Precision Product Placement by NASA With Global Reach (Update)
Keith’s note: Released 20 Aug 2015. Lots of NASA logos, hardware, facilities seen by 7,756,789 15,747,636 18,164,860 21,272,171 29,390,085 young viewers so far. Priceless.
NASA just hit a home run in terms of being in front of millions of eyeballs. A tweet was sent to 24,700,000 @OneDirection followers and was subsequently retweeted/favorited 77,000 times. @NASA also sent a tweet to its 11,900,000 followers which was then retweeted/favorited 50,000 times. Since there is likely minor overlap between @OneDirection and @NASA you can safely assume that the reach was additive i.e. more than 36.6 million Twitter followers reached – that’s more than the equivalent of 10% of the united States population. Then there’s their official One Direction Facebook page (with 38,000,000 likes) which also features the video – more than the combined Twitter reach combined. And so on.
What an opportunity to reach a population demographic that is simply vast in numbers – right? You’d think that space advocacy organizations (who, after all, want the public to share in their fascination with space) would be overjoyed about this and want to make sure that their members know about it – and to use this as an example of the broad appeal of space exploration. Guess again. Is there any mention at the Planetary Society’s website or their Twitter @exploreplanets? No. Just pictures of nerds. As for National Space Society, they’re sound asleep. And so on. Space advocates are just sleep walking though this whole space advocacy thing. As such they are increasingly irrelevant.
Sounds good too 🙂
I Wonder where they got the idea?
https://youtu.be/XYUDQh2RSbw
Eh, it’s not the Planetary Society’s job to be an arm of NASA’s publicity apparatus. Not that I think this music video will do much to promote space exploration, anyways – what promotes space exploration is having a devoted, loud constituency that influences key politicians to offer their support (as with the Apollo Years and the robotic program at present – see the new Europa mission). Such people are not going to get into space exploration because of a One Direction video.
How did those cool guys get through security anyway. They don’t look like NASA geeks/astronauts Since the music’s good I have listened to it 4 times already.
Betting if I was a young lady I might play it 20 times or 100 and tell my friends.
IMAGE
Exactly.
You’re right. And therefore its not the Planetary Society’s job to be self-appointed cheerleaders for their pet NASA missions either. But they are. They are only interested in their own sub brand of space exploration – so they just ignore the rest.
So what? If they care mostly about the robotic missions and not as much about the human exploration side of it, then there’s not really a problem.
Agreed. I don’t see advocates for big boosters/HSF pushing science or any mission that passes the giggle test. If the Planetary Society wants to focus on scientific or even science-involving missions, more power to them.
I am not in the target demographic for this video. But, I am hard pressed to see how aligning NASA with four young white men in skinny jeans lipsynching to a song advances anything. I turned off the sound after 1 minute and watched the visuals. No improvement.
1. you are already a space person so it would be somewhat redundant to convince of that which you already agree 2. Not everyone thinks like you do about space. One size does not fit all.
Fair points. I agree that one size does not fit all so to me, having different groups advocating for different segments of space is a good thing. While I am a space person, I am pro robots and skeptical of HSF.
I’m an older person and grew up on BBSes and Usenet. I freely admit I don’t understand the new Facebook/Twitter/Instagram social media, I don’t understand the ultimate benefit of the large number of views of this video. Will it encourage more young people to consider STEM careers, possibly in space? Will they be motivated to advocate for more NASA spending/fighting cost cutting as they enter the taxpayer rolls?
Those are fair questions. And I think Rich has asked a question rarely answered: so what? so what if so many see a particular tweet?
AFAIK there’s no science yet relating impressions to social swings or impact in anything more than an apocryphal way.
Links to this video have been tweeted by @NASA (11,900,000 followers) and @OneDirection (24,700,000 followers). These are audiences with demographics, reach, and sheer size that goes vastly beyond the typical middle-aged male aerospace worker sector of the population that is not adept with social media. If all we did was preach to the people who comprise the aerospace industry then postcards would suffice.
3. You are an old fart, Rich! Like me 🙂
Given the numbers of people seeing this video its probably the largest audience for anything NASA associated this year. So it is too bad it is difficult to tell what the group is “advertising”. There are 2 or 3 really brief glimpses of the world’s premier current space program-ISS-so fast, brief and close up that few will recognize it. There is an Orion being launched on a Delta IV heavy. There are some jets, and some views of rovers, robots and briefly mission control. Its kind of a mish mash and doesn’t offer a particularly coherent view of the present or future.
Its called brand visibility and product placement. Overt yet subliminal. Ever wonder how certain brands appear in feature films- even if for only a second? It works.
I think it is perfect.
To me the message is clear.
NASA will/is putting the next generation into space from American soil.
Fact it was an Orion capsule didn’t even tic me off 🙂
3 more times.
The song is good!
Orion on D4 Heavy (or Falcon Heavy) is a good idea…..
Orion + SM weighs too much for the Delta IV Heavy, Orion didn’t have several of its major systems installed, and a structural substitution for the SM was used for the test flight last year. Falcon Heavy could get Orion + SM to LEO, though. Not that Congress would ever allow that, but it’s theoretically possible.
It’s advertising that NASA looks cool, and their stuff looks cool and, just as importantly, that a major arbiter of cool for teenagers thinks the stuff is cool enough to play with. 99%+ of those teenagers didn’t give a shit about NASA before – not in even the smallest way. Now they might.
I agree 100% Keith. This video is reaching a lot of people who have no clue what is going on with NASA and giving them a positive impression. I was a bit upset by the response of some in the space community. One person tweeted:
“One Direction #DragMeDownMusicVideo. Suited up late, at wrong site, launched on cargo Delta IV-H, not SLS. Face-palm.”
Sure all of that is true (and Delta IV-H isn’t blue) but come on. There is a point where you suspend disbelief and celebrate the fact that a popular band is giving NASA some great PR.
Aside the # of viewers, that was an interesting choice of rocket in the video… 😉
I can vouch that it works on the targeted audience. My peers definitely noticed the NASA setting!
NASA, CALL this 14 year old up and get him to NASA before he gets any older. ETV is making a bundle off him tonight.
Just heard him reach ALL ages!
https://youtu.be/DM7McfgcxSM
Brilliant!
Maybe music can change the world.
Actually, its a good thing people don’t know what’s going on at NASA based on this video: It features a Constellation era moon buggy built for probably tens of millions of dollars whose last mission was to drive in the 2009 Obama inaugural parade just prior to Constellation’s cancellation and a fleet of T-38’s which are still there for what reason? Oh yeah; to keep astronaut pilots proficient in flying the winged orbiters that were retired in 2011! Commercial crew services will be provided by Boeing and SpaceX who will be doing the “flying” on those missions and on Orion, its hard to see how you will fly and overwhelmingly automated wingless capsule!
One good thing – it was obviously shot at JSC which means that somewhat insular place was open to the idea of having a music video shot on their hallowed grounds. Perhaps they needed the money for T-38 maintenance!
99.99999% of the people who watched and enjoyed this video would have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. They see space stuff, enjoy a catchy tune, and get a message that space is cool. That’s all. As for your characterization of the rover – WRONG. I rode in it in 2010 and 2011 during research ops in a remote desert location at DesertRATS. Your post is typical of what space nerds post. You’d rather tear down a video – one that dwarfs NASA’s Internet/PR reach – because of trivial intramural food fights that have ZERO impact on the public’s appreciation for space.
A less crotchety way of putting it is – this video doesn’t showcase what NASA is actually doing today. So in that sense, what good has it really done in terms of informing the public? The sixties-esque focus on human space flight is a big, big problem.
Huh? They shot the video at NASA. You must have been watching something else.
Because NASA=JSC. Oh, didn’t they also shoot Sharknado at JSC?
So this is all wrong in your opinion? NASA should not do anything that does not involve thoroughly scrubbed Powerpoint presentations? I am certain you will rip into The Martian as well when it comes out. Then you will be yelling “NASA = JPL”.
sharknado 3 was filmed at KSC (LCC, VAB) not JSC as far as I know.
It doesn’t showcase the robotic missions, Earth science, telescopes, aeronautics, etc., but then, it doesn’t seem that was their intention.
The song lyrics, such as they are, hook into human spaceflight. Hence, the use of NASA facilities relevant to that area of work.
Though it may have its roots in the 1960s, I’m hopeful that human spaceflight is an area of endeavor for the future.
The numbers are indeed big. Has anyone looked at the “latency effect” of such publicity — how long does the impression stay, and what does it take to enhance it? (Or cancel it?)
Second, is it a thing-in-itself, or does it lead on to something? To what extent is this a p/r campaign that builds toward a goal?
My concern with Twitter is that it usually seems like a series of disconnected bits or one-offs. What’s the “call to action” in the larger scheme of promoting spaceflight?
Let’s take it as given that a big-audience Tweet has a large, if momentary, effect — how should space advocates use this medium to promote spaceflight? What’s the shape of a successful campaign? (And I’ll take as success a lasting positive change in public attitudes toward manned spaceflight.)
I hope you understand this is a serious question —
The T-38s provide more than practice in flying winged aircraft. They can pull 9g turns and play a significant roll in keeping astronauts acclimated to the stresses of spaceflight.
NASA astronauts will be flying the Dragon and CST-100, at least to ISS. It is their crew that is being transported. The builder doesn’t generally fly craft of any kind, outside of testing.
Quite wrong – the commercial crew vehicles will be owned and operated by the companies; they are not “builders@ of hardware for NASA – it’s just like buying a transportation service from an airline; the company you buy the service from does the flying. As for pulling 9gs – we have centrifuges and can build simulators and that are a lot cheaper than a fleet of T-38s!
I have had high-G (6.5) centrifuge training. It is useful but it is limited and only partially replicates actual flight conditions – and even then in only a limited number of ways. T-38s provide much better – and vastly more flexible operations training.
This is also off topic.
Off topic.
One more view…Long live the #QuindarTone.
This reminds me of the recent Hillary Clinton/Black Lives Matter debate: Change hearts or change policies? Space advocates seem to mostly want policy changes (ala Clinton) and forget about connecting with the masses in ways that are meaningful for the masses.
From 2011: “Strapping On A Centrifuge: Suborbital Scientist-Astronaut Training” http://nasawatch.com/archives/2011/05/strapping-on-a.html
As a member of the older generation, you may recall all that many of the television shows from that same era were openly sponsored by various products. It wasn’t uncommon for the hosts of 50s game shows to stop mid-show and extol the virtues of Philip Morris cigarettes (or at least ensure that the guests are seen smoking Philip Morris cigarettes).
Product placement and brand recognition have been a staple of commercial marketing since the inception of commerce. You were young at the time, so it probably passed over your head. You recall those days in the way you experienced them as a young person, consuming the culture of the time without thinking about why it was you preferred certain brands. Meanwhile, advertising executives were using Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, to convince you to drink your Ovaltine.
Similarly, people now are trying to figure out how NASA can or should use the One Direction song to further promote NASA (and by extension, science and technology) to a given audience. The audience is oblivious to this; they just want to consume the song without realizing that we want One Direction to be seen with the NASA insignia enough times to make an impression. In my opinion that’s the discussion going on here.
Hollywood has a better space program than NASA. 😉