Okay, right off the bat, this is video was not made by me but I am in awe of how effective it has become. I’m in the fanboy category for sure. I talking about Dave Carroll’s video called “United Breaks Guitars” produced by Curve Productions here in Halifax, Nova Scotia. My back yard! Today (July 10, 2009) it cracked 1.2 million views on Youtube after only three days. He has been on CNN, Fox News, ABC News, the LA Times, CTV, CBC, The Huffington Post and on and on. It has crossed over from web to traditional media very quickly and thus driven it’s popularity even more. You couldn’t have planned it any better if you can really plan a viral campaign.

Am I a fan just because it was made locally? Yes. Am I also a fan because it again highlights the power of video on the web to connect, communicate, bring people together, drive a message and entertain and merge new and traditional media? Yep, that too.

Hands down this has become a new viral case study. A new internet meme. Did Dave and his production team expect it to get to this level? I’d say they hoped it would but with any type of viral campaign (and let it be know this is not a marketing campaign but a creative artist using his skill to react to a situation) you can plan and hope but no guarantees in “trying” to be viral. But this is his expertise, music writing and singing. Tied in with a slick and humorous video that resonates with not only people whom have suffered bad service by United Airlines but by anyone who has suffered bad customer service at the hands of a big corporation. He gets put in the David vs. Goliath situation, the underdog spot and people love getting behind that.

It’s also very effective because it is Dave himself with a great story. It adds authenticity far better longer than “Wigout” did. Not that it’s bulletproof but it’s his story through and through.

For me as a video creator, this is awesome to see the effect and (continual) rising popularity. I came across this at about 300 views via Twitter and thought it was just as great then too. This will only get bigger, gain more fame for Dave and definitely give him way more payback than the $1200 repair job to fix that Taylor.