http://www.trabian.com/articles/2006/04/26/more-confirmation-the-future-of-marketing-is-in-word-of-mouth en-us 40 <p>How crazy is that! Wow, I hadn&#8217;t heard that before I read it on here. Hope you&#8217;re doing well. Those websites below look really good. I&#8217;m not surprised.</p> Sun, 30 Apr 2006 21:39:01 -0500 urn:uuid:bc731309-869c-4b8a-9bf9-0d4d1367dbca http://www.trabian.com/articles/2006/04/26/more-confirmation-the-future-of-marketing-is-in-word-of-mouth#comment-176 <p>This month, the song Crazy by <a href="http://www.gnarlsbarkley.com/">Gnarls Barkley</a> made <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4870150.stm">musical history</a> as it climbed to number one in the UK charts before a single hard copy of the album was released. Who needs CDs? Crazy hit the top based purely on downloads.</p> <p>They lit the fire by setting up a <a href="http://www.myspace.com/gnarlsbarkley">Myspace page</a> which streamed the entire album, then supplemented that with the <a href="http://www.gnarlsbarkley.com/">official Gnarles Barkley website</a>. After that, they let the buzz take care of the rest and made history.</p><p>I&#8217;m reminded of last month, when <a href="http://www.37signals.com">37signals</a> released their book <a href="https://gettingreal.37signals.com/">Getting Real</a> available only as a <span class="caps">PDF</span> download for $19. There is no printed version. Within one day of release they had sold over 1,750 copies, which translates to over $33,000 in sales. With almost no advertising (they promoted it on <a href="http://37signals.com/svn/">their blog</a>) and no publishing company to grab their chunk, the profitability of this kind of delivery is undeniable.</p> <p>Plus, you just can&#8217;t buy the kind of promotional momentum delivered by a group of pumped up fans. No matter what industry you&#8217;re in.</p> <p>As for Gnarls Barkley, I&#8217;ve been listening to the album on constant repeat ever since I got my copy. I&#8217;ve also become part of the marketing plan myself, as I&#8217;ve demanded all of my friends check it out or I&#8217;ll never speak to them again.</p> Wed, 26 Apr 2006 12:34:00 -0500 urn:uuid:b0e0e162-40c7-4856-a06c-6838731a6571 brent@trabian.com (Brent Dixon) http://www.trabian.com/articles/2006/04/26/more-confirmation-the-future-of-marketing-is-in-word-of-mouth Culture Marketing Current Events Branding http://www.trabian.com/articles/trackback/173