(2 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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For those of you who aren’t familiar, Marié Digby is a YouTube star along the lines of Tay Zonday. Essentially a seemingly “undiscovered talent” that just sits in their living room or makeshift studio and shyly puts themselves out there for the YouTube audience. In the case of Marié, it seems talent was the selling point - in the case of Zonday, it was simply ridiculous (give Chocolate Rain a listen…) And we, as the YouTube audience, love to come across something novel, funny, or what we truly believe to be an undiscovered talent.
So you can imagine the disbelief and disappointment felt by some when it was discovered that Marié was actually an artist signed and coached by Hollywood Records (a division of the Walt Disney Company). According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, Ms. Digby was signed in 2005 and her “self propelled” YouTube career was actually very carefully designed and implemented by her record label. Her orchestrated MySpace and YouTube campaign was quite well done, and she’s approaching 10,000 friends on MySpace and has 11,000+ subscribers to her YouTube channel. Assuming some overlap, that’s at least 10,000 - maybe as many as 20,000 - interested people who’ve seen the huge banner linking to her iTunes album - targeted advertising that is very difficult to come by and one of the reasons internet advertising is so successful.
Personally? I can understand how some people feel this is underhanded, but I’ve not trusted much of what I see on the internet at face value for some time now. On the flip side, if I were a record label, this seems like an incredibly inexpensive way to get exposure for your artists. All you need is a webcam, some talent, and a little internet savvy and you’ve got yourself a captive and loyal YouTube following, which at the end of the day may be better than the limited (but expensive) exposure you would get via the normal avenues of trying to get your single played on the radio. The one truly deceptive thing I do see here is that Hollywood Records announced last week that “Breakthrough YouTube Phenomenon Marié Digby Signs With Hollywood Records.” It’s a somewhat ambiguous lie, but a lie nonetheless. At the end of the day, say what we will, this is a big “Mission Accomplished” for Marié Digby and Hollywood Records - because not only do we know who she is, but we are talking about her.
The Wall Street Journal sums it up best (as per usual):
What her legions of fans don’t realize, however, is that Ms. Digby’s career demonstrates something else: that traditional media conglomerates are going to new lengths to take advantage of the Internet’s ability to generate word-of-mouth buzz.
Word of mouth - simple as can be - is one of the most powerful ways to create excitement for a product (lets face it: Marié was a person in 2005, what we see of her now is very much a “product”) and the bottom line is that the internet is the most efficient way to initiate and perpetuate word of mouth marketing.
Filed under: Conversation Marketing, Online Brand Promotion, Online Branding, Online Reputation, Online Reputation Management, Viral Advertising, Viral Marketing, Word-of-Mouth, Word-of-Mouth Marketing, YouTube
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Brilliant article, Taylor, if I do say so. Much more insight than I garnered upon my read this AM. Bravo. Best MC piece yet.
[…] Say it ain’t so, Marié Digby…, Taylor explores the stealth marketing campaign perpetrated by Hollywood Records on behalf of the […]
I Find Marié Digby Fascinating
In Say it ain’t so, Marié Digby…, Taylor explores the stealth marketing campaign perpetrated by Hollywood Records on behalf of the gamine china doll, Marié Digby. Well, I think she’s cool. And while stealth marketing isn’t cool, it is interesti…
Rather funny how some people automatically dismiss the fact that during her radio interview, she said she was signed AND there were articles out before WSJ saying she was signed. Funny how people overlook that. It’s obvious that people like to believe controversy over the truth because that’s what probably makes their day or some crap. It also shows that some people will believe anything they read. Rather naive.
Rather funny that you would leave an anonymous comment with claims that have no documentation whatsoever. How are the benefits at Hollywood records?
Either way, this post was meant to highlight the way she came into the spotlight. I don’t really care - I think the way she was handled and coached is ingenious. But if you think she and Hollywood Records were completely forthcoming with information, maybe the naïveté you are referring to is your own.
Fact of the matter is she NEVER lied. You want to talk about forthcoming? Anytime someone asked, she always said that she was signed. She never turned around like “I’m not signed to any label.” People like to stir shit where there is none, but that’s typical in today’s world. Those people need to find something more productive to do.
No, friend, this is a HUGE deal. Besides, this is out business: out business is to look into this, dissect it, and see whether doing this is a good idea for my clients. And it is, it is! As long as the client is aware, ahead of time, that at a certain point, if the viral really ever “takes” and goes viral, there will be “fisking” and there will be checks. So, you had better be MORE transparent next time. I never heard her say she was “signed” when she was on the Jimmy Kimmel Live show.
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