Marketing & Yo Gabba Gabba

In view of Talli's enormous marketing success on Amazon, I thought this would be a fun repost. And I've got a raging sinus infection. So to the recycle bin!

Yo Gabba Gabba finally got an article in Entertainment Weekly. (link)

Now I've admitted I'm a techno-lover (I blame formative years spent in the late-1980s).

I recall the Kraftwerk-"Music Selector is the Soul Reflector"-turn on the strobe light and "Dance Your Love Away"-scene as the ultimate in Good Times.

So two years ago when the girls and I happened across this odd little show on Noggin starring a funny black guy in an orange jumpsuit, furry hat, and horn-rimmed glasses dancing around to the musical stylings of Mark Mothersbaugh, we were checkin' that out!

Muno did give me pause, but the girls assured me he was just a hot dog from outer space. (Me: OK!)

Yo Gabba Gabba songs are available on iTunes. I recommend the following: "Don't Bite Your Friends" (good message for kids and adults); Party in My Tummy" (see above); "Working Together" (again, good for parents and kids); The episode "Dance" (for obvious reasons).

What does all this have to do with marketing you ask? Well, I'll tell ya. Recently, I came across an online forum dedicated to why the Twilight series was so successful.

There were a lot of haters going on about how badly the books were written (e.g., adverbs overload!) and feminist yadda yadda yadda. Personally, I thought the books were a lot of fun. I read them all in less than two weeks with a Disney trip thrown in the mix. They were entertaining and escapist and had an engaging love story.

But seriously, why would those books do better than say, a Sarah Dessen novel? My response = Marketing!

My reasoning was I would never have been aware of the books if I hadn't seen a big feature about Stephenie Myer and "the Twilight phenomenon" in Entertainment Weekly.

On the other hand, I've known about YGG for two years, and EW's just now getting around to going ape over the show.

So Marketing isn't the answer.

I don't know that they did much marketing for YGG and it still became huge. Maybe because it's on TV? Maybe because there's a buncha fan-parents out there who can't stop singing the songs and giggling about it to their friends?

What is making these books/shows so successful?

From what I understand there were lots of Moms out there reading Twilight before it went viral as well. Maybe that's it? If you can find something the kids like that the parents find irresistable as well, Eureka! You've done it?

I think it's the stylish clothes myself. I mean, heck. You can't beat that orange hat. And if I ever get anywhere near famous, I'm begging DJ Lance to please please please let me be a guest... I could teach everyone my Coco the Bird Lady dance!

Til Monday--Have a great weekend~ <3

And Twitter, too

So KarenG's a superstar. I picture her doing the Molly Shannon "Superstar!" right about now...

And I'm sending her all the B-love for giving me an excuse to befriend some of you cool folks I've been seeing around the blogosphere w/o seeming creepy or stalkerish...

In my ice distribution, I read a funny post where one of my new blogging buddies was feeling "old" because she didn't get Yo Gabba Gabba (Vicki).

You know what made ME feel old? Twitter.

I'm sure I'm over-thinking it. And friends I hang with in person always give me heck because I don't text either.

But that's largely due to the fact that the mobile communication industry still hasn't streamlined their product.

I mean, seriously, people. You buy a PC, regardless of brand, and you know how to use it.

You buy a Mac, you scratch your head for six months, you figure out how to use it, you fall in love with it, you realize there's no software for it and the only people using it are graphic designers, then you go back and buy another PC and fondly remember the days when you had a Mac and it was SO COOL.

Sorry... digression.

But am I the only one who is tired of having to learn a new phone every two years? My contract's up, but I'm holding on to my little pink flip phone til it thunders.

Which brings us back to Twitter. You're really supposed to tweet from your phone, right? And anybody can follow you. You don't "lock" your tweets. That's like blocking anonymous comments on your blog...

See? I am trying. It's just weird to me. Because, for one I'm not convinced I'm that interesting. And for two, well, I end up knowing all this personal stuff about people I don't really know.

Like for example: Natalie Fischer had a cold last week.

[Fast bkg: I did a webinar w/Ms. Fischer a week ago (Thanks, Candy!) and she specified we had to have a Twitter account. I've actually had a Twitter account for three years so I went back and played with it, added Fischer as one of my "Follow"s, and now I get her updates all the time.]

I now know Ms. Fischer's a recovering Cheez-It addict (like me) and when she was sick her boyfriend brought her liquid Nyquil. This made her very unhappy...

(Personally, when I was pre-kids and sick, I chugged liquid Nyquil like it was Coke. It was the night time sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuffy head, why am I on my bathroom floor? medicine. Remember that?)

But good lord, we are not friends. She is not my agent. She might possibly be my agent one day, but at this point she's a total stranger to me. And yet I know all this about her life... I feel like a creepy stalker!

On Friday, when I sneaked a Cheez-it while packing the girls' school snacks, Natalie Fischer crossed my mind...! And I'm supposed to be doing this with hundreds... thousands of people?

All charting my every move?

So in the same way I argued with Vicki--"all the music for Yo Gabba Gabba is by Mark Mothersbaugh! They have Biz Markie doing the beat of the day!"--feel free to argue with me about Twitter.

Help Grandma understand The Twitter, people. Did I just hear thunder?

B-love~

Marketing and Yo Gabba Gabba

Yo Gabba Gabba finally got an article in Entertainment Weekly.

Now I've admitted I'm a techno-lover (I blame formative years spent in the late-1980s). I recall the Kraftwerk-"Music Selector is the Soul Reflector"-turn on the strobe light and "Dance Your Love Away" scene as the ultimate in Good Times.

So two years ago when the girls and I happened across this odd little show on Noggin starring a funny black guy in an orange jumpsuit, furry hat, and horn-rimmed glasses dancing around to the musical stylings of Mark Mothersbaugh, we were checkin' that out!

Muno did give me pause, but the girls assured me he was just a hot dog from outer space. (Me: OK!) And by Halloween 2008, my big ole buddy Patrick Johnson and I were rockin out with the kids to "Party in My Tummy" and lovin it.

Can I just say, I know "PIMT" is intended to persuade little ones to eat their green beans and carrots (who are crying because they want to go to the party in your tummy). But if you're anything like me (and Patrick), and you know there's nothing better in life than hoggin' out, then that is the song for you.

Yo Gabba Gabba songs are available on iTunes, btw. I recommend the following: "Don't Bite Your Friends" (good message for kids and adults); Party in My Tummy" (see above); "Working Together" (again, good for parents and kids); The episode "Dance" (for obvious reasons).

What does all this have to do with marketing you ask? Well, I'll tell ya. I mentioned in a previous post that I came across an online forum dedicated to why the Twilight series was so successful.

There were a lot of haters going on about how badly the books were written (e.g., adverbs overload!) and feminist yadda yadda yadda. Personally, I thought the books were a lot of fun. I read them all in less than two weeks with a Disney trip thrown in the mix. They were entertaining and escapist and had an engaging love story.

But seriously, why would those books do better than say, a Sarah Dessen novel? My response = Marketing!

My reasoning was I would never have been aware of the books if I hadn't seen a big feature about Stephanie Myers and "the Twilight phenomenon" in Entertainment Weekly.

Therein lies the bug. I've known about YGG for two years, and EW's just now getting around to going ape over it.

So why is it so successful? I don't know that they've done much marketing for it. Maybe because it's on TV? Maybe because there's a buncha fan-parents out there who can't stop singing the songs and giggling about it to their friends?

I know I sing "Let's Get the Sillies Out" at odd, random moments. (I also bust rhymes from "Forgot About Dre," so I'm not such a great example.)

But I do have this question buzzing around in my head. What is making these books/shows so successful?

From what I understand there were lots of Moms out there reading Twilight before it went viral as well. Maybe that's it? If you can find something the kids like that the parents find irresistable as well, Eureka! You've done it?

I think it's the stylish clothes myself. I mean, heck. You can't beat that orange hat. And if I ever get anywhere near famous, I'm begging DJ Lance to please please please let me be a guest... I could do my Coco the Bird Lady dance!