Cookie Monster wants to take it to the next level with a move across town to the bright lights, glitz and glamor of late night live television to host of Saturday Night Live. He has come to us, his “friends” to help support him and garner the attention of Lorne Michaels. For it was a year ago when David Mathews created the “Betty White to Host SNL (please?)!” Facebook page where fans made their plea for Betty White to host SNL. On May 8, 2010, she not only appeared, she pulled in the highest ratings for SNL in over 18 months. But, he is not Betty White however he just may be teaching us a bit about persuasion, Sesame Street’s excellence in brand building and some social media greatness we all can learn from.
Puppets as Celebrities
Are puppets celebrities? After 41 years I would tend to think so, right? We love the Sesame Street puppets and of course the Muppets, and they have been a part of our lives and our kids lives for years. We have relied upon them for the education and entertainment through the laughs where kids do not even realize that they are learning. Count with his bats, Cookie with eating the letter of the day, and his C is for Cookie song, Bert with his pigeons, Baby Bear and Telly with shapes, Elmo with his own little show within the show of Elmo’s World. But are they celebrities? I guess we have to first for ourselves define what a celebrity is. Celebrities play characters on tv and in movies and puppets are characters but we are seeing a new wave of celebrities with reality tv? If we see them as celebrities then that begs the question of are puppets celebrities? Does Cookie Monster have enough celebrity to be a host of SNL? Are reality tv stars enough of a train wreck celebrity to host SNL?
Cookie Monster’s Audition Plea
Cookie Monster has taken to the internet in his plight to host SNL. He has created one very convincing audition video that has the makings of stardom. The video is a parody of SNL itself and includes a skit, musical guest, the news as well as the thank you ending.
The audition creatively is so incredibly well done. The “fake news” skit is absolutely hilarious. The creativity alone should catapult Cookie Monster into late night stardom and also send message to marketers about how a well thought out and executed campaign is done. And here we thought Sesame Street was only educating kids around the world.
Cookie Monster Goes Viral
Cookie Monster’s audition tape has gone viral. With over 1,150,000 views in under 7 days, we can say he has gone viral. A small business owner can only dream of this. While the number of views is impressive, those taking action is more impressive. The call to action is to become a fan on his Facebook page. We are listening to you Cookie as while there are not over a million fans (yet) the support for Cookie to host SNL is overwhelming for such a short period of time. What is quite remarkable is the number of views from a mobile device. This is only one campaign but as we can see, the numbers are quite astounding and can give some insight for small businesses to ensure their site is adapted for mobile viewing. Not sure if your site is mobile friendly? Let us know, as you can trust that we will get your site working properly on mobile devices.
Cookie Monster’s Facebook Campaign
Cookie Monster has his very own Facebook page and in under a week he already has 104,670 fans/friends/likes (at the time of this writing which is 10:47pm, PST on Sunday 11/28/2010). Pretty amazing for a monster who has never been a source of a celebrity scandal, never won an award for best actor or best supporting actor, never been in contract dispute, never retired then changed mind and seemingly has never missed a day of work in 41 years.
Maybe we will see Cookie making some appearances on the late night talk shows to gather up some more fans who have yet to find his Facebook page? I do not know Cookie but I hear that Jimmy Fallon guy may have some pull with SNL. Smells like a bit of a case study where we could see how traditional advertising mediums are able to have a positive impact upon social media campaigns.
Sesame Street’s Education in Social Media
Sesame Street is slowly becoming a social media giant in the making. Bert and Cookie Monster’s Google Search parodies are not only true to character but they also combine the personal brand of the characters in with the overall Sesame Street brand online. Their Smell Like a Monster spoof on the Old Spice campaign was equally as brilliant as the Old Spice campaign. Sesame Street is connecting with children every day on the same old network and now is connecting with adults in our space, where we hang out and showing us marketers a thing or two about social media.
Sesame Street seems to have a really good grasp on social media and how to infiltrate the already crowded space and stand out. They have been known for the celebrity guests that come on the show, the skits that are designed to educate our children but keep parents watching with their kids, and now how to effectively run a social media campaign to promote the personal brand of a puppet as a celebrity.
The ball is in the court of the folks over at SNL. Will we see an appearance by Lorne Michaels on Sesame Street? Will the folks over at SNL bring back Betty White and have her appear with Cookie and have her tell him to stop stealing her limelight with the Facebook fans? What we do know is that this campaign has legs and we will be seeing more of Cookie as he leads up to his big night. Cookie promoting his appearance not only helps SNL but brings in some free advertising for Sesame Street as if he tops the ratings of Betty White we all will be talking and if they play their cards right with the free advertising, they can persuade and drive us to record donations to Sesame Workshop. One would think that would be the ultimate goal of the campaign, right?
What do you think? Is Sesame Street teaching us? Are they embarking on what could be a very successful donation campaign?
photo credit: Cookie Monster Facebook