‘Weird Al’ Yankovic Explains the Internet to Fox’s Stuart Varney:
(I’ve also provided a video transcript at the end of this article.)
Last Monday (14th July 2014), Weird Al Yankovic released the first music video of his #8Videos8Days campaign to promote his new album “Mandatory Fun”. In the month leading up to the debut of the first video, Weird Al had left sporadic cryptic messages on his social media, getting fans excited about what to expect.
Self-produced and released by RCA Records, Weird Al’s 14th album in 32 years, Mandatory Fun has now made it to #1 in the charts.
It’s official. MANDATORY FUN enters the Billboard album chart this week at #1. Wow. WOW.
— Al Yankovic (@alyankovic) July 23, 2014
Mandatory Fun is the first comedy album to have made it to #1 in the billboard since 1963. Weird Al is officially the biggest selling comedy musician of all time.
His new videos alone have been watched a total of nearly 50 million times, and the album has been streamed nearly 2.2 million times on Spotify. Not to mention the indirect attention that his old material has gained, it’s almost like they’ve been given a new lease on life.
Weird Al has stolen the internet spotlight every single day throughout the entirety of the album release campaign. Competing with the thousands of parody YouTube channels out there, he has certainly had to rethink his marketing strategy. When he was first starting out in the early 80’s, there wasn’t an enormous video content platform like YouTube where anyone with an internet connection could just create their own parodies and throw them up to go viral.
What’s even more amazing is Weird Al’s astounding level of transparency in regards to explaining his reasoning behind his mainstream content marketing strategy. Not only is it incredibly revealing about who Weird Al is and how he operates, but he’s also set an example to internet marketers. He’s even done a talk at Google explaining his marketing decisions for the album:
I don’t believe Weird Al’s internet takeover would have been possible if not for his partnerships. Though originally these partnerships were due to his label’s unwillingness to pay for any videos to promote the album, I believe that they were a huge reason behind why the campaign did as well as it did.
Weird Al borrowed his partners’ platforms to expose himself to various audiences that complemented his own. He understood that Nerdist, CollegeHumor, Yahoo, Funny Or Die and the Wall Street Journal need content. And he had content to give them. Look at the popularity of sites like MyBlogGuest. Ann Smarty’s success was in knowing that there are absolutely loads of people looking to share their content, and just as many people looking for content to populate their websites.
Weird Al gave his partners an “exclusivity window” so that they could exclusively host their video as it debuts (enjoying the viral impact as it occurs), before eventually all the videos will be uploaded to Weird Al’s YouTube channel too once the original source has made its rounds.
It’s this same sense of exclusivity that has really helped drive album sales during the week. With all the internet hype surrounding the videos, people wanted to hear the twelve tracks on the album before the release of the next video, so they could have that kind of “bragging right” of having heard the song before the video was released. In this generation where music piracy is rapidly becoming more and more common and socially acceptable, Weird Al found a way to beat it.
#8Videos8Days
- Tacky (parody of Pharrel’s “Happy”) – Nerdist
- Word Crimes (parody of Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines”) – Weird Al’s YouTube
- Foil (parody of Lorde’s “Royals”) – CollegeHumor
- Handy (parody of Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy”) – Yahoo
- Sports Song (parody of college football anthems) – Funny Or Die
- First World Problems (parody of Pixies style) – Weird Al’s YouTube
- Mission Statement (parody of Crosby, Stills and Nash style) – The Wall Street Journal’s blog
- Lame Claim To Fame (parody of Southern Culture on the Skids style) – Weird Al’s YouTube
What can Weird Al teach internet marketers about internet marketing?
A whole lot apparently. So let’s see how we can apply Weird Al’s tactics to our own online marketing strategies…
1) Create excitement and anticipation
Using Weird Al’s existing fanbase, he was able to kickstart the campaign into success. He knew his influencers and he used them.
The campaign hashtag #8Videos8Days was used consistently. The hashtag’s memorable, not too branded and not too ambiguous. It creates suspense in itself.
Recently, I got myself “Inbound Certified” via HubSpot (because that’s what I do in my spare time – earn certificates that don’t really mean anything…)
and one of the questions on the exam was how often you should write a new post for your blog. And HubSpot’s answer was “as often as you want to be found in Google”! Weird Al releasing one video a day during his final album launch follows the exact same logic. Why give people the time between videos to lose interest and forget about him? He released new content as often as he wanted attention, which is every day during the first week of his album’s release.
2) Understand your audience
Weird Al did an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Reddit on the first day of his album release, live from the Reddit headquarters in New York. The AMA generated over 4200 upvotes and over 6000 comments. He directly engaged with his audience through the AMA, maintaining transparency and sincerity throughout. Likewise, he also replied to every single Tweet directed at him on Twitter (at least, until it all got a little too much toward the end, he admits)!
During his many interviews throughout the week, armed with the immediate feedback gathered from his Reddit AMA, he referenced the questions and answers from the AMA.
3) Create topical quality content
The phrase is overused for a reason. If you want to get noticed, you have to create quality content. It can be in the form of videos, images, infographics, blog posts, ebooks, whatever.
Not only does the content have to be of high quality, but ideally it also needs to be topical. Take something topical, something that already generates a lot of interest as it is, and put your own unique spin on it. Create content that you are passionate about and can be proud of.
Weird Al has said that after this final album, he’ll just be working on singles. This way he can stay on trend, and keep providing parody songs that offer social commentary relevant to current events.
4) Distribute your content via various sources
You have to distribute your content on just as many external properties as your own. This can mean social media, guest blogging, social bookmarking sites, etc. You don’t need to be directly responsible for the distribution on these other properties. You just need to get the ball rolling. Weird Al made it to the first page of Reddit every single day with the release of each new video. Do you think he self-submitted his content?
He networked. He explored his potential channels of distribution. Instead of posting all of his videos to a single site, he debuted each new video on a different content network. He partnered with huge content networks. He borrowed audiences from his collaborations with content networks and even Weird Al’s celebrity friends featured in his music videos. Each of his celebrity friends involved attracted attention from their own fan base.
That’s the thing about the internet: If you want to be seen by everyone, you have to be everywhere. And you can only do that by borrowing audiences.
5) Brand consistency
Weird Al is just doing what he has always done best. His entire parody music career spanning over three decades, he hasn’t tried to be anyone else but himself. His entire career has just been a journey of improvement, honing his skills and getting recognised for his talents. And yet, Weird Al still manages to surprise his fans, without alienating them.
Full video transcript of Weird Al explaining the internet on Fox
I have transcribed below Weird Al’s interview with Fox’s Stuary Varney in full, for those that may not be able to watch the video for whatever reason. It’s a bit of an odd one, that Weird Al himself admitted afterward to Vice: “I don’t know what [Varney] wanted from me but I was having fun. It was a really loopy interview. I was trying to explain exactly how these internet portals are working. I’m making the videos so that hopefully people will see them and want my album and I’ll make money off that, but I’m not making any money off the video. And he couldn’t understand.”
Stuart V: Weird Al Yankovic, the king of music parody. He’s at it again. He’s using the internet to promote his new songs. Videos like this…
*break for Word Crimes video clip*
Stuart V: By the way, that was from Word Crimes. It’s all about grammar. Weird Al Yankovic is here, put the genius on camera please! Welcome, sir.
Weird Al: How are you? Good to see you.
Stuart V: What’s wrong with the following sentence? “My mother told me to quickly run to the store.”
Weird Al: Quickly, quickly… Run too quickly… Split infinitive!
Stuart V: Excellent!
Weird Al: There’s a split infinitive in my song which I put in there on purpose, so people will be like “Oh, there’s a mistake in Al’s song!”. Oh yeah, I left it there so you can get mad about it.
Stuart V: It is our favourite of all! So wait a second, you’re putting out eight videos in eight days. And you’re doing this as a) you can, and b) this is how you now market your product?
Weird Al: It’s true because, y’know, MTV is not really Music Television anymore. The internet is essentially the new MTV. And the internet consumes very quickly. Things go viral for a day, you can be famous for 24 hours, and I figured the best way to advertise my new album was every single day of the release week, a brand new video for people to get excited about.
Stuart V: How do you make the money when you’re putting it out on the internet? Who pays you for this?
Weird Al: Well, they don’t pay me for it. In fact, I get the video for free. Because I’m partnered up with Funny Or Die, and CollegeHumor, and Yahoo, and Nerdist. They’re looking for content and I’m looking for a video, so we partner and it’s kind of a win/win situation.
Stuart V: But come on, how do you get the money?
Weird Al: Well, the partners do. I mean, they don’t pay me, they pay for the production of the video. And hopefully people will buy the album because the videos are essentially commercials for the album.
Stuart V: So they are paying you to produce the videos?
Weird Al: Well, they’re not paying me to produce the videos. Essentially, they’re giving me a free video.
Stuart V: Can you make a million dollars for each of the eight videos you’re putting out?
Weird Al: Uh…. *laughs* well….
Stuart V: Yes! Yes!
Weird Al: Yes! Yes! Of course! Why would I argue with you?
*both laugh…. pretty much just assume they’re laughing throughout*
Stuart V: When did you start this?
Weird Al: This interview? About five minutes ago.
Stuart V: No, no, no, no.
Weird Al: What are you talking about?
Stuart V: When did you start putting the videos out? Was it yesterday?
Weird Al: It was Monday. Monday, we started with the Tacky video. Then we did Word Crimes. Then we just debuted a brand new video, a parody of Royals by Lorde called Foil, about the many uses of aluminum foil.
Stuart V: We could spend hours on that one.
Weird Al: We could!
Stuart V: But I remember you from MTV days.
Weird Al: I remember that too!
Stuart V: I know you do… 30 years ago, you were using cable television as your ad. That’s how you got out there.
Weird Al: Times have changed. It’s all online now.
Stuart V: Yeah, that’s why Time Warner is a takeover target.
*Weird Al looks shocked*
Stuart V: Am I breaking news to you?
Weird Al: I’m interested.
Stuart V: You’re laughing at me.
Weird Al: No, no.
Stuart V: You’re laughing at me!
Weird Al: No, I’m not laughing at you. I promise.
Stuart V: Can I be in your next video?
Weird Al: Uh, maybe. *while flapping arms around* Let’s see you move, come on!
Stuart V: If you think that…
Other: Yeah, let’s see it, Stuart! Come on, Stuart, do it!
Stuart V: No! No! You got me. I’m not gonna do it.
Other: But you wanna be in a video but you won’t provide a dance move?
Stuart V: I want to talk to this man about Time Warner and content is king, because he’s the king of content!
Weird Al: Am I? I’m going to have to change my business card now.
Stuart V: What you’re doing is putting out content on the internet.
Weird Al: I am.
Stuart V: That’s why Time Warner is so valuable. 80 billion dollars – not enough to buy them, oh no! It’s going to take a whole lot more. Because they are the king of content.
Weird Al: I thought I was king of content?
Stuart V: I’m stretching here! I’m trying to…
Weird Al: But who’s the king of content? Figure it out!
Stuart V: Time Warner is king of content! You’re just a bit…
Weird Al: I’m just a pawn of content.
Stuart V: A pawn of content! What are you going to do next?
Weird Al: Well, you know, I’m mostly promoting the album. Then I’m gonna sit on an island for four weeks and recuperate and then after that, you know… This is the thing about my album deal. I’ve been under contract since 1982. So this album, number 14, is the end of a 32 year long album deal, and after this I think I’m just gonna be doing singles. Because, y’know, the stuff that I do is topical and timely, and if I wait until I have 12 songs to put out an album, chances are that a lot of the songs aren’t going to be topical and timely.
Stuart V: And then you put out the singles on the internet.
Weird Al: Exactly! So now, in fact, there’s no reason to even release singles from this album because everything’s available digitally on, y’know, iTunes or Amazon. You can just pick whatever track you like, so you can just pick your own singles these days.
Stuart V: And that’s what you’re gonna do, now that your album deal is over.
Weird Al: I wanna be on the bleeding edge of technology.
Stuart V: You’re there already. Weird Al, they’re telling me I’ve gotta wrap.
Weird Al: Oh no!
Stuart V: You’ve gotta wrap.
Weird Al: I wanna be here all day!
Stuart V: You do? Maybe if you’re not careful. Weird Al, everyone! What a pleasure. Truly a genius.
Weird Al: No, you!
Stuart V: Pleasure to have you on the show, it really was. This will live in infamy. And you never got me to do the moves. Thanks very much, Al. Appreciate it.
“Content is King” – Bill Gates, 1996
Brilliant blog post Ria.\n\nYou mention that he knows that people want content to share, quality content that is.\nSites have, in the past, shared content, irrespective of the quality. \n\nWe can complain about Google as much as we want but their drive to ensure the content displayed in Google is quality means we all have less rubbish to wade through. Remember Ezine Articles?\n\nAnn Smarty was penalised for ‘gaming’ the search results. Apparently, the content on her site was good, but I can’t be certain as I never looked.\n\nYou make some good points.\nAnd the transcription is impressive.
I think that’s the trouble with user-generated content on websites. I don’t believe there was anything wrong with the concept of MyBlogGuest or the purpose behind it, just the way in which its system could so easily be abused by the community. The paid section of the website seemed to have a higher standard of quality and the paid members’ transactional system was a lot more professional. What with their bidding, etc.
There seemed to be a lot of internal drama between free members of the community that emerged post-penalty. Regarding followed links, duplicate content, people removing links altogether once agreements had been made, etc.
But what can really be done to ensure quality between “content transactions” like that? It’s up to the original author to determine that their content will be published on a trusted website, and build good rapport with the publisher. Just as its the publisher’s responsibility to make the right editorial decisions regarding what they publish on their site and how the author has linked out.
There’s been another drama this week about YouMoz bloggers getting penalised. Rand’s not happy and wrote an open letter to Google. But tbh, I think the penalty was deserved.
And haha yeah, the transcription was harder than I thought it would be…. Why does Weird Al have to talk so damn fast?!