Although the Beastie Boys previously used MTV’s online arm to promote their return, they’ve turned to another, perhaps more popular outlet to promote their new music video for the song “Don’t Play No Game That I Can’t Win.” Instead of using YouTube’s Vevo or MTV, the Beastie Boys turned to Funny or Die to debut the video. What does this say about modern marketing, even if you’re with an incredibly popular group that sells out arenas all over the world?
From this perspective, it means you cast you’re lure where the fish are. It’s really that simple and it’s that same mentality that explains why so many companies and businesses are comfortable sending potential traffic to Facebook. Go where the people are, and it’s pretty obvious Funny or Die has a substantial following. Their original content says as much. The question is, can they be an effective music marketer?
Considering there are over 4000 Facebook likes on the page, and already over 75,000 views of the video, which launched yesterday, that answer sounds like a “yes.” Granted, those aren’t Rebecca Black numbers, who’s new video/song already has over 1 million views, but over 100,000 dislikes. It, too, was launched yesterday. Of course, the Beasties don’t have quite the Twitter reach Young Miss Black does, and it’s highly doubtful people aren’t watching Beastie Boys videos just to hate on them.
Speaking of videos, the Funny or Die release of the video attached to the “Don’t Play No Game That I Can’t Win” song is a little over three minutes long, and it’s an absolute gem, thanks in large part to the direction of Spike Jonze, the same person who directed previous Beastie Boys videos like “Sabotage” and “Sure Shot.” Jonze is once again on-point as he uses action figures to tell the story:
There’s also an extended version of the video — over 11 minutes long — and it was debuted today:
I don’t know about you, but I’d love it if a Yeti had my back like that.
Oddly enough, the YouTube/Vevo extended version only has a little over 300 views, although, that could simply be a case of slow updating on YouTube’s part. Nevertheless, when compared to the popularity of the aforementioned Rebecca Black, it’s a little dejecting; but then again, you can probably count the number of tweens with the necessary attention span to last 11-plus minutes of a music video on one hand. It could also be a case of these same youngsters being completely oblivious to the likes of the Beastie Boys.
Nevertheless, the new video has at least one fan, and he’ll be enjoying this video long after the initial hype has died down.
As for this new era in marketing, how viable is releasing unrelated content to a site in order to promote your work? Or is this a case of the Beastie Boys resonating with the Funny or Die crowd, and because of that, it’s more of a natural partnership than it first appears?
