Wilbur Sargunaraj is a YouTube celebrity, singer songwriter, producer from India who lives in Toronto when he's not in Tamil Nadu or touring performing his mix of hip-hop and Bollywood music with a strong touch of comedy. He has a following on YouTube (2.7 million upload views) and Facebook (14,000 fans). He visited Ottawa recently where, with support from Ottawa Tourism, he shot one of his auto-tuned videos, this one called "The Canada Song." He has a penchant for calling his tunes "The (filled in the blank) Song."
A propos our conversations about video and travel at Canada-e-Connect 2011, I think this is a great example of creativity in travel promotion using video. You may or may not like the video. What's important is that the audience for which the video is intended likes it. I am not Indian or Indo-Canadian so I cannot say with any certainty whether this video would make them want to visit Ottawa or not. But kudos to Ottawa Tourism for taking this risk, and most importantly for doing something to target a very specific segment of the travelling public (segmentation). I personally like the tongue-in-cheek nature of it, and I wouldn't be surprised if it goes viral to a certain extent. Apparently it's already doing very well in views. I will be interested in learning what the results in visits from Indians and Indo-Canadians is over the next 12 months.
Watch.
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