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| Oliver Luckett in theAudience's Hollywood Headquarters (via.) |
Let me break down a couple of examples:
- Perhaps the most famous example of theAudience's work is an EDM song by a duo called The Chainsmokers, who quite literally utilized the power of social media to gain a following and subsequently a major label contract after the release of their song, "#SELFIE".
I personally find the song to be terrible, but does shamelessly find a method of relating to the youth generation's inherent narcissism or vanity, as well as their desire to connect with one another. The "word" selfie is so heavily used in our society's everyday vernacular that Webster's Dictionary actually added it to it's list of words in 2013. Not only are "selfies" incredibly popular with today's youth, but many of the "selfies" used in the videos are licensed through real teenage "social media celebrities". Two examples are Acacia Brinley (1.2 million followers on Instagram) and Nash Grier (6.5 million Vine followers). I have no idea who these people are, but with such a large audience, it was not long before the video went viral. It currently sits at over 64 million views on YouTube.
EDM music plus social media celebrities plus use of hashtags and the word "selfie", it all seems far too obvious, but it worked. It certainly doesn't make our youth look very intelligent, it makes them look predictable.
- The second example is a commercial that was created by Ford Motors and released a couple of weeks ago. If you'll recall, Cadillac released a commercial during the Super Bowl that received a great deal of criticism for "extolling the values of American consumer culture." As a reference, here is that commercial:
As you can see, the commercial presumes that Americans work harder than the rest of the world and that as a result, we're better and we deserve better. There are a lot of ways the tone and dialogue might be deemed offensive, but in response Luckett and his team chose to leech off of the video's infamy and create a response for Ford Motors:
The clip features Detroit activist Pashon Murray speaking proudly of the good that hardworking Americans do. She makes note that we are not all material driven, entitled blowhards. She leaves the viewer feeling good about themselves, that they should hold their head up high because we are American and that means we want to make the world a better place. The video currently has over a million views on YouTube and was published on March 26th. Those aren't astronomical numbers but they are still impressive.
It's easy to recognize that clear dichotomy between the two campaigns, but that is because they are specifically designed with different audiences in mind (the firm's namesake was not chosen hastily). Luckett and his team recognize the power of "sharability" and the changing landscape of advertising. A lot of the power of theAudience is driven by the company's access to a vast network of celebrity supporters. Ford was responsible for the commercial itself, but they needed help reaching viewers which is where Luckett came in. He granted them access to a number of vast celebrity networks that agreed to share the video on their social media accounts. If you think that's impressive, imagine the impact theAudience had during the most recent presidential campaign.
Luckett was hired to manage over 60 Facebook pages for Barack Obama and his initiatives and was able to reach 261 million people a week with original content designed specifically for President Obama. The power his company is able to wield, especially in this age of instant fame and celebrity worship is perhaps unmatched. I'm not sure if it's fair or manipulative exploitation, but I'm very curious where this methodology will go next and who else will hop on board. What are your thoughts? Is the age of television advertising dead? What do you think the key to successful viral marketing?
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