Rhett & Link: The Business of Viral

You may not recognize their names, but chances are good that you’ve seen them in action.

It might have been in one of their original music videos, such as “The ShamWow Song.” Perhaps it was in their Alka-Seltzer Great American Road Trip series. Chances are good that it was in the infamous Red House Furniture Store spot – one of many ads they’ve produced as part of their “I Love Local Commercials” campaign.

There are 243 videos in all, which have been viewed nearly 50 million times on YouTube since 2006.

Without question, the comedy duo of Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal have mastered the art and the science of viral video.

Hailing from a small town in North Carolina, these engineering majors might seem unlikely candidates to be among the leading innovators legitimizing a new type of broadcasting online. Yet these savvy YouTube celebrities have found a way to monetize their passion for inventive musical comedy by bridging the gap between advertising and entertainment.

While social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter are widely recognized as integral components to a successful Web marketing campaign, video content remains a gray area for many businesses. However, Rhett & Link’s reputation for creating highly popular content has brought household names – including Alka-Seltzer, Baby Ruth, Starburst, Hummer, Cadillac and McDonald’s and Coca-Cola – to their doorstep seeking custom videos and series.

Rhett & Link have invested little in their business endeavor beyond their own creativity,
but their ability to wield the true currency of Internet marketing – a dedicated following of more than 355,000 subscribers – have made the pair pioneers of branded entertainment online.

Fame Foundry’s Jordan Drake recently sat down with Rhett & Link to discover how they have harnessed the power of viral video to advance not only their own personal brand but also the brands of their sponsors as well.

[powerpress]

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Client Spotlight: Hospice & Palliative Care of Iredell County

For any nonprofit there is an inherent challenge in marketing that is not present in a for-profit business. For a hospice care agency, this challenge is even more pertinent. It is a delicate task that the tactics of traditional marketing - which are based in broadcasting messages to the masses - are not well-suited to accomplish. Perhaps more than any other type of service, hospice by its very nature requires all efforts directed toward building and sustaining the business to be founded in cultivating, nurturing and becoming actively involved in the community around the brand. This is where trustcasting differs from the marketing institutions of old. Trustcasting is about people. It exists on a personal level and is grounded in honest, two-way conversation. While it is still important to tell the story of the organization, it is more important to tell that story in the greater context of the community it serves.

 

Fame Foundry partnered with Hospice & Palliative Care of Iredell County to develop platforms to help them advance their legacy of community involvement. These tools represent a long-term investment in the constant, ongoing process of building awareness and trust with an audience that will remember them if ever the time of need arrives. This is, in essence, a 360-degree approach to growth in which the community becomes an integral part of the organization and vice versa.

 

The new website sets out to tell the story of Hospice & Palliative Care of Iredell County and its passion for providing families with comfort, peace and hope in the most important times with their loved ones. The site also captures real people sharing their own experiences and their own passion for HPCIC with great candor and conviction. The ultimate result is laying a strong foundation of trust within the community in a way that traditional marketing could never replicate, helping families who are in need of hospice feel at peace with the decision they are making. To learn more about Hospice & Palliative Care of Iredell County, visit http://www.hospiceofiredell.org.

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