OK Go + State Farm = 6 million hits in six days

The Chicago-native band OK Go is fairly well-known for their whimsical, memorable music videos that storm YouTube on a regular basis. Their most recent video is the biggest hit yet, racking up 6.3 million views in the last 6 days (according to ViralVideoChart.UnrulyMedia.com). According to the same chart, it's currently the most-watched video on the Internet. This was the first OK Go video I'd ever watched from start to finish, but it is honestly one of the most fascinating music videos I've ever seen. It's like one big Rube Goldberg contraption... Just try to look away as you watch it. I dare you.

Watch it here!

Okay, so where's the viral marketing tie-in? Well, besides (obviously) being a powerful self-marketing tool for the band, this particular video was funded by State Farm Insurance. The video starts with a small toy car with the State Farm logo on the side of it, and this car is used to set the entire machine in motion. At the end of the video, the band thanks State Farm for making the project possible.

This is a pretty interesting move on State Farm's part. Popular music videos are not exactly the medium where you expect to be confronted with an insurance company. In addition, the audience watching the video is a decidedly young crew, one who probably is still on their parents' insurance plan. And, if the viewers are anything like me, they're probably cringing at the thought of having to figure out the messy insurance business out for themselves one day.

My theory? I think that State Farm is using this in order to start getting their name in the next generation's heads now, so that in 6, 7, 8 years (or whatever it is), State Farm will be the company they think of when they make their decision. And if they're really lucky, maybe viewers will even associate the State Farm name with the allure of a cool popular band, and the fascination of an ingenious multi-step machine.