Thursday, April 16, 2009

Do you even feel a thing?

Most viral marketing campaigns are pretty lame (even more lame than using that word to describe them). The one tied in with Annie's upcoming single "Anthonio," though, is about as awesome as it is possible for something to be. In case you're just tuning in, here's the story up to now.

Stage One: Annie announces the release of a single called "Anthonio." It turns out to be about a summer love affair who loved her and left her--left her pregnant, in fact.

Stage Two: in response to e-mail inquiries in February about the song (before it had been heard), producer Richard X mentions that the song's release was hindered by efforts by Anthonio, the subject of the song, to prevent it from coming out.



Stage Three: "Anthonio" (the guy) has a MySpace and YouTube account on which he interacts with Annie, complaining about the song's release and befriending a number of other hot Norwegian blondes.



Annie leaves a comment on a photo of Anthonio telling him how good he looks but asking who the blonde he's with is...



...having previously left messages trying to get in touch with him.



Fellow blonde Nordic popstar Sally Shapiro leaves a message on Anthonio's MySpace expressing support for Annie...



...and a message on Annie's saying she's willing to babysit if Annie ever does a gig in Sweden.



Anthonio leaves a comment on Sally's MySpace telling her she's crazy but if she's ever in Brazil to come look him up...



...while Annie thanks Sally for her support.



Meanwhile, Anthonio leaves a message on the official YouTube video of the single "Anthonio" complaining about the song.



Stage Four: Popjustice receives the promotional CD for "Anthonio," which comes packaged as a letter from Norway sent to Brazil but returned to sender (as in the lyrics of "Anthonio").



Stage Five: "Anthonio" (the guy) sends an answer-back song to Popjustice titled "Annie."



What will happen next? We can't be sure of the details, but it's sure to keep proving how brilliant a popstar Annie is. As I said over at XO's, while it's true that this Annie vs. Anthonio drama is mainly amusing twenty people on the Internet, it's doing a really good job at amusing those twenty people...and I'm loving it. If Annie has the resources to not truly worry about how she'll chart in the UK and this campaign isn't really intended to make the single massive--mainly to appeal to the Internet world and pop geeks (which I gladly count myself among)--then I'm absolutely fine with it.

"Anthonio" is released May 4 and should be available digitally internationally (as well as available in a physical version).

5 comments:

Myfizzypop said...

Amazing. Jaw on floor amazing. I have no other words.

The Different Beats said...

Have missed all of this, although have heard the song, am so out of touch! :P Hope it is enough to give Annie at least a minor UK hit again!

Barnsey aka Digital Technique

Aaron said...

Annie's song snippets are amazing, but I'm pretty impressed with this whole drama - I wonder how much of it is actually true???

Poster Girl said...

Paul, that's exactly what I've been like...when I'm not laughing!

DT/Barnsey! You're back! Great news! :D

Aaron, I'd say the most that could possibly be true is that Annie once had a summer love affair and maybe, maybe used that as inspiration for the song. This whole Annie vs. Anthonio drama is all made up. It's making me love the song even more, though (and I already thought it was great)!

Adem With An E said...

I love how intricate your rundown of the whole drama is. It has made it a lot easier for me to explain to people what's been going on (ie: I'm now just sending this link and telling people to read it.)

There are at least about 27 people now following the saga.