(2 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)
I found this post over at ViralBlog (love it), but Is it just me or are these flashmob virals getting a little old and over done? Last week VTM, a Belgium TV channel staged a flashmobin yet another train station, essentially copying about 3-4 previous public viral concepts in London and the US. This time, the central train station was flashmobed by over 200 dancers to promote a new TV Series on VTM. Below you will find a few very similar examples on different levels, which I believe are much more creative, or at least first to market with their viral styles… If you’re creating flashmob virals, surly you can come up with something better than just copying others “dancing” ideas? These large scenes are great to generate PR of the highest levels, just remember to be unique!
Below is the T-Mobilethat is almost identical, created in Liverpool train station in the UK not more than 2 months ago, which make this from VTM smell of copycat!
Going back a little further, you can easily find a few more of these at train station (like the frozen people at grand-central station in the US) but to show you examples on another scale check out the two below. The first was Getronics attempting to bring attention to its re-branding…
The second is Lastminute.com stirring up PR for their 50% off sales…
I think the Flash Mob concept in general is tired but there are interesting ways people are using Twitter and other social media to drive new forms of Flash Mobs. I’m not sure if this counts as a Flash Mob (in the traditional sense) but there was a great article in Newsweek about a company called Kogi that drives flocks of fans to certain places in LA for their Korean Tacos. I blogged about it here:
http://weareorganizedchaos.com/index.php/2009/03/27/korean-tacos-twitter-style/
I am from Belgium, and although I admit it seems a bit tired from your standpoint, flashmobs aren’t really common in Belgium, and most people have never heard of something like it. Also the channel that made the viral ad isn’t exactly the most creative or progressive channel, so for them it’s an even bigger step.
So, in a global context, you’re exacly right, this is a lame copy. But since Belgium lags somewhat in these kinds of things, it’s just right for us.
(I don’t have to tell you it’s exceedingly frustrating when major newspapers present stuff you already know about for years as “cutting edge”. Only last week they discoverd the fag hag.)