In advance of the much anticipated return to the airwaves debuting on TBS, November 8, Conan O’Brien is using social media as a thrifty advertising vehicle to promote his new show (see related post, "Social Media’s Geolocation Promotes Conan’s Return To Late Night"). With blimps flying the friendly skies, Conan is coupling his current Foursquare promo with a Twitter Voting Contest urging the Twitterati to vote for #ConansFirstGuest that could pit Lady Gaga against the Pope (talk about both ends of the moral spectrum)!
Conan O’Brien’s Twitter Contest
Pope Benedict XVIThe question is if the Pope wins Twitter’s popularity contest, would he be inclined to help the talk show host out by making his first-time ever appearance on late night TV? Well, based on the Pope’s unfavorable job approval ratings lately, it might not be a bad idea to help him ingratiate himself with some of his disenchanted flock.
However, using Twitter as an advertising medium, it is most probable that the "king" and "queen" of the microblogging platform would more than likely go head to head. And while there is no guarantee that Justin Bieber or Lady Gaga even have open dates to make the appearance, it would be interesting to see which fan base will pull in the most votes. Presently the teen pop idol trails the Lady on Twitter by almost 100,000 followers.
Justin Bieber vs Lady Gaga on Twitter
And on YouTube, while "the Bieb" tweeted on October 19 that he had beat out Ms. Telephone for the honor of having the most-viewed YouTube videos of all times with 245,074,968, he was embarrassingly proven wrong by Gaga’s camp who immediately responded that she indeed "outTubed" him by approximately 18,000 views.
Letterman interviews Biz StoneIf nothing else, Conan is proving to be the Social Media King of late night. While Dave Letterman actually interviewed Twitter co-founder Biz Stone at his alma mater Ball State in September, and Jimmy Fallon won the 2009 "Webby Person of the Year" award for being the celebrity who most engaged on social networks, its Conan that’s using the medium in place of advertising to effectively promote his show. With the late night arena’s steep competition and appearing on TBS, a network that isn’t know for drawing large audiences, Conan is to be credited for selecting the relatively inexpensive social media medium versus costly TV ad buys to sell a show.
Whether he is successful is yet to be seen. Perhaps if the Pope does pull in larger numbers than Bieber or Gaga in the Twitter Contest – and Benedict agrees to an audience with Team Coco – that will seal the deal?
