Brill Song on stories of 170,000 people makes splash on YouTube

“How are you doing, friend/ Do you still feel sad/ Even though it is difficult now, it will be nothing when time passes/ It will be momentary but I miss you.”

These are excerpts from the lyrics of “Brilliant Is (Brill Song),” which is enjoying immense popularity in YouTube recently.

The music video released by Hyundai Motor on Nov. 22 last year has more than 8.2 million views as of Monday. Automotive News, a U.S. auto magazine, picked the music video as No. 3 in the automobile category late last year.

The music video, which Hyundai Motor released on November 22 last year, had more than 8.2 million views as of Tuesday. Automotive News, a U.S. auto magazine, picked the music video as No. 3 in the automobile category late last year.

A Hyundai Motor source said, “Given that the marketing business community considers a video clip that earns more than 1 million views as a hit video, the Brill Song music video is effectively a jackpot.”

○ Hyundai gathers stories directly from customers

Hyundai Motor held an event in which it invited customers around the world to make short lyrics on vivid stories of their own from June to October last year. Customers wrote eight-phrase lyrics containing their episodes on one of the 40 categories including “Feelings when getting in a car.”

Among a total of 170,000 stories submitted, the company singled out 50 lyrics that people can widely sympathize with. Simply calculated, the competitive ratio of the submissions was 3,400 to one. The finalists carry diverse episodes, including a man’s affection for his girlfriend, internal feeling of an office worker who cannot defy her supervisor despite the latter’s unfair treatment, and pledge by youths who have cherished dreams for their future.

○ Popular singers join forces to produce song

Popular singers also joined hands to help make the song a phenomenal success. Hip hop singers including Skull, Ha Ha and Geeks completed lyrics based on the stories and sang. Gil of the hip hop duo Leessang composed and produced the music, while singer Jeong-in took part in chorus for the song. The Brill Song music video ranked second and third at the online music sites M.net and Bugs, respectively, soon after its release. It is unusual phenomenon for a "brand song" made by a company.

Hyundai Motor said, “Many people replied to our idea to use ordinary people as main characters of the lyrics to give them exciting experience of the song carrying their own stories.”

○ Interests combine to bring about participation in another campaign

Hyundai Motor immediately held a user created contents competition. Customers were invited to make video footages that would go well with Brill Song, which the company will edit and produce into additional music video that features those consumers.

Hyundai Motor’s YouTube page had a flurry of video clips uploaded by people around the world. The nationalities of applicants were also diverse, including Britons, Chinese, Indians, Chileans, Columbians, and Ecuadorians.

“I have never written words and I am not a good rapper,” said a college student in Australia as he posted his video clip. “Because I single-handedly produced, edited, composed, sang song and recited rap, my song is humble, but I hope you to see it with affection.” The music featured footages of everyday life that people want to remember, including Australians dancing to the rhythm of rapper Psy’s Gangnam Style, and images of people packing streets on Christmas Eve.

Hyundai Motor will upload on YouTube “Brill Song Part 2,” the new music video that has been produced by editing its customers’ footages, on Wednesday. The company will present the list of all the customers who participated in the UCC contest on the closing part of the video.

Jeong Myeong-chae, chief of the brand strategy office at Hyundai Motor, said, “Brill Song marketing has special meaning in that it invites consumers to participate, generates sympathy by conveying vivid personal stories, and makes a splash with hip hop music and music video.”