62 jayanta dutta brm proposal

8/11/2019 62 Jayanta Dutta BRM Proposal

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BRM Project: Understanding viral success of Gangnam Style

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Understanding the viral success of Gangnam Style video

A Business Research Management Proposal

Jayanta Dutta Banik

PGP/16/62, Section-B

2/28/2012


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Proposed Title:

Understanding the viral success of Gangnam Style.

Abstract:

This paper tries to study the viral marketing behind the success of the PSYs Gangnam Style on social media

platform preferably Youtube amidst several other creative entertaining appealing videos. The paper

identifies various stakeholders and their stakes in in. The literature review highlights about the social media

marketing and how videos become viral on Internet. Later on this paper explores the methodology to

measure the success of Gangnam Style and the reasons behind its success.

Keywords: Viral marketing, Social media, Stakeholders

Introduction:

There are global cultural phenomena, and then there is Gangnam Style, quoted from NY times article.

Gangnam style is K-Pop i.e Korean pop single song sung by South Korean musician Park Jae-Sang or

popularly known as PSY released worldwide in the month of July 2012. PSY is a multi dimensional

personality being capable of donning roles of singer, dancer, rapper and record producer. PSY had 12 long

years of career in South Koreas music industry during which he released 6 Albums and Gangnam Style was

the single song of the 6th

Album. PSY is known for his humorous videos and on-stage performances until

Gangnam Style happened to him which made him popular not only in his country but across the countries

citizens government etc. So much so even UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon complimented his fellow

countrymen and expressed his desire to work with him because of his unlimited global reach caused due to

the stupendous success of his video.

The phrase Gangnam Style is a newly coined Korean word referring to the affluent lifestyle lead by

the denizens of Gangnam an expensive district of Seoul, South Korea. Actually Gangnam district is a small

one but the hub of lavish skyrocketing real estates alongwith presence of many International companies like

Google, IBM, Toyota etc. The Gangnam style song was released on July 15 and it was shared by PSY


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himself on the Youtube. There was not much hullabaloo for initial 1-2 weeks but then ripple started forming

as people started viewing liking and sharing on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other social media. It

literally became the worldwide anthem. More and more people got attracted to this phenomenon mainly

because of its catchy beats and PSYs cheesy dance moves and almost everybody humming the refrain

Oppan Gangnam Style which means Big Brother in Gangnam Style. The main aim of PSY was to invent

dance moves which are uncommon not seen anywhere and to be as ridiculous as possible, this objective of

him landed him into horse stable and inspired him to have his signature horse riding move in the song.

Gangnam Style achieved almost all recognition one can achieve be it in its home country or cross-country. It

was recognozid by Guinness Book of Records for the most liked video on Youtube. It was noted that the

video got on an average 22000 hits/views an hour. The no. of views till 28 th February, 2013 was an

whooping 1.365 billion. It also won the MTV Europe Music Awards for 2012. Subsequently it became a

source of parodies and reaction videos by different peoples or groups over the Internet and also different

styles similar to Gangnam Style came up.

By the end of the year 2012 the song topped almost every countries music chart with the dance

moves gaining popularity among political leaders of different nations with each one inviting PSY to their

country. This song which come from the South Korean musical genre K-Pop made K-Pop get noticed

worldwide due to which lots of the K-pop song also saw huge traffic into it in Social Media. Alongwith

making K-Pop popular it also brought fame for South Korea that is mainly known for home to Samsung

among others. Itt has also increased the no. of tourists to Seoul and hence Gangnam district mainly to

experience its lavish life which has been depicted in the video

So the Gangnam style is the best thing which could have happened to PSY as also apart from

Ganganm Style video itself what plays major role is Youtube and that is where strategies of social media

marketing comes into play as in choosing which medium to target to publicize the video and reach masses.

As we have seen channels like Youtube, Facebbok are an apt one for any new venture to reach people, so in

subsequent parts we see what is this social media marketing and how to use it effectively for marketing

purpose and understanding what factors causes something to become viral success like Gangnam Style.


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Problem Structuring:

Stakeholder Map:

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Literature Review:

1. According to the findings from reference1that the campaign was an organic natural hit with very less if

any false manipulation of traffic volumes and online mentions. The report revealed that instead of being

celebrity tweets, which increased the popularity it was a very organized, structured and diligently executed

campaign by South Korean label company YG Entertainment behind the song. The report is reviewed in 3

stages, which shows how the video went viral from scratch: -

Stage 1: The Set up

Driven by the popularity of PSYs video back in South Korea YG Entertainment aimed at pushing this to

global perspective like in US.A or U.K. The company weighed its options before the song went public by

setting up an office in United States of America nd also forming strategic relationships with popular U.S

artists such a Wil.i.Am. It also formed a relationship with Scooter Braun and planned to announce the deal at

right strategic time to boost the campaign even further. The company also invested in growing the set of the

audience so that when the right song arrived they had a large platform to seed the campaign in order to

ensure maximum exposure and sure online hit. In addition YGs Entertainment enjoyed huge set of

subscribers in the form 1.6 Billion approx. in its Youtube channels that was leveraged when Gangnam Style

got released in Youtube. YG already knew ut s Youtube subscribers alone would get high volumes of traffic

from day1.

Stage2: The Content

So they had the platform as well as audience to seed a viral campaign as the right moment came along. Also

the video had the materials to not only become online hit but a hit acroos multiple genres, territories and

regions. The song was eyeball-grabbing, use of bright flashy colors also made it hugely attractive. Though

many would have language will be a barrier but it did not become so instead the comprehensible lyrics was

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Research Objective:

The research objective of this paper is to understand how the video Ganganam Style went viral in the social

media platform mainly Youtube.

Research Questions:

How Gangnam style became a huge success online?

How to calculate its success in comparison to other videos?

How peoples not from South Korea have perceived it despite of not knowing the South Korean language

used in the song?

Proposed Methodology & Methods:

The proposed methodology is mainly based on research objective. Since estimating the number of shares or

views in Youtube is the important metric to measure the how many number of people actually viewed the

video and thus contributing to the success of Gangnam style in reaching mass and also people getting

acquainted with it. So methods used to determine the popularity are: -

Video Statistics: As it can be seen from Exhibit 2 taken from youtube that till today 28ththe

number of views are 1.365 million. Actually a graph has been drawn from the inception of video

to current date and since its a dynamic one because each day views are increasing so the recent

date has been taken. Its a no. views over time graph with views in y-axis and time span in x-

axis. Now, because the views are in billions so the intervals are of 500 million because it will too

complex to map the shorter interval no. of views, hence it starts from 0 million and then goes up

to 1.5 Billion over an interval of 500 million. Also there are key events marked with A, Betc.

showing how the traffic has landed up to view the original video or through which medium has

the viewers viewed the video.

So this method shows that how many no. of vies has been there till now and how

viewers have viewed the video. Now we will see the second method


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Audience & Engagement Statistics:As can be noted from Exhibit 3, which shows what

demography of audience have mostly watched the video. So they have been grouped into three

Female of 13-17years and Male of 13-17years in one group and 35-44 in other group. Again on

the left and side we see the Engagement statistics that is how people have reacted to the video by

grouping it into 4 i.e. comments, favorites, likes and dislikes. As we see there is sizable amount

of dislikes but less in comparison to likes and favorites and very less in comparison to total no. of

people actually viewed.

So with these two methodologies it can be measured and deducted that really it has been a viral success with

having competition with none.

Limitations of the Study:

There are few limitations of this study and the research methods adopted. The major drawback being the

views to the video song has now reached a climax stage as 8 months have passed now and the buzz has

surely started to decline. So whatever data has been utilized is of already matured stage or the post growth

stagnancy stage and rather than the stage where it become viral which would have given a better idea of the

pattern of Gangnam style reaching to popularity.


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References:

1. An interview with the artist behind the success of Gangnam Style, website:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/14/arts/music/interview-psy-the-artist-behind-gangnam-style.html?_r=0

2. How Gangnam style got billion biews, website:

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1699329/psy-gangnam-style-1-billion-views.jhtml

3.

This article is about the Gangnam district in Seoul, website:

http://www.ibtimes.com/what-gangnam-style-seoul-neighborhood-basks-spotlight-919143

4.

How Gangnam style went viral a campaign by YG Entertainment, website:

http://www.thedrum.com/news/2012/10/30/case-study-how-gangnam-style-went-viral-campaign-yg-

entertainment

5. A case study on viral marketing in social media, website:

http://www.socialwhistle.com/gangnam-style-a-case-study-on-viral-marketing-in-social-media-

marketing

6. Reasons why Gangnam Style became a global hit, website:

http://www.millwardbrown.com/global/blog/Post/2012-11-21/10-reasons-why-Gangnam-Style-

became-a-global-hit.aspx

7.

Why Gangnam style became so popular, website:

http://blog.socialmaximizer.com/why-gangnam-style-became-so-popular/

8. Integrating Social Media and Social Marketing

Rosemary Thacker; Brad L. Neiger; Heidi Keller

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62 jayanta dutta brm proposal

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