Critical Analysis 3 - Weird Al
Brittany Bardo
Prof. Guntram Werther
Integrative Business Applications
3/19/15
Critical Analysis #3: The Internet Should Have Killed Weird Al If you examine the pop charts from 30 years ago, it is hard to identify many artists who’ve managed to stay relevant into today’s generation. Weird Al, is one artist that has been active in the music industry since the mid 1970’s and has been able to keep up with the times way before the dawn of social media, online media, and vlogging. For his most recent album, Weird Al designed a creative advertising strategy for the digital age with his #8videos8days experiment. This strategy included eight videos in eight days for eight songs from the new album — on a variety of sites ranging from Yahoo! to Vevo to Funny or Die to College Humor (Eisenberg, 2014). This strategy had proven to be one of the most successful in Weird Al’s career with nearly 4,000 articles written about him in that same week while accumulating more than 3 million shares. Soon after, his album debuted at No. 1 album on Billboard’s 200 chart of best-selling albums for the first time in his 30-year career (“Can Marketing Lessons Be Learned from Weird Al Yankovic”, 2014). Based on his recent success using social media and digital advertising, it is wise for Weird Al to end his relationship with RCA and continue his legacy by focusing on advertising his brand and music through social media and other online media avenues. To analyze the potential success of Weird Al’s transition from traditional album formats to releasing singles and communicating solely through social media and the internet, it is useful to consider his past achievements and current strategies through a SWOT analysis. Weird Al’s ability to stay current throughout his 30 year career is a huge advantage and strength over some of the amateur parody artists in the music industry. He is certainly no stranger to stirring up attention when he has a new album release or wants to create a viral
Prof. Guntram Werther
Integrative Business Applications
3/19/15
Critical Analysis #3: The Internet Should Have Killed Weird Al If you examine the pop charts from 30 years ago, it is hard to identify many artists who’ve managed to stay relevant into today’s generation. Weird Al, is one artist that has been active in the music industry since the mid 1970’s and has been able to keep up with the times way before the dawn of social media, online media, and vlogging. For his most recent album, Weird Al designed a creative advertising strategy for the digital age with his #8videos8days experiment. This strategy included eight videos in eight days for eight songs from the new album — on a variety of sites ranging from Yahoo! to Vevo to Funny or Die to College Humor (Eisenberg, 2014). This strategy had proven to be one of the most successful in Weird Al’s career with nearly 4,000 articles written about him in that same week while accumulating more than 3 million shares. Soon after, his album debuted at No. 1 album on Billboard’s 200 chart of best-selling albums for the first time in his 30-year career (“Can Marketing Lessons Be Learned from Weird Al Yankovic”, 2014). Based on his recent success using social media and digital advertising, it is wise for Weird Al to end his relationship with RCA and continue his legacy by focusing on advertising his brand and music through social media and other online media avenues. To analyze the potential success of Weird Al’s transition from traditional album formats to releasing singles and communicating solely through social media and the internet, it is useful to consider his past achievements and current strategies through a SWOT analysis. Weird Al’s ability to stay current throughout his 30 year career is a huge advantage and strength over some of the amateur parody artists in the music industry. He is certainly no stranger to stirring up attention when he has a new album release or wants to create a viral
Cited: Crouch, Ian. "Weird Al Endures." The New Yorker. 16 July 2014. Web. 18 Mar. 2015.