Sunday, November 24, 2013

Marketing Bob Dylan All Over Again

Bob Dylan 1962 image Music 3.0 blog
Bob Dylan - 1962
By now you’ve probably at least heard about the latest video to capture our collective online hearts - the first official video of Bob Dylan’s most famous song “Like A Rolling Stone.” The video has caused a sensation not only because it’s interactive, but mostly because it’s based around the concept of doing something we all do probably too much of; watching television. On this video, the viewer can change between different “channels” that represent a cross-section of what we have available today (16 in all), meaning news, reality, sports, game shows, a children’s cartoon and finally a vintage of live video from 1966 of Dylan and the The Hawks (later to become The Band) performing the song.

What’s disconcerting is that each of the television scenarios has the actors lip synching the song, but acting as they normally would on their prospective channels, so there’s a big disconnect between the song lyrics and how the actors are saying it. The interactive part where the user can change the channel is a tribute to technology as the each channel stays in perfect sync regardless of where during the song the channel change is made.

Forget the phenomena of the video for a moment and think about the marketing that the video represents. As brilliant of an artist as Dylan is, he peaked a long time ago and has been mostly irrelevant for at least a few decades. That’s no knock on him, as the same thing happens to all but a few artists. Sometimes it’s the market that dictates it, while other times it’s the artist him or herself that pulls away as the ability to enjoy the fruits of one’s success grows. Either way, the man doesn’t have to push himself anymore as he’s earned his freedom to do whatever he desires.

That’s exactly why I don’t believe that he’s the driving factor behind this video, but that fact is almost irrelevant. There’s some brilliant marketing that we’re witnessing.


First of all, the video revives a hit from 1965. Think about that for a moment. This isn’t a remake or a duet with a new hot artist, it’s the original song, which as great as it is, is still 48 years old! Read more on Forbes.


Join the conversation and let me know how Bob Dylan impacted your life. Share a lesson learned from Dylan below, and please share this post if you know others who’s lives were touched by Dylan.
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