Read a story of how a mortifying travel experience of a musician could turn into a handsome charity through a country song and a few clicks along....
Dave Carrol, lead singer and his Canadian band Sons of Maxwell were travelling to Nebraska on tour.
They were flying on United Airlines and Dave sees his guitar being manhandled by baggage handlers right in front of his eyes on the tarmac - A $3500 710 Taylor guitar.
He complains to the crew, they ignore him.
He complains to United Airlines about now broken guitar, they did not take any responsibility.
He follows up consistently, with representatives at various levels in the airline - his claims falling to deaf ears - this goes on for nine months.
He holds fire, manages to hold on to his sense of humour and writes a song about the misery at the end of this gestation period of anger and frustration
This is the incredible step - He makes a video and publishes it on youtube powering one of the most famous social media libel suits in modern times.
The shocking scene of seeing his instrument being manhandled is humorously described by Dave in the lines of his song - United breaks guitars (video).
I flew United Airlines on my way to Nebraska
The plane departed, Halifax, connecting in Chicago's "O'Hare".
While on the ground, a passenger said from the seat behind me,
"My God, they're throwing guitars out there"
The band and I exchanged a look, best described as terror
At the action on the tarmac, and knowing whose projectiles these would be
So before I left Chicago, I alerted three employees
Who showed complete indifference towards me
Dave replies to United Airlines's continual denial to his claims in his blog:
"In my final reply to Ms. Irlweg I told her that I would be writing three songs about United Airlines and my experience in the whole matter. I would then make videos for these songs and offer them for free download online, inviting viewers to vote on their favorite United song. My goal: to get one million hits in one year."
Here is a social media savvy musician who absolutely is sure of what he is talking about; however United Airlines again didn't take that seriously - Only to be forced to respond after the video gets 50,000 hits in 1 week of its launch and over 2,000,000 hits since the video was published this July 11th, 2009.
The song became a rage and provided a voice for similar United/other airline negligence inflicted audience in a cool country groove.
Check out the story.
Moreover the song has kicked off a major branding trade and you have forums filled with people talking, millions of subscribers on youtube, Downloads available. Also available "United Breaks Guitars" printed T-shirts on sale.
Taylor guitars profited immensely from the buzz, folks at Taylor contributed freely to the forums and Taylor replaced Dave's guitars for free.The video was soon covered by CNN, LA Times, Chicago Tribune, San Diego Union-Tribune and many more.
The movement got massive PR coverage and is reported to have taken a blow to the share price - for damage control they've agreed to contribute to a charity of their choice - Dave says on his message.
"United will donate $3,000 to the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz for music education for kids," a spokeswoman said from the airline.
The airline has also asked Dave to use his video for internally training staff for better customer service - can you beat that?
We've all faced indifferent attitude and denial from service providers in our life often resulting in frustration and anger. If big fish like United is thick skinned to our claims and outcries, Suddenly you are not just a helpless guy with a laptop - The next door blogger just got bolder. Coverage can run wild though clicks and there has never been a more powerful tool to raise voice. With a little bit of creativity to channelise our juices the web offers powerful ways to move petitions, which could wrap the world over over-night such as this.
Communication is universal and very fast if we use the proper tools.
Check out Twitter's petition tool and many more online petition tools.
The 'United breaks guitars' wave gives us another strong reason to renew our faith on social media and reassess our understanding of its reach and scope. Now we have a strong citation on how video sharing, collaboration and such viral social media activities can really take marketing campaigns way over full throttle!
Social media can achieve in weeks what conventional media and forms of advertisement can achieve in years. Right here we have a measurable case study.
I feel doubly proud of this, firstly as a Social Media activist I can't bridle my excitement of being in the trade and secondly, being a guitar player myself, I would second the fight for a broken Taylor guitar - I'm happy Dave could get even.
The postings in this blog are my own and don't necessarily represent BMC's opinion or position.
