{"id":608960,"date":"2023-02-17T07:49:24","date_gmt":"2023-02-17T13:49:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/17\/how-the-owners-of-that-dumb-ways-to-die-jingle-are-benefitting-from-its-tiktok-virality\/"},"modified":"2023-02-17T07:49:24","modified_gmt":"2023-02-17T13:49:24","slug":"how-the-owners-of-that-dumb-ways-to-die-jingle-are-benefitting-from-its-tiktok-virality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/17\/how-the-owners-of-that-dumb-ways-to-die-jingle-are-benefitting-from-its-tiktok-virality\/","title":{"rendered":"How the owners of that \u2018Dumb Ways to Die\u2019 jingle are benefitting from its TikTok virality"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\t\t\t\t
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n

February 17, 2023\u00a0\u00a0\u2022\u00a0\u00a07 min read<\/span> | By Alexander Lee<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tIvy Liu\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

In 2012, Metro Trains \u2014\u00a0the public transit operator in Melbourne, Australia \u2014 created \u201cDumb Ways to Die,\u201d a popular public safety campaign that spawned a series of tie-in mobile games. Over a decade later, the campaign\u2019s jingle is massively viral on TikTok \u2014 and its current owner, the mobile game studio PlaySide, is taking advantage.<\/p>\n

\u201cDumb Ways to Die\u201d began as a morbidly cute music video<\/a> featuring cartoon characters accidentally killing themselves in a myriad of unusual ways. In 2013, Metro published a \u201cDumb Ways to Die\u201d iOS game to take advantage of the campaign\u2019s popularity. PlaySide has helped develop sequels such as \u201cDumb Ways to Draw\u201d and \u201cDumb Ways to Dash\u201d since 2018, and in 2021, the company acquired the rights<\/a> to the game series.<\/p>\n

\n

This isn\u2019t the first time \u201cDumb Ways to Die\u201d has gone re-viral in the years since its inception, but this is shaping up to be its biggest viral moment yet. After a TikTok user created a video template using the campaign\u2019s titular song in late January, online searches for the phrase \u201cDumb Ways to Die\u201d increased tenfold, according to Google Trends<\/a>. Influencers and celebrities such as Coco Gauff<\/a> and Olivia Dunn<\/a> quickly jumped on board the trend.<\/p>\n

To learn how PlaySide is taking advantage of this unexpected viral moment, Digiday contacted the company\u2019s general manager, Danny Armstrong, for an annotated Q&A.<\/p>\n

This conversation has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n

On the role of nostalgia in marketing mobile games<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\n
<\/figure>\n

Armstrong:<\/strong> \u201cThere\u2019s just something about this title, and especially what I classify as evergreen titles, where it\u2019s been a game that\u2019s been around for a long time now, like 10 years or so. And it\u2019s kind of fostered this audience from kids who are now in the TikTok generation, and it\u2019s mostly a nostalgia element to them. The amount of organic downloads that we saw, just from the YouTube video itself, was just insane. You can see people commenting, \u2018Oh, my childhood \u2014 I love this game.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
<\/figure>\n

Digiday: <\/strong>At this point, smartphones have been around for nearly 20 years, so it\u2019s not surprising that members of Gen Z and younger <\/strong>are beginning to feel nostalgic for the mobile games of their youths. Nostalgia is a key driver of successful creative work in the mobile gaming industry, according to AppLovin\u2019s Creative Trends Report 2023<\/a> \u2014 so marketers might be wise to expand their definition of nostalgia to include games and trends that only feel old to people who aren\u2019t, well, old.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

On the impact of the \u2018Dumb Ways\u2019 viral moment on mobile app installs<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\n
<\/figure>\n
\n

Armstrong: <\/strong>\u201cWe\u2019ve seen a significant increase in downloads. Of course, we\u2019re number one in the U.S. in games, and we\u2019ve been there since Friday last week \u2014 which is insane. I was actually looking back at \u2018Subway Surfer,\u2019 since it had a similar trend<\/a> a year or so ago. And it\u2019s still there. It\u2019s been there for so long.<\/p>\n

To get to number one on the charts, you need a significant amount of installs. Not only that, obviously, across TikTok, tens of thousands of videos and hundreds of millions of views are all going to come together to obviously increase the uninstalls. And when one goes up, the other goes up, so \u201cDumb Ways 2\u201d is No. 35 on the U.S. charts, and some of the less popular games are also trending as well.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
<\/figure>\n

Digiday: <\/strong>Armstrong declined to share specific install numbers with Digiday, but it\u2019s hard to deny the effect of the \u201cDumb Ways to Die\u201d viral moment in propelling a 10-year-old mobile game to the top of the leaderboards. Armstrong described the phenomenon as a \u201cportfolio effect,\u201d anticipating that the popularity of \u201cDumb Ways\u201d would help boost installs for PlaySide\u2019s future offerings as well. He also said that the explosion of popularity led to an increase in \u201cDumb Ways to Die\u201d merchandise sales, though he declined to share a specific figure to show this growth.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

On the viral moment\u2019s impact on PlaySide\u2019s current marketing strategy<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\n
<\/figure>\n

Armstrong: <\/strong>\u201cWe just knew exactly what we needed to do. It was like, \u2018Right, the trend is going big. We\u2019ve got like 1.6 million followers on TikTok already. Let\u2019s get on it and just keep pumping out content.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
<\/figure>\n

Digiday: <\/strong>PlaySide didn\u2019t rest on its laurels once \u201cDumb Ways to Die\u201d went re-viral \u2014\u00a0the company launched into action, posting a deluge of duets highlighting the most interesting and unusual examples of the trend. The TikToks, which feature the cartoon characters from the original \u201cDumb Ways\u201d video, are sometimes violent and often uncomfortable to watch \u2014\u00a0but the rapid growth of the official \u201cDumb Ways\u201d account<\/a> demonstrates the strength of so-called \u201cunhinged content<\/a>\u201d on TikTok. Since \u201cDumb Ways\u201d went re-viral, its TikTok following has grown by over one million.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

On the potential brand safety risks of the \u201cDumb Ways to Die\u201d TikTok trend<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\n
<\/figure>\n

Armstrong: <\/strong>\u201cI\u2019m going to take it a step back to say why it was initially made \u2014 it is a PSA. It was a PSA to use some form of shock factor to tell people to be safe, because it\u2019s important to be safe, and we still stand by that point. It is still a PSA, it always has been, and it\u2019s something that we want to keep making sure that we follow.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
<\/figure>\n
\n

Digiday: <\/strong>Many of the popular \u201cDumb Ways to Die\u201d videos on TikTok are hilarious, and most of them are harmless \u2014\u00a0but at least some appear to show their subjects genuinely injuring themselves in the pursuit of viral fame. It\u2019s not the first time a viral trend has come with potentially risky downsides; the \u201ccinnamon challenge,\u201d for example, landed many children in the hospital over the years<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Armstrong\u2019s answer to this question shows his awareness of the potential brand safety risks that come with a game being associated with violence or danger. These days, even wildly popular games such as \u201cCall of Duty\u201d have started to draw fire for their association with warfare and gun violence \u2014 so it makes sense that the creators \u201cDumb Ways to Die\u201d would want to prioritize its origins as a public safety announcement, not a potentially dangerous TikTok trend.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n