Susan Boyle's fame spreads around the globe via Internet video

By now, most fans of popular culture in America (and that’s just about everybody these days, isn’t it?) have heard of Susan Boyle – the Scottish woman who absolutely blew away the audience and the judges on Britain’s Got Talent earlier this month with her stellar and nigh-operatic rendition of “I Dreamed A Dream” from Les Miserables. There’s been much discussion on WHY people are so taken with Ms. Boyle. Some are delighted that in our tragically-superficial society, a frumpy spinster has wowed the Botox-Beautiful, cult-of-personality parade that is National Television with her rich, robust voice and powerful singing ability. Others point out that her meteoric rise from poverty and obscurity to International celebrity (she’s already been interviewed via satellite by all four of America’s major TV networks, appeared on Larry King Live, and has been invited to appear on the Oprah Winfrey Show) reflects elements of classic literary plots, the ethics of the American Dream, and even hints at the Underdog-beats-all pathos inherent in films such as Rocky and Breaking Away.

This writer would like to submit, however, that the main reason people all over the world love Susan Boyle – an amateur singer and unemployed church volunteer from a poor area of Scotland – is because of the power of YouTube and Internet video. Without the uncanny viral dissemination of Ms. Boyle’s television performance across the oceans and continents via an Internet video that allows every viewer to understand the context of her achievement – as well as the reaction of the actual live audience that watched it all happen – her first moment in the Sun would hardly have caused a suntan outside of the United Kingdom. And very few viewers on this side of the Atlantic would then even care to watch her interview on Larry King or Oprah Winfrey’s programs. Indeed, the most popular video submission of Ms. Boyle’s performance on YouTube was viewed 2.5 million times in its first 72 hours on the social media video sharing site. Within one week, the video had been viewed 66 million times – an online record! For a comparison, the most-watched version of Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” video, nearly 25 years old at this point, has a paltry 788,674 views!

Clearly, Internet video has amazing reach and incredible potential to promote, expose, educate and entertain. We wish Susan Boyle all the best in her newfound singing career, and hope all of you out there with marketing careers will consider Fathom  as you embark on branding and promoting your company via Internet video. To quote from Les Miserables, “Would you realize what Revolution is, call it Progress; and would you realize what Progress is, call it Tomorrow.”