Crazy Frog Marketing Millions Facts

The Crazy Frog [ringtone] proves that there is no accounting for taste.

But look at this for the remarkable multi-million pound marketing story that it is.

(As marketers, we might not all want that ringtone on our phones, but we do need to know the facts when something succeeds like the Crazy Frog. Marketing ringtones to teenagers?)

Here are the facts:

1. Marketed by German ringtone provider Jamba! (also known as Jamster!).
2. Jamster! have earned an estimated £14 million from the ringtone.
3. It costs £3 a week to subscribe to Jamster!'s service.
4. It is the most commercially successful ringtone of all time.
5. The ‘ding-ding’ sound was an impression of a two-stroke moped.
6. It soon became the most recognisable commercially available ringtone in the UK.
7. 'Axel F' was originally a 1985 hit for Harold Faltermeyer, and was the theme from the film of the same year, Beverly Hills Cop.
8. 'Axel F' by The Crazy Frog reached number 1 in the UK Charts and stayed there for 4 weeks.
9. In Feb 2005, the ASA received complaints that the Crazy Frog had genitalia (the offending items were subsequently black-boxed out).
10. In May 2005, the ASA received complaints that there were too many Crazy Frog adverts.
11. The intensity of the advertising was unprecedented in British television history.
12. Jamster! bought 73,716 spots across all TV channels in May 2005 alone – an average of nearly 2,378 slots daily – at a cost of about £8 million, just under half of which was spent on ITV.
13. 87% of the population saw the Crazy Frog adverts an average of 26 times, 15% of the adverts appeared twice during the same advertising break and 66% were in consecutive ad breaks.
14. An estimated 10% of the population saw the advert more than 60 times.
15. The album Crazy Frog Presents Crazy Hits and second single "Popcorn" continue to enjoy worldwide chart success.
16. Google lists: 6,940,000 pages, 24,600 images and 98,558 blogs for 'crazy frog'.
17. See Amazon.co.uk for the range of merchandise and toys (available under "The Annoying Thing" due to copyright and licensing restrictions).
18. Negotiations are also underway for a TV series.

Summary:

• Annoying? Yes.
• Successful? Undoubtedly.
• Repeatable? You tell me.