Remember the jaw-dropping vinyl record tricks we showed you Wednesday? Well, they’re still amazing. The video is real. But the reason given for the making of it is not.
The five guys in the video repeatedly claimed to have done those stunts purely as a cure for “boredom”. That wasn’t exactly true — in fact, vinyl video star Jason Richardson tells Mashable, this is an unbranded guerilla marketing campaign for the app MusicBunk
When originally pitching the video, Richardson and his team shared a link from various Gmail accounts, each purporting to show “a video he made with some of his roommates and friends.” The video received no paid distribution, and its audience — more than 400,000 views, at last count — are completely organic.
SEE ALSO: 10 Excellent Examples of Guerrilla Marketing Campaigns [VIDEOS]
As the video caught on, other major media outlets reached out to Richardson and his friends. When asked why they made the video, the reply was always “boredom” or “it was just a spur-of-the-moment thing.”
In reality, the video was created and produced over the course of two days by Conscious Minds, of which Richardson is the creative producer. The stars of the film are friends, not actors.
“I don’t feel like we tricked anyone,” says Richardson, “We told you a story about what happened, and we left you to figure out what MusicBunk is.
“The brand discovery is something we left the users, and the consumers and the blogs to figure out whether or not they made that connection.”
According to Richardson, commenters picked up on the subtle trail of MusicBunk advertisements scattered throughout the video and YouTube page.
“It’s more about entertaining people and it’s not necessarily your typical PR pitch,” says Richardson.
Regardless, the video is still impressive — and according to Richardson, effective. Though he could not release definitive numbers, the subtle ad is apparantly paying off.
“All of the expectations are more than met on the launch of the app so far,” says Richardson.
The app lets you view your friends’ playlists and what songs they’re listening to. It also allows you to post comments, send them to Facebook and Twitter, and check out new music straight from the app.
Do you think the video would have caught as much attention if its makers had been upfront? Sound off in the comments.
More About: Advertising, guerilla marketing, Media, Vinyl Records, viral
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Tags: 'We're, Actually, Guerilla, marketing, record, Stunts, video, Vinyl, viral
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