Last night on the Colbert Report Stephen Colbert mentioned that he gave the 'Colbert Bump' to Swedish jazz-hi hop group Movitz, and the reason their popularity has spiked was due to his publicity of their band. The Colbert Bump is a manifestation of the power of mass media to influence choice. If nothing else he provided substantial exposure to Movtiz.
The interesting thing about this is with current technology we can actually see the impact and measure it. Case in point is on You Tube. If you find any one of a number of Movitz videos on the site you will see dozens of comments declaring the Colbert Bump. The fans of the Colbert Show are helping us see influencer impact through thier tagging social media.
Even more so the Amazon sales are indicative of the fact that there is such a thing ainfluencer marketing. To have an overnight jump from number 93,000 in sales to #75 is music sales on Amazon is an undeniable financial indicator.
Above and beyond the Nielsen ratings, and hollwood estimates of traditional media reach, this simple act of fans leaving a bread crumb lets us know that indeed there is such a thing as the Colbert Bump, and yes we can track it.
