In the ancient days of yore (January 2009), T-mobile produced a spectacular video.

A flashmob suddenly starts dancing; and just as suddenly, stops. The dancers disburse leaving astonished onlookers to call, text, or share cell phone videos of the event with their friends and family. Fade up the tag line: “Life’s for Sharing” and you tie together the amazing event we’ve just witnessed (even through video) with the company and the message you want to send.  They gave us, the audience, a gift that seemed so genuine that we didn’t even mind that they branded it at the end. Absolutely brilliant.

Next in late March a Belgian television program repeated the stunt using “Do Re Mi” from the Sound of Music, bringing the experience of a musical into modern day life. (Plus who doesn’t love Julie Andrews? Ok, you’re right, the Nazi’s weren’t big fans, but other than them?)

In some ways I like this one better as it only uses one song, and better utilizes the elements of that song in the production, i.e. it adds dancers on cues rather than haphazardly like with the T-mobile commercial. Certainly it was riding the coat tails of the T-mobile success, but it at least tried to improve upon the formula with better coordination of the dancers and some group choreography rather than just individual/couple dance moves (it stands at over 5.6 million views).

Then in late April Trident attempted to follow the hype by staging a dance to Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” in Piccadilly Circus.

Unfortunately the choreography follows pretty closely to the music video. It may have worked for a small number of dancers, but gets boring in the group. Plus the black and white photography that was iconic in the music video loses the dancers in a sea of gray. At best this feels derivative, and only says “me too.”  Although at 1.5 million views they’ve still garnered a lot of publicity.

I long for a new twist in the flashmob aesthetic.

What says originality more than MC Hammer? In early June a flashmob arrived at a trendy store in LA and performed the “U Can’t Touch This” Dance for A&E.

Now I’ll be the first to admit that there’s something special about a flashmob dancing in gold parachute pants, including, my favorite, the elderly man in a three piece suit and a blue headband.

But come on, People!

Let’s do something new. Let’s add to the conversation rather than copying it with slight variations. Sure you can ride the coattails of T-mobile and garner even a few million views (1.6 to be exact), but no one will remember your video.

Enter T-mobile (again). Flashmob. Trafalgar Square. Hey Jude. Singing.

They added to the conversation. It may not have hit a million views yet (currently at about 750K), but they brought something to the table. They innovated on their own work.  And perhaps more importantly they continued to tie the stunts directly in with their message: “Life is for Sharing.”  The Belgian TV Show, Trident and A&E were following a hip trend that only loosely related to their message. A few months from now I venture to predict that their stunts will be forgotten amidst the next new and shiny meme that sweeps the internet.

But I beleive that T-mobile, and more importantly for them, their tag line and the image that these videos helped establish for them will be remembered. 

They will have greater positive buzz, greater brand recognition, greater good will from customers, and finally greater sales all because they got a flashmob to dance, and then they made it sing.

Tags: flashmob dance, innovate, me too
Posted in Video Marketing | 2 Comments »