Although I sort of regret sharing a video of anything related to Lady Gaga, this 6th grader’s rendition of her popular song reminded me of an idea I heard from CP+B’s Andrew Keller.
In giving thoughts of how to get more marketing without a budget, he discusses the idea of “surprise as currency” while using the initial MINI campaign as an example:
Develop content that can get press coverage. Elevate the issue. You’ve got to come up with content that’s bigger than the consumer to get people to talk about you. “The SUV backlash officially starts now.” That was followed up by What Would Jesus Drive? and that whole crazy terrorist SUV thing. Trying to get some kind of relevance is critical. By becoming part of a bigger picture, we were able to get press. Surprise is currency. When you’re being completely outspent, what is your money? Surprise is your money. Your ideas are you money.
I think the above video is a perfect example of an idea doing just that. Although he probably didn’t intend it, this little 6th grader has made his 3.5 minute video a viral success literally overnight. When I left work yesterday he had 40K views. This morning he has 1.1 million. Crazy. His idea was to insert himself into culture relevance (Lady Gaga), be interesting (play her song on piano and be a 6th grader) and share it on a medium with infinite reach and sharability (YouTube). Ok, being ridiculously talented is a major importance too, but that speaks to him being interesting.
Regardless, this is a great example of the power of using cultural relevance to expand the reach of an idea. Surprise your audience by being bigger than them.
UPDATE: Greyson Chance’s performance now has over 18 million views and was picked up on Ellen less than a week after he posted the video.
