Hadouken, A Story of Consumer Brand Marketing
As I read the last few pages of Mitch Joel’s great new book, Six Pixels of Separation I paused and thought about Joel’s comments on Consumer Generated Brands…
“Whether it is the ability for an individual to share his creativity or to use his creativity to sell something, more and more people will be generating brand and marketing-related content.”
Meet Hadouken, a UK electronic band that has been around and growing in presence since about 2006. If you haven’t heard of Hadouken you may be wondering why this has any relevance to Social Media Marketing and Consumer Generated Brands…
Let me introduce the second part of this equation… Recent YouTube video sensation “People Are Awesome”
In almost exactly a month, this great video that highlights incredible human accomplishments from all walks of life, has received over 11 million views!
Not bad right?
I watched this clip a week after it was posted, when it only had about 5 million views, and only realized the genius and creativity of the video at the very end when the credits were posted for the soundtrack…
You guessed it- Hadouken. Their now single “Mecha Love” was the music that accompanied all of these amazing human acts…Not only that, but it was posted from the Hadouken YouTube account… This was clearly a well thought out strategic marketing plan.
This is a great example of an organization (in this case a band) using a very creative marketing strategy in the form of a YouTube video to market their brand. What is important to note in this example is that Hadouken did not just push their song into the market. Quite the opposite – and this is a key to their success- they were able to deliver valuable content in the video that, you have to admit that whether you like or dislike the soundtrack, the compilations of amazing human feats is worth at least one view… and maybe more! But here is where it gets really exciting, and what gives a viral video momentum… When the viewer starts to share the video (product) on their own… If you had seen this video before, think about how you were first introduced to it… Chances are someone was pretty excited about it and wanted to share it with you. I am sharing it in this blog right now!
As for their brand, it has gotten some good attention as well, and the single Mecha Love is seeing the success… Making its way into the Top 10 Itunes Canada and Top 20 Itunes US on the Electronic Songs chart.
There are a million different ways to develop a powerful and creative social media marketing campaign. The key is providing good content in the right channels, what does this looks like for your organization and your customers! Take the time to understand what your consumers are interested in and what will get them talking… What type of content would get them talking about you and sharing your brand with their friends??? It may seem in-effective and not aligned with the current strategy of your organization, but that is because it has probably never been done before in your industry…
What would 11 million extra views of your product do for business and brand awareness?
Please let me know what you think, and if you have any other examples, recent or older, I would love to hear them!
Sincerely,
Tyrell Mara
