments on YouTube is also a really bad start.

Video is a very powerful and effective way to communicate.  We’re going to be seeing more videos like this one.

Brave New Films is an organization at the leading edge of video activism. It creates news magazine style videos that examines / ‘exposes’  a range of political issues. Recently it has turned it’s sights on the ‘socially conscious’ Starbucks. The above video details a variety of anti-union activities that Starbucks has allegedly taken part in recently and it encourages viewers to spread the word. The production values are very good and I’m certain it has Starbuck’s full attention.

In a previous post I talked about how Dominos had used YouTube to respond to a PR crisis it was facing. Domino’s was harmed and the CEO spoke out honestly and emphatically that his company was doing everything it could to make the best of a bad situation.  This new video calls out Starbucks and directly challenges CEO Howard Shultz. Should Starbucks respond to this video with their own video? Yes they should, but in a very different manner than Domino’s had chosen.

Shultz won’t respond directly to the accusations in this video because it’s a discussion he can never ‘win’. Some topics – abortion, gun control, the death penalty etc. are emotionally charged with as many advocates as opponents. Most politicians / business leaders chose to avoid these types of issues wherever possible. Should Starbucks avoid this issue? Of course not – the social media channels are alight with this discussion and it isn’t going to go away. Starbucks has to find a way to communicate its position on employment (unions) without getting sucked into a vortex of angry politics and vitriol (check out the comments on YouTube to get a sense of the passion behind this topic). Starbucks is a business – it would prefer not to have unions operating in its stores – no surprise there. The self-inflicted added burden that Starbucks carries is that it has tried to position itself as a caring and socially consious company. (WalMart, by contrast has never been hobbled by this positioning.)

The timing of this video coincides with a major marketing campaign by Starbucks that attempts to position the company as rethinking and resetting its goals and reaching out to its various constitutiencies. In other words, the timing couldn’t be worse. So what would you do if you were leading Starbucks PR team?