How An Unknown Artist's Work Became a Social Media Brand Thanks To the Power of Community
Twitter users are very familiar with the iconic image of the Fail Whale. This social object has been latched onto by Twitter fans not just as a representation of Twitter's downtime, but also as a representation of the community's love for the service and their hope for its triumph over their many struggles. Despite Twitter's troubles, most of its users stayed true, watching and waiting as the team began the long process of recoding the application in order for it to scale up. As Twitter succumbed to the strain of running their under-provisioned service, the Fail Whale "over capacity" image would appear. And this image began to take on a life of its own. This is the story of the Fail Whale.
You probably thought that Twitter was using designs they paid for, right? Well, apparently that was not the case. The designer behind the Fail Whale, Yiying Lu, had posted the image to the stock photo web site, iStockPhoto. (She has now removed the original link). Although the image of the Fail Whale was widely known, the designer herself was not. Tom Limongello decided to change that.
Tom had once made himself a Fail Whale t-shirt from a screenshot which he wore at a Mashable party. Of course, the shirt was a huge hit. But Tom couldn't really post the shirts for sale because he didn't have rights to the design. Yet, here was an entire community of Fail Whale fans - many of which who had gathered at failwhale.com - who wanted a shirt of their own.
But then Tom met the designer Yiying Lu when her iStockPhoto link was tweeted to the @FailWhale Twitter user from Twitterer @emmastory. The Fail Whale project (@FailWhale, failwhale.com) is a community effort created by Sean O'Steen, (@seanostee) whose mission was to create a brand from the Fail Whale phenomenon. Sean is responsible for the Fail Whale web site and the Twitter profile, but the name "Fail Whale" itself was coined by Nick Quarantino.
Despite the popularity of the Fail Whale, creator Yiying Lu wasn't really profiting from her iconic work. Twitter.com did not link to her and she didn't have an online store for Twitter fans. So Tom took it upon himself to give her a call. He told Yiying, who lives in Australia, but is originally from Shanghai, about the project, the community's desire for merchandise, and the Fail Whale's potential, and asked her to create a Zazzle store so everyone could enjoy her work.
And thus the Fail Whale online store was born. On zazzle.com/failwhale, fans can now customize their own shirt with their own handle and slogan. Now, not only could Fail Whale fans buy the shirt, they were also helping to support the artist, too.
FailWhale Zazzle Shop
The next question the Fail Whale community wanted to address was getting the word out about the Zazzle shop. Tom had originally wanted to send shirts to the team at Twitter as gesture of community support, and he now also realized that the gesture could also be a way to promote the artist herself and her new shop.
So, the Fail Whale fan club rallied together to round up the $361.17 needed to purchase 20 shirts and have them shipped to Twitter's offices. Also included with the shirts was a note from Tom and the gang which offered a message of support to the Twitter team and also a request to tweet a thank you to Yiying which included the link to the Zazzle store.
Twitter's Evan Williams did end up tweeting about the shirts shortly after their arrival. Though he wasn't sure how to react (tweeted: "mixed feelings"), he did include the link to the online store. Tom equates this tweet to a media buy...at a $25.06 CPM. Of course when you take into account the re-tweets and the other subsequent Twitter messages linking to the online store, the effective CPM goes down quite a bit.
Ev's Tweet
The Fail Whale fan club at failwhale.com now actively promotes the Zazzle store as well as the additional shop that Yiying Lu opened up for t-shirts and accessories at failwhaleshop.com. The Zazzle shop has made around $4200.00 from the 12,000+ visits they've received since June 25th. The fan club also runs a Facebook group that currently has 3154 fans.
But the number of sales made is only one aspect to this story - what's more compelling is the torrent of social media cooperation that Ev's tweet set off. Since then, Tom, Sean, and Yiying have continued to manage the Fail Whale community across the numerous social sites, making new friends, starring their favorite fan photos, and interacting with those who post to the Facebook fan page wall. Sean even extended the Fail Whale concept to TUAW recently which showed the Apple iPhone similarly being carried by Yiying Lu's birds during the low point of iPhone 3g activation issues last Friday night.
Fail iPhone
It's also notable that this social media effort has gone the opposite route as what has been seen with another iconic brand: Hello Kitty. The fans of that brand have literally stolen the image to make fan art, claiming that Hello Kitty is now part of our pop culture. Normally, the internet encourages this type of piracy, but in the case of the Fail Whale, by promoting the artist, the designer's identity and official link have floated to the top.
The Fail Whale story is one that shows the value of open content. By making the art available, Yiying is now going to profit in more ways than if she had simply made the art available for purchase. She will be earning profits from merchandise at both shops and from the sale of her prints and she will certainly win some future design work from this as well. Of course, her successes come from more than just the work itself, but also from the power of the community who embraced it. The marriage of the two breathed life into the art and created a modern-day social object which emanates the hope of the community and the love they have for the brand.
You can see more of Yiyang's work on her personal site, yiyinglu.com.
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Comments
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What a fantastic article... I love the fail-iPhone... absolutely hilarious. Here's some ideas on creating a business that doesn't fail all the time lol... www.readtheanswer.com/index.php?RTA=web2
Posted by: Jobby Pop | July 17, 2008 12:26 PM
Umm, i like you version of it.
Who was that guy that posted something like it not that long ago?.
Oh Wait...
http://www.widgetslab.com/2008/07/07/twitter-3d-fail-whale-widget/
it was me.
Posted by: Avatar | July 17, 2008 12:36 PM
Great story - Thanks for publishing it!
Posted by: PXLated | July 17, 2008 12:43 PM
Re t-shirts, here's me in mine! http://www.readwriteweb.com/images/failwhaleshirt.jpg
Posted by: Marshall Kirkpatrick
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July 17, 2008 12:46 PM
@Avatar - that's great that you wrote about it too - the more channels to tell the tale, the better. I'm sorry that I never saw your version. Instead, I have been emailing back and forth with Tom to hear the whole story first-hand - I even asked him to upload the original note to Scribd for all of us to see and I'm glad he did - that FailWhale stationary is too cute! :)
Posted by: Sarah Perez
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July 17, 2008 12:49 PM
we need a fail whale documentary :P
Posted by: Shey
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July 17, 2008 12:56 PM
Here is the Fail Whale fan art that I made...Teh Fail SNAIL!
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3062/2634356788_7f5b465f53_o.jpg
Posted by: Todd | July 17, 2008 1:03 PM
@Sarah:
it is ok. but i just had to comment on it while i had timing on my side ;)
Posted by: Avatar | July 17, 2008 1:06 PM
a fail whale documentary is a great idea
Posted by: andy brudtkuhl
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July 17, 2008 1:09 PM
ooh, failwhale documentary! love it. :)
Posted by: Sarah Perez
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July 17, 2008 1:10 PM
LOL
Posted by: Mona N
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July 17, 2008 1:10 PM
Don't forget about Todder, which is down right now too. :)
http://www.uwgb.edu/sanderst/todder/
Posted by: Bradjward | July 17, 2008 1:13 PM
True Hollywood Story: Fail Whale. You thought you knew, but you have no idea.
Posted by: Matt Musgrave
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July 17, 2008 1:14 PM
You also forgot "Deep Twits" !
http://flickr.com/photos/seanpercival/tags/deeptwits/
Posted by: sean percival | July 17, 2008 1:19 PM
One of the coolest parts of this whole social object experiment is the community generated content:
I've been trying to keep up with all the failwhale related stuff posted to flickr:
http://failwhale.com/user-generated-fail-whale-art-on-flickr/
But if you search on Summize/Twitter for any of the following hashtags, you'll find a wealth of really, really cool stuff:
#fwh - Fail Whale, a history 140 characters at a time
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23fwh
#fwpa - A design contest to create a Fail Whale Pale Ale beer label:
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23fwpa
The level of creativity and fun seems to have no bounds!
Cheers,
Sean O'Steen
Posted by: Sean O'Steen | July 17, 2008 1:28 PM
Sarah,
Thank you so much for your work on this article - and great talking to you over email and twitter this past week! Although we didn't know each other to begin with, Sean, Yiying and I as well as all the other people like Nick Quarantano who coined the term 'FailWhale' and Hilary Talbot who made the 3D whale have all worked together. Even though only Sean, Yiying and I have actually spoken to each other before, there is a whole army of people collaborating at different levels of intensity to make a social object out of Yiying Lu's design. Since the story has so many players in different parts of the world someone needed to bring it all together, and analyze from a social media perspective....and I'd like to thank you very much for doing that.
Did I mention that this is the first time in media history that an intellectual property holder from China is asking for the US to respect the rule of law? Just thought I'd throw that in, for those who are ready to close the book on the FailWhale story :)
Tom
Posted by: Tom
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July 17, 2008 1:29 PM
I enjoyed this story particularly for what Tom Limongello has done for the artist. Tom had a great idea and at the same time, created a "brand and market" for the artist so that her endeavors are recognized and supported. We all need a Tom Limongello in our business network.
Posted by: Jane Chin | July 17, 2008 2:14 PM
Right when Fail Whale article on Wikipedia was deleted. Thanks, Sarah : )
Posted by: LouCypher
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July 17, 2008 2:30 PM
Here's a Fail Whale Photo mosaic I made:
http://www.cjcraft.com/blog/2008/07/13/HasTheTwitterFailWhaleFinallySetSail.aspx
Posted by: Chris Craft | July 17, 2008 4:16 PM
Beautifully written. Great work, Sarah.
This will go down as a case study on social media and the power of social objects in corporate branding...
or something.
Loved it.
Bookmarked.
Posted by: Chi-chi Ekweozor | July 17, 2008 5:24 PM
Fail Whale was immortalized in this Joy of Tech comic too....
http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/1124.html
Posted by: Rob | July 17, 2008 6:11 PM
I
I wonder if someone's already made a Fail Whale Second Life avatar... hmmm!
Posted by: Torley Lives | July 17, 2008 6:35 PM
Absolutely love it when the artist wins. It's a rare occasion and a cause for something of a celebration. Thanks for telling the story, Sarah!
Posted by: Joel Falconer | July 17, 2008 7:06 PM
Thank you Sarah, for the love & story.
Posted by: Yiying Lu | July 17, 2008 7:19 PM
I'm hoping that in the movie adaptation, the Fail Whale will be played by Robert Scoble
Posted by: Trevor Plantagenet | July 17, 2008 7:26 PM
Felt compelled to create this plurk-centric failwhale: http://www.plurkpix.com/pix/3B.jpg
Posted by: Bill C | July 18, 2008 7:24 AM
So have I got this right? Hello Kitty's intellectual property rights were ignored, because they were corporate. But this artist Yiying Lu was small and unassuming, so her work was engulfed by "the community", which made sure the proceeds went to her. So the authorships "the community" respects depends on who the author is, and his/her size. What made the difference? What if it were a ten-person studio, an LLC? Does the creative work have to be a trademark to sell other stuff? Is that it? Where's the line?
Posted by: Rick Wolff
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July 18, 2008 8:56 AM
Great back story on the power of social community. Great work Tom, Sean, et al on taking a social icon and allowing everyone to enjoy it. I feel like I have to order a t-shirt to be a part of the "club!"
Posted by: Tamara Gruber | July 18, 2008 11:34 AM
The real Fail Whale:
http://failblog.org/2008/03/31/whale-fail/
Posted by: josh | July 18, 2008 12:11 PM
If Twitter is really worth the 1 billion that has been rumored, that artist should get a nice little cut. I say "should" not "is legally entitled to".
We love the Fail Whale. It's cute and it never hurt anyone --> http://www.savethefailwhales.org/
Posted by: Raj | July 18, 2008 3:31 PM
I love Fail Whale and the little birdies who don't receive nearly enough credit.
Still waiting for a name for that strange white robot with long arms that sometimes appears when Twitter runs amok.
Posted by: Liz | July 20, 2008 6:00 AM
Good story!
FailWhale is so loveable…
And the good ending for designer Yiying Lu and the recognition she got from the community just worms the heart.
Posted by: efimor | July 22, 2008 9:27 PM
I got to this from google news, this is the most retarted piece of drivel I have ever heard of. I can not wait for these college dorm spawned "social network" pieces of junk to die once the tweens and kiddies get to old for them and don't care anymore what a bunch of strung togeher cotton candy...get a business model and a real job, and start helping the real world, the blogger too!
"she made 4200.00 dollars" whoa.. that should get you a couple of barrels of oil
Posted by: OMXG | July 24, 2008 1:28 PM
The artist doesn't made that 4200.00 dollar for her, it's the zazzle store as a whole.
Posted by: Barnie | July 29, 2008 10:17 PM
wrote about the failwhale story a while ago:
http://arsvirtuafoundation.org/research/2008/07/04/_synthetic-presencing-vs-branding_-fail-whale-gets-a-girlfriend/
Posted by: mez breeze | July 30, 2008 2:09 AM