Have any doubts about the legitimacy of viral marketing? You shouldn’t.
If you haven’t heard of The Lonely Island crew, they’re the guys who do the digital shorts on Saturday Night Live (and, in my opinion, the best reason to watch most SNLs…or even the only reason to watch a lot of times).
Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer are The Lonely Island. They didn’t invent funny music videos (remember Weird Al Yankovic?), but they took the production quality to a whole new level (and made them funny…sorry, Weird Al).
For their work they’ve received one Emmy and a nomination for another. Oh, and they’ve transformed themselves into viral marketers for at least one actual company. For real.
The Lonely Island dudes are the new ad men for Swedish-brand Rökk Vodka. The job: make funny viral videos. And why on earth would a legit retailer want these guys directing their advertising? Here’s why…
Some of the people appearing in Lonely Island videos—Natalie Portman, Justin Timberlake, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Adam Levine (Maroon 5), Julian Casablancas (The Strokes), Nicki Minaj, T-Pain and…believe it or not…Michael Bolton.
And much more important, the numbers of viewings for some of these videos—17 million for We Like Sportz, 25 million for Jack Sparrow, 26 million for Boombox, 30 million for The Creep, 80 million for I’m On A Boat.
As well as three other videos which will have to go unnamed (this is a PG blog) that have over 100 million viewings—something about a box (Emmy winner), something about pants, something about just having something. And it’s hard to tell the actual numbers because YouTube videos are always posted by multiple people. They could be much higher.
By comparison, the viewership for this year’s Super Bowl, the all-time most-watched telecast ever—111 million. About the same.
So that’s why The Lonely Island guys are Rökk Vodka’s new Don Drapers (Mad Men). And that’s why viral marketing is for real.
Here’s the first video for Rökk Vodka from The Lonely Island. It’s a cynical play off the pompous, overly serious hard alcohol commercials out these days. It’s got 2 million views on YouTube. Enjoy…
