YouTube Producers Get a Crack at Weezer

In the runup to the release of their new album Hurley, Weezer decided to take a new approach to harnessing user-generated content. Rather than just release a kernel of an idea in to the wild, the members of the band subjected themselves to the whims of a group of A-list viral video producers for two days of filming. The videos from the group of fifteen are live today on the front page of YouTube.

The instructions were minimal: “We’re up for just about anything that can be filmed in the studio. Acting, performance, interview, make-up, comedy–you let us know what you want to do and how much time you think it might take to film.”

Frontman Rivers Cuomo was characteristically funny in his interview with the Wall Street Journal about the stunt, “I’m utterly bored with myself half the time,” he said. “So it was refreshing.”

Agencies DashGo, Epitaph, and Scoop Marketing are all involved in the release of Hurley. The fifteen producers have a combined billion views to date. Our favorite (above) of the Weezer videos is from news remixers Auto-Tune the News which features recent footage of Charlie Rangel (D-NY) and Barack Obama.

Here’s some behind the scenes footage of the shoots:

Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.