Tupac Resurrection and What It Means for Visual Marketers

Posted on Apr 18, 2012 in Social Video, Visionaries | 0 comments

Last week, Tupac Shakur joined Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg on the stage at the Coachella Music & Arts Festival to perform two songs to the delight of his fans. After a nod to Snoop, Tupac tossed out “What the f—k is up, Coachella?” … a rude, lude crude but target-audience understood call out to the crowd gathered in Indio, California for a 3 day musicfest.

Not exactly the music business as usual given Mr. Shakur was murdered 16 years ago.

What the Fizzle Televizzle is going on here?

Is Tupac really dead?

Or, did Dre and Dogg tap creative powerhouse Digital Domain to hip-hop onto a new visual communication plain?

All of the above, perhaps, but Tupac was not really in the house … A hologram of the rap icon was. It was lifelike. Many in the crowd of thousands were stunned, confused but inevitably entertained.

The following video report is from TMZ:

I share it because there are obvious applications beyond entertainment, as the technology – if affordable and effective – can be used to market many products and services.

Who might come to life?

Mr. Whipple for one last squeeze of the Charmin?

Steve Jobs on stage again, black turtleneck and all, rolling out the iPad4?

Billy Mays on QVC? Please NO – I have enough Oxy-Clean in my garage to clean the Empire State Building.

It may reach beyond product to politics, as the CEO of Digital Domain just told CNBC that he had a request for Ronald Reagan to introduce Mitt Romney at the RNC.

Of course marketers have tried holograms before … but the technology wasn’t snap, crackle or POPping in 2007 when Orville Redenbacher was brought back.

How often can and will visual stunts help marketers market? Is there demand for holistic and holographic marketing? Is computer generated good enough, or do companies need to extend fiction beyond the screen?

I don’t know, but given the state of the technology and demand for creativity, visual fantasy will become more popular. And as animation moves to virtual reality – brands, campaigns and possibly results … will become Unforgettable!

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Larry is president of Latergy, a video services boutique that provides multimedia content strategy, production, distribution and measurement services to professional communicators. Prior to Latergy, Thomas pioneered online video marketing and PR as co-founder and president of PR Newswire’s MultiVu and COO of Medialink Worldwide, a NASDAQ company that was sold to a VC-backed competitor. He lives in NJ with his wife, Sherry Lynn, and their plethora of pups. Contact him at lthomas@Latergy.com.