Don’t Fight A Viral Campaign, Even If You Didn’t Plan It – Chronic of Narnia Rap (SNL)

Saturday Night Live’s audience has waxed and waned for the better part of a decade. It seems they’re finally getting it though. Weeks ago I saw an article on a video game blog about how SNL staffers (Tina Fey in particular) were avid gamers. Silly little fluff pieces like this really make small subsets of people behave more favorable to you. They seem to understand niche marketing more than many of the “smart marketers” I encounter daily.

Last week they put out out a really funny Beastie Boys-ish rap parodying a ‘Lazy Sunday’ in Brooklyn, preparing to go see the Chronicles of Narnia. This “Chronic of Narnia” rap is funny, amatuerish in feel, and looks like something you’d see on ebaumsworld or big-boys (two of the stickiest sites on the net). This is exactly what their audience is looking to see. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I didn’t see it on SNL.

I first saw it on Google Video. Now, the thing has spread across the net so much that most everyone who is an avid net junkie has seen it, at least once. The funny thing is, SNL and NBC didn’t fight it or call piracy when they found out it was making the rounds, they embraced it.

Unlike most companies, they embraced it and released it for free on iTunes. NBC/SNL recognized it as the best kind of marketing WOM (word of mouth). Ever heard the saying, you can’t pay for that kind of marketing? It’s that powerful, that honest, that trusted, that powerful…

Companies (like Sony) try to do this on their own and fail, so when it falls in your lap, PLEASE, I’m begging you, embrace it.