United Breaks Guitars – YouTube to the Rescue

September 1, 2009

First the backstory –

In Spring 2008, musician Dave Carroll took a United Airlines flight heading toward Nebraska for a 1-week tour. Due to carry-on bag restrictions, he had to check his $3,500 Taylor guitar. While sitting on the tarmac, another passenger brought everyone’s attention to the United Airlines baggage handlers who were throwing Carroll’s guitar (among other things) into the plane in a manner that left little hope for survival. After 9 months of phone calls and discussions with a myriad of United Airlines employees, Carroll was finally told that United Airlines would not compensate him for his loss. You can read the full story here.

So what did Carroll do? He turned to the power of the social web, namely YouTube, to share his story — and it worked!

Carroll wrote a song and filmed a video called “United Breaks Guitars” (which is very funny) and uploaded it to YouTube on July 9, 2009. You can view it below (or watch it here). As of today, not even two months since it’s release, the video has been viewed over 5.3 million times.

Word got out and the video became a big enough viral sensation that United had to respond. They contacted Carroll and offered to compensate him for the damages done to his guitar, but Carroll declined the money and asked United to donate it to charity. He uploaded a new video on July 10th in which he describes his discussion with United, which you can watch below (or view it here on YouTube).

On August 17, 2009, Carroll uploaded the second song and video in his 3-part United song series. As of today, just two weeks later, already nearly 300,000 people have watched the video, shown below (or view it here).

Carroll is now writing the third and final song in his United series, which will be released on YouTube with a corresponding video soon.

There are two things marketers must learn from this story. First, the social Web is a powerful tool with the potential to make or break a brand. Make it work for you, not against you. Second, United breaks guitars.

Filed Under Blog, Social Media, Viral Marketing, word-of-mouth marketing · 3 Comments

The Ugly Truth About Being a Service Provider

June 7, 2009

Whether you own a company where you offer your services in exchange for a fee or you’re a freelancer, the ugly truth is that everyone believes that since you’re selling your talent, expertise, and time, the price is negotiable. Thanks to this hilarious YouTube video where the vendor-client relationship is re-enacted in real world situations, perhaps word will get out that haggling is uncool.

Filed Under Blog, Just for Fun · 1 Comment

The ShamWow Song – I Love YouTube

March 8, 2009

I love YouTube. Just a week or so ago, I posted some hilarious Snuggie parody videos, and now, I found the ShamWow song that parodies the slightly disturbing ShamWow commercial / informercial. It just goes to show that an over the top commercial can drive a buzz. Whether or not its the kind of buzz that will increase sales and drive positive PR is another subject entirely, but I digress. Check out the ShamWow song below!

And “in case you’ve been under a rock,” here’s the original ShamWow commercial.

Filed Under Advertising, Blog · 3 Comments

You Know a Customer Really Loves Your Product When …

November 10, 2008

He makes a YouTube video out of it! Let’s face it – every brand would like a customer to make a positive YouTube video about its product then have that video go viral. That’s what happened to one loyal fan’s video that is not only funny but impressive, too. Check it out below.