September 2010 – -insert witty title-

I was watching old seasons of Top Gear the other night when I came upon the episode where Jeremy Clarkson and James May tried to create a tv commercial for the Volkswagen Scirrocco TDI.

As they struggled with trying to find something exciting about a diesel-engined small family car, it occured to me how difficult it really is to captivate an audience.

The marketing experts advised Jeremy Clarkson and James May to find a truth about the car and market it to the audience from that point. I didn’t quite understand how to do that (seriously, all the facts about a small three-door family compact are incredibly boring and uncaptivating) until Clarkson and May complained that diesel made the car boring.

Cleverly, the experts said that they could instead say that the scirocco made diesel more exciting.
Attitude, I have learned, is key to approaching a product.

The Scirocco TDI isn’t an R8, it isn’t even a GTI. There’s nothing exciting about it, but depending on the attitude with which you approach it, you could find a great selling point.

What turns a simple idea into a phenomenal force promulgated throughout society?
The life force of an idea lies not within the idea itself, but with whispers, discussions, and proclaimations. An idea exists as long as it is in someone’s mind, but it takes many minds to make it flourish and spread.

The end of the last decade was marked by the emergence of social media. With the new decade, corporations and individuals alike rapidly caught onto the idea of using the internet through sites such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, to market their products and themselves.

Today, the internet provides a channel for individuals to market themselves. We see the rise of YouTube celebrities and MySpace socialites who capture the interest of the masses. Unlike massive corporations such as Coca-Cola and Starbucks (I’m currently deprived of caffeine), these individuals do not have dedicated marketing teams to promote their message, but they are still able to establish their name in mainstream society.

How do they do it?

As an excuse to spend more time on YouTube, I will be looking for a common thread in successful YouTube celebrities such as communitychannel and Peter Chao as well as marketing campaigns made successful through YouTube such as the Old Spice commercials.

To end on a musical note, here’s a song from someone who was made famous through YouTube. I drive to this music.

Remix to a Remix by Ronald Jenkees

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
			1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30