Long story short, 2 days back Volkwagen brought out an audio ad in the Times Of India (and The Hindu) which started playing once you opened the paper. This innovative advertising idea got a lot of attention and was a topic of much discussion. Some even got so scared by it that they called the local police station. Like many others I too found the idea very interesting and shot a quick video (using my mobile phone) and uploaded it on YouTube.
It's been madness since then.
The video became what is known as 'viral' in the Internet circle. Lots of users spread the link via social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook and blogs. Amit (www.labnol.org), India's most popular tech blogger also found it interesting and embedded it in his site. This started off a chain reaction with the video being picked up by blogs and news agencies from across the globe. Perhaps the biggest boost came from this post on Wired.com, a super popular global tech blog.
It's been a little over 48 hours since I uploaded the video and it has received over 30,000 views and is increasing by hundreds by the hour. The link to my blog post was the top result in Google 'latest results'.
The video also got the YouTube 'honour' of being one of the most viewed videos in the 'Auto' category in India
and I was just told that it is featuring under the 'Most Popular' category on YouTube India's homepage.
All I can say is I am thrilled with the reach of YouTube and if I required anymore convincing of the power of the Internet (after working with an Internet company for over 5 years!), there's no need anymore.
Go ahead and tap into the magic of the net.
Thanks Parag, Anomita, Manan and Pavan for the tips and screenshots.
Update: The video reached 100,000 views in around 5 months with 0 investments!
P.S: If you haven't checked the video yet, you should:)