MaestroJ - digital strategy & new media

I mean who wouldn’t? The viral factor is great, and the entertainment value is fantastic, plus they’re just way too much fun. A flashmob is defined as “a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual action for a brief time, then quickly disperse”. Some of the more well-known flashmob events that have gone viral were done by Improv Everywhere, whose mission is to “cause scenes of chaos and joy in public places”. We all remember the Grand Central Station freeze in New York. Their latest is No Pants Subway ride, seen below (I think I’ve had nightmares where I lose my pants like this):

Marketers quickly realised the value and novelty of flashmobs, and begun creating their own. Some recent examples are below:

Airport Musical for lastminute.com

Sound of Music dance for a Belgian TV channel

The famous T-Mobile dance

These last two examples are good to compare as it shows two very different ways of using flashmobs for marketing purposes.  The first is for SKY High Definition with Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen. The set was quite elaborate and well rehearsed. She is sitting on a couch “switching TV channels” while different TV genres (classical, action, horror, etc) played out before her. The people around looked on (mostly appearing unamused). The biggest fault of this execution is that it uses the flashmob element but then constrains and limits it by turning it into a TVC - (what’s the point?) The editting made it look false, and wasted the public reaction, which is one of the main reasons for using flashmobs:

SKY High Definition

The next example is a follow up on the T-mobile flashmob shown earlier. It’s a great example and uses the element intelligently. As we get familiarised with flashmobs, the novelty will naturally wear off, and the viral factor that earlier examples had will probably not be as large. T-Mobile must’ve understood this as they didn’t try to hide the fact that they were doing a flashmob, they in fact publicised it. They sent out Youtube invites and brochures to invite participation to the event. A happy and willing public responded with great results:

T-Mobile Sing-a-long Trafalgar Square

The next Sydney flashmob is scheduled for the 6th of June, I finally have a reason to wear that sweatband!