Case Study: Going Viral with VR!

Have you seen this? It's one of the funniest, most clever videos I've seen, but then again, I'm a bit biased since we created it!

It's a video that outlines the benefits of using VerticalResponse in Salesforce.com's AppExchange, in an "on-beat" kind of way.

VR for AppExchange? It's pretty sweet, you can basically send mass email campaigns using VerticalResponse right from within your Salesforce.com account. Finally closed-loop marketing at its finest.

PROBLEM: Even though Salesforce.com does a great job getting us here on their site, they don't really do outbound marketing internally or externally highlighting any one partner of theirs. So VR needed to get in front of their employees as well as their customers in a cost-effective way. 

SOLUTION: When Salesforce.com met with us, Rob Lamb, Partner Relations Manager, said to me "Janine, if you want to get in front of our employees, all we need is a simple 5-point slide on why you guys rock."

Hmmm. I thought. Thanks for the idea Rob. We'll take that 5 point slide a few steps further.

So I went in to my Creative Director's office to brainstorm a bit.  "Alf, we need to get in front of Salesforce.com employees to tell them why their customers need us, it needs to be hip and cool and something they'll want to forward to all of their friends."

"JP, I think we need to do a video, maybe a rap!" Alf said, in a very "un-rappy" way.

Crazy? Maybe but off we were and in all of 45 minutes, Alf, Josh our Director of Product Management and myself sorted through my iTunes, picked out a song and wrote it. The choice? A tongue-in-cheek update of Vanilla Ice’s (in)famous “Ice, Ice, Baby”  (apologies to David Bowie and Freddy Mercury).

One week later the video was done - GarageBand and iMovie to the rescue. Alf transformed himself into a rap hero and his team really pulled it off. A video that is by far the most fun and most viral thing Salesforce.com has seen yet. It's the next wave of "Lazy Sunday" for businesses! If you haven't seen the feature "Lazy Sunday" from Saturday Night Live, check it out. The clip has been viewed more than 5 million times.

In our clip, Furious Alf (his alter ego perhaps?) stalks the mean streets of San Francisco and rhymes about the many benefits of VerticalResponse for the AppExchange.  With lines like this we knew we had a hit on our hands:

“Will it ever stop, yo, I don’t know
Install the app and let’s go
Lists of any sizes, you know we can handle
Light up the app and watch it burn like a candle”

The folks at Salesforce.com thought so, too.  The video made it all the way up to the CEO and landed a spot on the company’s CRM Success blog, which you can read here.

To date, there have been over 600 views of this video. 

Not bad for a self-produced video - no amount of advertising could have made inroads as quickly or as cheaply – or inspired people to willingly pass it on. And no other medium would have facilitated this process like email.  Email has become such a part of everyday life, that it’s easy to forget just how effective a tool it can be, particularly when it’s done with a light, creative touch. 

Remember:

“Email’s a problem VR solves it
Test drive the app while your client installs it
AppEx, Baby
VR for AppEx, Baby!”

So check it out, forward it to your friends, and if you're interested in more information about the AppExchange go here.

Comments

[Sandor Kiss]

Love the video ...

It takes me back to watching in living color when Jim Carey does a spoof on vanilla ice and says the line "just kick it" and he ends up kicking his boot right off his foot. That's the only element missing from your video.

Appex is a great thing - as is VR now being in the app ex.

Keep it up guys.

Sandor
Long time satisfied customer.

[Steve]

Outstanding!! I was just asked to provide a Power Point presentation to a group of merchants and my first thought was, "I'd rather do a puppet show."

Now seeing this video ..... my wheels are spinning.

Janine, you folks are absolutely, without a doubt, the best!

Alf, can I have an autograph? Better yet, are you available for hire??

[Steve Robinson]

Great vid, I thought it was great, nice ice baby