HBO is actively encouraging YouTube users to promote Flight of the Conchords by sending their own lip-synching version, according to AllThingsD. My personal favorite and probably the most well known one would have to be “Numa Numa” by Gary Brolsma, which just symbolizes so much my early experiences of YouTube back in late 2005-06.
Confirmation of this new viral marketing initiative came via a rather annoying woman named Mel, who is part of the Flight of the Conchords group supposedly announced that users can now use MP3 and lyrics of the well known “Flight of the Conchords” song “Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros” and then submit their creative videos to Flightlipdub.com, whether this is a positive move or just plain piggybacking is yet to be seen.
One thing is for sure, and one thing I am not certain on is whether HBO really want to make a positive gain on use YouTube as a promotion tool, after just earlier this year requesting the Google owned company take down footage of a boxing match between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Oscar De La Hoya, . Many TV studios and movie companies are being very catious around Youtube and other video sharing sites such as Veoh and Revver, particularly because of issues related to copyright infringement, heck TV shows such as CBS owned Star Trek and MacGyver have only just made it to Youtube within the last month.
So, what has made HBO decide to encourage lip dubbing songs for Youtube, I mean in theory it is freely ripping off their content which they themselves having be quoted as saying “We are very, very protective of our copyright. We’re very aggressive in protecting it”, has the penny dropped? Has HBO freely allowed one of its most popular internet acts to be directly promoted, changed and creatively manufactured into something great.
If so, well done HBO you have set the mark for others in the TV and movie industry like you to follow suit, I am not saying any studio activity to bring content to Youtube is unjustified, but when a company goes out of their way to say “Let’s give power to the People” in a creative fashion that I must naturally commend them for that!
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I receive emails from HBO's Entourage mailing list and it's obvious they're trying creative ways to get involved in social media on the Internet. After each episode, I'd get a newsletter from HBO and there's usually a controversial question or comment made. They encourage fans to go the show's website and input their thoughts and to interact with other fans. I personally haven't been active on the fan site, but I applaud their efforts.