Perfect example of viral marketing - the TMobile Dance

Okay, so I'll admit, I actually got this emailed to me from my mother. Love mom, but she's not the most technically savvy lady and frankly, if she's forwarding something to me, it's quite likely that I've seen it before.

But, I've never seen this great TMobile ad and I had to find out more.



The ad was filmed in the Liverpool Street Tube Station in London on January 15th, 2009 at 11:00a (during rush hour). It took 8 weeks to plan. Over 10,000 dancers auditioned for the part and only 400 made it. There were 8 tracks of music including: The Twist, Shout and Don't Cha. There were 10 cameras hidden in the station to capture the dancers and the reactions from the random passerbys in the station. Within 24 hours the crew went from the Event to Broadcast - and they didn't even know if it was possible.

The video has been viewed over 5M times on YouTube.

The thing about this video and one of the reasons why the campaign has been so successful is due to the enthusiasm of the dancers and how that infectious enthusiasm transfers to the viewing audience. In a back stage moment the producers and directors commented that "most exciting thing is the number of people involved", "that energy was phenomenal", "look at these people joining in". You watch and you can't help but smile! Look at the little old ladies dancing, check out the guy with the 'fro!

The crew also interviewed those random passerbys who said that 'participating' in the event made their day. "It's going to make me laugh all day", "Made me feel a moment of love, for 5 minutes everyone was relaxed and happy", "I'm in a good mood now", "It put a smile on my face". "I wish every day was like this."
That's the feeling that makes for a good viral campaign - people sharing unexpected and fun stuff that doesn't feel like advertising at all.