So today I was on one of my regular YouTube endeavors when I found my way to a music video. I like music videos, always have, but there are some that I like better than others. The one I happened to stop at was an Ice Cube video called “Today Was A Good Day”.

However, this post isn’t meant to bring attention to the music video or even the music itself, but instead I want to point out what was done with the video.

Ice Cube, you may like him or you may not, but there is no doubting that the man has been quite successful in many areas. This campaign is unique for these music videos because of how the 2 songs were combined to essentially play one video. Yes, they are separate, but this is essentially what was done.

Below you will find the 2 Ice Cube music videos I am talking about along with some further explanation below. They are called “Today Was A Good Day” and “Check Yo Self” respectively.

Check these out and let me know your thoughts. (Make special note as to how they were combined together…)

As you should have seen in the videos above, they were combined together with a “To Be Continued”. This is quite rarely seen in music videos because of among other things, the shortness factor, but in these videos a story is built up using video (played out by Ice Cube) that builds suspense towards the end. The suspense that was built up is then played out further in the following music video.

Think about when you watch your favorite tv show and it is a great episode. You are right into it and then you see the dreaded…”To Be Continued”. Oh crap, right? Now you have to wait until it is next aired to watch the rest, but since you were right into the show, you want tune in next time to find out what happens. This is the same general “idea” that these Ice Cube videos seems to use. Suspense is built, not in the lryics of the songs, but in the video itself and from there the next video is started.  Instead of only watching the one video like expected, you ended up watching 2 … how’s that for music video marketing?

The point I want to get across here is this: In your marketing you DO NOT have to be like everybody else. You can be innovative and you should be in order to stand out from your competitors. Think of ways that are appropriate to your situation, but will allow you to set yourself apart and run with it (at least seriously consider the idea). Don’t simply do what others do or you will always be behind those you follow.

These Ice Cube music videos could have very easily been cut off and made into a normal music video, but instead they weren’t and they had me watching another video … this I’m sure was the point too!

Why not think about combining a few promotions that you run together? This is similar to an upsell idea, except that you don’t have to “upsell” anything. You just want some more exposure so your visitor will know what is available to them. There is no forcing anyone to do anything and no pressure is applied, but since they are already intrigued they will advance through your sales stream on their own terms and purchase whatever is right for them.

I hope this makes sense to you, if not please leave a comment or email me.

To Your Success,

Mark Garland

Tags: Check Yo Self, Ice Cube, Ice Cube Check Yo Self, Ice Cube music, Ice Cube Music Video, Ice Cube To be continued, Ice Cube Today Was A Good Day, Ice cube video, Music Video, Music Video Marketing, to be continued, Today Was A Good Day, upsell

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 24th, 2008 at 12:14 am and is filed under viral ad/commercial critiques. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.