The Groundswell's Symbiotic Relationships
I remember the first time I saw the Old Spice “I’m a Man” commercial during the Superbowl back in February and here it is 5 months later still being relevant. I went on YouTube yesterday to find the following video on my homepage...
As we discuss the relationships of Creators, Critics, Joiners, Spectators, and Collectors, this video made me think about how extremely symbiotic those roles really are. Old Spice is depending on the groundswell to make a video like their "I'm a Man" commercial viral and Creators like Mike Relm take an already recognizable thing and flip it around to create the video above. Users, such as myself, will watch Mike's video because I'm already familiar with the subject and I know I find it funny. Now Mike is receiving traffic to his channel thanks to the publicity Old Spice has already generated. In return, Mike is generating a new spin on the material which will perpetuate Old Spice's current campaign, keeping it relevant. Instead of Old Spice charging Mike for using their image and Mike charging Old Spice as if he made a new commercial, both parties are exchanging exposure which is what fuels any venture in social media marketing. Mike is depending just as much on companies like Old Spice as companies are depending on people like Mike.
There are plenty of examples of people like Mike out there who are using popular and highly searched topics to their advantage. For example when I typed "iPad" and "Snuggie" into YouTube I got hits for two parodies from the same Creator.
In these clips, Jacksfilms isn’t recreating the product in a different but still positive way like Mike above. Jack has decided to parody popular things because he knows that by searching something like, “iPad” he’s bound to wind up as one of the links. Although Apple probably isn’t thrilled about the video Jack has posted, Snuggie is most likely ecstatic since their product is already viewed as borderline gimmicky. It’s that extra publicity such as with Jack’s video that keeps Snuggie relevant. In terms of Apple, chances are that anyone looking to purchase an iPad will be referring to customer reviews and ratings rather than a parody on YouTube. Like Mike, Jacksfilms is trading exposure for exposure and everyone involved in this example got exactly that.
