Were you one of the many swooning over Frank’s iPhone app-assisted, Central Park proposal to girlfriend Kasey the other month? Well, sorry to tell you, folks, Frank’s undying love was a lie! That is to say, it was a hoax.
Frank’s Marriage Proposal in Central Park hit YouTube at the end of October to the delight of many an Internet denizen and news outlet — so popular that we’re still receiving tips about it over here at Mashable.
According to the YouTube description, the elaborate proposal was orchestrated by a team enlisted by Frank (whose real name is Doug Darwin — Kasey’s real name is, in fact, Kasey). The whole thing — which included a live band and a row boat — was said to be filmed using a bunch of hidden cameras, which were “streamed live into the team’s iPhones so they could watch the whole thing from a safe distance. A behind-the-scenes camera guy videotaped the team in action,” according to the YouTube description.
Whatever app the description is referring to, it doesn’t exist, but it did prompt some commenters to speculate that the whole thing was an elaborate Apple commercial.
It turns out the commenters were wrong — the video was not a shill for Apple. It was made to promote Michael Krivicka’s and business partner, former Saturday Night Live producer James Percelay’s, newest venture, Thinkmodo. Thinkmodo, which will launch on January 3, 2011, focuses on mining the marketing potential of viral videos.
If Krivicka’s name sounds familiar, you may be familiar with his other moniker, The Bald Guy, under which he has come out with such stunts as parody AR iPhone app NUDE IT, as well as a campaign to get Jimmy Fallon to follow him on Twitter.
“Since viral videos are both art and science, we wanted to merge both elements to introduce predictability to the videos’ success,” Krivicka tells us. “As part of our ’study’ we staged an elaborate marriage proposal in Central Park and fused tech and romance to see how well each would be received if merged.”
“Would men be drawn by the awesome iPhone app (which unfortunately doesn’t exist) or would women cry and wonder why Frank threw the ring (which was never in the box)? Since our video was covered by outlets like Glamour as well as CNET, we learned that, contrary to conventional wisdom, content can be made to appeal to both sexes without lessening the appeal to each.” (Note: It seems CNET was suspicious from the start.)
As for what Krivicka plans to do with these findings: “The field of viral videos is constantly changing and new trends are born every day,” he says. “With these particular findings we want to show advertisers that one video can target men and women. Separate campaigns are not needed.”
Krivicka certainly picked an effective theme for his video; tech-related wedding proposals are always a crowd-pleaser — see The Old Spice Guy delivering a proposal during his viral campaign, a proposal packed with Twitter, Foursquare and Qik, and even an Apple Store wedding.
What do you think of Krivicka’s highly effective, yet false, viral video? What function do you think videos like this could serve in a marketing arena? Have you lost your faith in true love? Let us know in the comments.
