Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve seen at least one of Weird Al Yankovic’s new videos. His latest album, “Mandatory Fun,” debuted at #1 on the Billboard album chart.
His marketing plan was genius. He released 8 videos in 8 days and partnered with a different website for each one, ranging from Nerdist to Yahoo. MarketingLand has already written a case study about the results:
Eight. Days. Straight. Over 3,700 articles were written about him last week, which generated over 3 million social media shares.
From those 3,790 articles arose 3,071,498 shares.
Zefr, a YouTube marketing company, analyzed what made the campaign such a success:
The campaign started with the release of “Tacky,” his take on Pharrell Williams’ “Happy,” on Monday July 14th and ended with “Mission Statement” on Monday July 21st. And, Yankovic’s weeklong video-release campaign appears to have paid off for everyone involved, as the buzz surrounding the barrage has increased subscriber rates and overall views for participating YouTube channels across the board. This success is rooted in the consistency of video releases, major pushes on social media, partner cross promotion, timely interviews, and a genuinely clever idea.
Zefr also analyzed the impact on the partner sites. How did it work for them? Check out the spikes in the chart above.
The content of the songs and videos were matched to the partner site. CollegeHumor got “Foil,” a parody of “Royals” by Lorde, the “Handy” video, a parody of “Fancy” by Iggy Azalea, debuted on Yahoo and “Sports Song” premiered on Funny or Die. A few of the videos appeared first on Weird Al’s site (I recommend watching “Word Crimes” and “Tacky” first) and after the initial release on other sites, the videos all moved to his site.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
“Inactive” is a spoof on “Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons. Sadly there is no video for this song. I would have loved to see Weird Al with Cheeto dust on his lips and cobwebs on his knees.
Imagine the attention a digital health or wellness startup could have gotten by making a video of “Inactive” with Weird Al. That kind of marketing would be a bigger boost than appearing in an Apple commercial. This would have been perfect for Shine or Daily Burn or Sensoria or Jawbone or any of the wellness companies trying to sell their engagement programs into corporate America.
Here are the lyrics, to give you an idea of how much fun a video would be.
“Inactive” by Weird Al Yankovic.
I’m waking up in Cheeto dust
My belly’s covered with pizza crust
I’m using my inhaler now [wheezes]
I’m out of shape, fattening up
I’m sipping Coke from a solo cup
Donut crumbs are upon my lips, whoa
[Chorus:]
The TV’s on, I really hate this show
I can’t reach my remote control
Welcome to my new place, to my new place
Sorry it’s a cramped space, but it’s my place
I’m really inactive, I’m so inactive
I’m really inactive, highly inactive
My muscle’s gone, I’m atrophied
Always lose my fight with gravity
I rest my bones, and just chillax
My nordictrack’s collecting dust
And my stairmaster’s a pile of rust
This is it, the inertia
[Chorus:]
I can’t get up, this couch is part of me
I’m growing cobwebs on my knee
Pretty sad for my age, sad for my age
I could read my rib cage, here is my age
I’m really inactive, yes, quite inactive
I’m really inactive, not very active
Near comatose, no exercise
Don’t tag my toe, I’m still alive
[Chorus:]
I’m giving up, my energy is shot.
I’m never moving from this spot
Never move from this place, move from this place
I’ll stay here in this place, right in this place
I’m really inactive, just so inactive
I’m really inactive, not so attractive
It’s official. MANDATORY FUN enters the Billboard album chart this week at #1. Wow. WOW.
— Al Yankovic (@alyankovic) July 23, 2014
