By now you’ve probably already seen it, but in case you’ve been in hiding for the last few days, viral video masterminds Ok Go have struck youtube gold for the second time in three years with their latest single “This Too Shall Pass”. Over its first three days, the video has racked up more than 3.2M views, despite many not thinking the song was very good. (I kind of like it, in a The Polyphonic Spree kinda way.)

Not just a viral video…

Obviously, the boys in Ok Go have a knack for creative thinking – moving outside the box of the standard music video game. For the second time, they have found a contagious concept that while complex, probably came in well below the budget of other major mainstream acts.

However, the major game changing element to this video is the monetization model that the band has employed. Citing financial reasons, record label EMI had disabled embedding of OK Go music videos, indicating that they did not receive ad revenue for non-youtube views.

In order to make up for the revenue shortage, the band actually received funding from State Farm Insurance.

Score one for the band

While the band is clearly reaping major benefits from this agreement, I’m stuck wondering whether State Farm is leveraging this to its full extent.

Careful eyes will notice several moments of product placement…the small logo on the truck and the tshirt on the teddy bear. Bet you haven’t noticed them until now…

Finally, the last screen of the video has a nice logo shot and thanks State Farm for their participation in the filming of the video.

Where’s the extension?

State Farm has obviously stepped up to the plate and decided to get engaged in some different advertising strategies, and to their credit, they have hitched a ride on some cultural legends in the making.

Are they reaping some press from the relationship? Certainly. Is their logo getting viewed by millions of viewers? Without a doubt.

Do these millions of viewers, particularly an entirely new demographic of generation Y viewers, represent the potential for a massive lifetime value to the company? You better believe it.

With that in mind, did State Farm go far enough in their marketing plan? No

Why stick to Youtube?

A quick scan of their web page,Twitter account and Facebook page, and it would seem that the Ok Go collaboration never even existed.

Why to go all of the effort of developing brand awareness, without attaching any sort of conversion event to the promotion?

— Update: — A couple of tweets can go a long way. CC Chapman‘s retweet of this was seen by some folks in the State Farm PR crew this morning. They have subsequently tweeted out the link, and posted the video to their facebook page (drawing more than 40 fan interactions). Kudos for listening!

How to make it better

Seeing as how their brand is now attached to a piece of content that will likely be viewed upwards of 50 million times (the current number of views of the official treadmill video), while being the talk of the pop culture world for the next little while, there are a few simple ways that an insurance company could solidify its stance among an entirely new demographic of lifetime insurance buyers.

Post the video on their own site – This is a no brainer. After all, it was their funding that allowed the video to be embedded in the first place. Visitors will be going to their page just to see what’s going on over there. Without a mention of the band or video, the scent trail of conversion is lost… and we’re left with just another insurance company.

Include exclusive content on their site – The band has created a “behind the scenes” series about how the video was made. State Farm could house this exclusive content on their site, extending the story and solidifying the relationship between brand and band.

Incorporate community chatter – Being involved in a viral stunt like this does not come around every day. Why not incorporate a live feed of Ok Go related conversation in a feed on a section of the State Farm website. This could go a long ways towards showing their visitors about the company’s (apparent) embracing of social web activities, and potentially negate some negative sentiment surrounding their activities (ahem. StateFarmSucks on Twitter)

Build Facebook Community – Another no-brainer. The State Farm Facebook page has less than 1,000 fans. If they could convert even 1% of the 3 million views in the first three days… they would increase their fan base by a factor of THIRTY.

Integrate the music offline – Integration of the video content or elements of the song in State Farm TV or Radio commercials could also be a nice extension of the campaign. Music has a way of sticking in one’s brain – and a remarkable video like this one will be remembered for years to come. Using the song as a jingle in a television campaign could further seal the association between State Farm’s brand and “that cool video”. Again, tie in some facebook or twitter calls to action in offline stuff, and you’ve got a winning viral combination.

Have you seen the video? Did you know that it was sponsored by an insurance company? What’s your take?

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