Frozen Grand Central: Moments in Social Media that Build a Following of Millions

I came across a bookmark lately for a video on YouTube for Frozen Grand Central , a piece of performance art from self-described "prank collective" Improv Everywhere. Since 2001 this crew has staged from than 70 "missions" that draw upon nude crowd photographer Spencer Tunick's legacy of disruptive but peaceful performance art but with much more of an online sensibility. Their latest effort had 207 volunteers freeze in place at the exact same time in the Grand Central Terminal train station concourse - a scene that was curious to some, funny to others and eventually threatening to the staff of Grand Central who couldn't figure out what was going on - until after a few brief minutes the figures unfroze and went their merry way. "Smart Mobs" like these have been around for several years now, but not necessarily smart mobs that get over 7 million YouTube views and over 8,000 comments within a month of being posted. That's essentially the same audience drawn by a now infamous clip posted by a YouTube member of a Sarah Silberman video aired on Jimmy Kimmel's late night show the same day.

If you factor in other copies of the clip posted by YouTube members the Silverman video had a larger audience overall, but the key difference is that Frozen Grand Central's views were all linked to their branded page on YouTube. Clips of NBC's Silverman video didn't get any direct brand lift from the YouTube exposure, even if the show obviously got good exposure. While the TV networks have been more cooperative in using YouTube to build up publicity for their shows the ability of a "street" brand like Improv Everywhere to build not only similar online audiences but far greater brand value overall via YouTube points out how hard it is becoming for established media outlets to grow their brands via social media. They can use it for PR, but with so many still insisting that their own Web sites or secure widget channels are needed to protect their brands they may win the battle a clip at a time but they lose the war to new brands that can take a more flexible approach to channel marketing at the same rate. In a content marketplace that values an audience's attention above all this means that the disruption by a simple smart mobs event is trivial compared to when this kind of media can trump traditional media brands toe-to-toe in social media. And should those mobs ever decide to do something more provocative than to entertain people for a few moments, then it will become an even more interesting power play, indeed.

Link to YouTube page