Sing Your Troubles Away

Mark Burnett triumphed and flourished with “Survivor”.

Simon Fuller, succeeded beyond most people’s wildest dreams with “American Idol”.

Tyra Banks got both men and women glued to the TV watching girls sashaying in “America’s Next Top Model”.

TV audiences love reality shows, singing contests, dancing competitions, game quizzes, modeling challenges, fashion designer awards and the like. If you are one of those enterprising marketers in the entertainment industry, you would probably want to be another Mark Burnett, Simon Fuller or Tyra Banks. If you thought your daunting challenges would require huge capital investment and appropriate connections, think again. This is what creative thinking is all about.

Just look at GotTrouble.com’s Video Promotion. GotTrouble.com is having a “Sing Your Trouble Away contest” where it affords talented and troubled souls a chance to create their own 3-minute music video about life’s troubles. The contestants then upload it to YouTube and let it be seen by millions of viewers every day. Do you think that will be a big draw?

“Everyone has trouble, it’s a part of life,” said Henry Dahut, President and C.E.O. of GotTrouble.com. “We’re giving away $5,000 to encourage people to sing about trouble in fun and imaginative ways. All you need is a video camera, some musical talent and you’re well on your way. Plus, putting your trouble to music might not only get you noticed by music companies, you’ll find it’s downright therapeutic!”

Do you think this wonderful idea takes a lot of money to create and execute? Absolutely not. Clever people understand the concept that TV audiences loves reality shows and the like. They then modify the concept to suit the online world. The “Sing Your Troubles Away” idea is very refreshing and interesting. The video clips are entertaining, engaging and some are really funny! With an attention grabbing idea that is literary singing out loud, I’m very certain there will be lots of word-of-mouth and word-of-mouse going around about the event right now. These people don’t even have to advertise much to gain notice. They have empowered the contestants, their families, their friends, their fans and supporters to promote the show. Seth Godin coined a phrase for such phenomenon called the “ideavirus”, which is “a big idea that runs amok across the target audience.”

Here is my first attempt in writing lyrics to cheer on the enterprising team who thought of the “Sing Your Troubles Away” contest:

I have no money, I have no song
I need money, all year long
If you know the numbers, please tell me now
I would love you, all year long

I know this will strike a chord with lots of folks out there, budding, struggling and established.

Check out these related posts on online shows/contests:
Traditional Game Show Format Goes Online
Promotion must be FUN to be Successful

[tags]creative marketing, viral marketing[/tags]