You may have noticed a lot of “Weird” Al Yancovic videos around the Internet last week. That’s because for eight consecutive days, Yankovic released a new music video for a song off his new album, Mandatory Fun.
Music videos and whacky visuals have been a pillar of Weird Al’s career. Iconic videos including “Fat,” a parody of Michael Jackson’s song “Bad” and “Like a Surgeon,” a sendup of Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” gained popularity on MTV in the ‘80s and ‘90s, and helped create legions of faithful Weird Al fans.
Unfortunately, MTV doesn’t play music videos anymore.
So, after nearly four decades in the music business, Weird Al changed his approach. To help promote his latest album, Yankovic collaborated with websites such as College Humor, Funny or Die and others to help produce and distribute his music videos.
The new approach was a success. Each of the eight videos reached 20 million views in the first week and Mandatory Fun racked up 2.2 million Spotify album streams. His online success has translated to album sales. For the first time ever, Weird Al Yancovic has a No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart.
Like Weird Al, Gavin understands the power of viral videos in marketing.
Our Pay $150 Forward video campaign with PeoplesBank has earned 2,472 views in just it’s first month.
Weird Al understands that people are changing the way they consume information and entertainment. So does Gavin Advertising, and we’re here to help. Sadly, we don’t own an accordion.
