Gettin' Jiggy. Goin' Viral.

Great article in yesterday's nytimes.com online technology section that spotlights a fantastic ad that will get you out of your seat and bustin' a move. Loved it the first time we saw it, and the story that the Times published does a good job of using the ad to springboard into other issues facing advertising today.

What's interesting about the spot (for T-Mobile) is that it ran only once on television in its entirety. What's more enlightening is the interest it has created online, generating over 12 million views. Not bad, considering the cost of the media buy on YouTube was $0.

The article uses these viral viewing statistics to illustrate the point that brand communication is undergoing a dramatic shift, driven primarily by the internet. True, this should come as no surprise to anyone following advertising trends, but a nice twist on a frequently discussed topic. Also of interest is the discussion about how this changing landscape is forcing marketers and agencies to re-examine traditional agency compensation structures. Again, not new, but well illustrated by the T-Mobile spot and the low associated cost for generating an enormous viewership via the web.

Read the article here.

On a side note, we noticed that when the article was originally published on the Times website, a link to the video was embedded within it. Now ... not. Seems a little "un-Web 2.0", doesn't it?



Funny how a commercial can give you a new appreciation for 5 seconds of a Kool & The Gang song.