Why 'WHY THIS KOLAVERI' created an online tornado

I would like to begin by confessing that in spite of being a Tamilian I seldom keep a track of Tamil movies and songs. The Kollywood movies that I watch are either the one’s which have achieved worldwide success (read Indhiran, Sivaji etc) or any other movies that I get dragged to  by my friend Raj who is usually abreast with  Kollywood’s latest happenings. The latest storm that has hit the social media space is #kolaveri.

For my non –Tamilian friends #kolaveri means a savage or a murderous rage. By now, you either have no idea what I’m talking about or are nodding your head helplessly humming the half-Tamil, half-English (and often gibberish) song that has taken the Internet by storm. Why This Kolaveri Di, is a song written and sung by Tamil actor Dhanush in his spare time, which has become frenzy, online and on the radio. A Tamil song that’s crossed over into Hindi airwaves yesterday at prime time of all radio channels. And one that’s done it minus AR Rahman? Whoa.

Listening to it for the first time one would feel that it is a clever  product placement by Knorr in the digital space("yo boys I am singing song,SOUP SONG  flop song why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di rhythm correct why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di maintain this why this kolaveri..di..")

 Now a quick look at how the movie has been marketed smartly even before its release using social media. I am writing this on day 4 of the’ #kolaveri’ trending on twitter! This is one of the smartest word of mouth marketing strategies adapted by movies I have seen by far after Paranormal Activity. In less than a week ‘Why this Kolaveri Di’ a popular song .It  became sensational, conversational track on Twitter, Facebook, Traditional Media and beyond.  The statistics (as of yesterday) below shows its success:

• The song has got about 18,64,011 views, more than 24,709 likes, around 8000 comments on YouTube (As of 23/11/2011, 11 AM)
• The song is trending on Twitter in India from past 3 days with hash tag: #Kolaveri
• The song was shared by 8 Lakh 31 thousand 41 people on Facebook (as of 23/11/2011, 11:10 AM) (refer image above)
• As per Youtube’s Trend Dash Board Kolaveri song is trending in the top 10 is US today and number 1 in India past five days.
• On November 22^nd, 2011 on the basis of the last 1,000 tweets 8,36,069 impressions were generated, reaching an audience of 709,636 followers within the past 24 hours. Of the 1000 tweets 576 were original tweets, 302 were retweets and 122 were the @mentions.  The maximum impression was created by Mr. Anand Mahindra’s Tweet with #kolaveri (refer image above)

The song was released on 16^th of November 2011 on hearing it first I felt this number would be a TamilNadu sensation but it went beyond what I predicted and is now becoming an international sensation with people in Pakistan UK & USA going gung ho about it.

Reasons for National Sensation:

• The song definitely is catchy and makes you addicted, especially the foot tapping beats that makes you shake your head (at-least).
• The lyrics of the song is in English (mostly) sung in tamil style thus making this understandable worldwide,  glad they have added the subtitle bringing to it a karaoke approach.
• The video of the song is very personalized depicting the recent national best actor award winner singing the song (showcasing his singing talents), his expressions and smile that shows soulful singing, presence of Shruti Hassan and Aishwarya at the studio that indicates involvement of the entire crew to make this song and lastly direction of Aniruddh a 21 year of young music director who has made this possible.
• The sequence of shoot is wise, basically hero should have been depicted in a pub with a glass of whisky in hand (typical bollywood style), the choice of shooting it in a studio is wise and very personalized.
• The movie marketing is well strategized with involvement of Social Media from day 1. The recording of the video at the studio itself for the sake of YouTube proves the efforts.
• The song is sensation in US, Australia, India and many other countries – love the way the movie is promoted, a song can speak more than a trailer and thanks to Social Media for making this possible.

I am sure the song has helped creating an identity of the music director, talented actor cum singer and the movie ‘3’.  Click here to view the song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR12Z8f1Dh8&feature=aso