In 2010, Portal A hit a viral grand slam with “Don’t Stop Believing,” a music video cheering on the San Francisco Giants as they battled through the National League Championship Series and eventually the World Series. Now the San Francisco viral video studio is swinging for the fences again with “We Are the Champions,” another musical celebration of the Orange and Black.
This fall’s video sees Portal A trading its regular roster of corporate clients for a collaboration with Bay Area rapper Ashkon, who (again) shares the screen with a smattering of hard-core Giants fans on the streets of San Francisco. The timing is different this time around; the 2010 video was shot during the Giants’ league championship run-up, while this one comes eight days after the Giants sealed their 2012 World Series sweep of the Detroit Tigers.
What that means for viewership remains to be seen, but for Portal A the stakes are fairly low. A pioneer in the emerging business of viral video promotion, Portal A issues non-commercial vids like the Ashkon collaborations and the boxing series “White Collar Brawler” to experiment with new techniques and to promote the company. It keeps the lights on in the meantime by making videos for corporate clients like Banana Republic and the video-sharing startup Airtime.
“This one is purely about fun,” says Portal A partner Zach Blume.
So is the video any good? We grabbed the hard-core Giants fan closest to our desk, Wired Business’ own Sarah Mitroff, and asked for an appraisal. Four minutes and 29 seconds later, she had a verdict: “Not as good as 'Don't Stop Believing,' but good.... ‘We Are the Champions’ is so overused for stuff like this.”
People love an underdog, and “Don’t Stop Believing,” now at 2.9 million views and counting, was released at a time when the Giants hadn’t clinched a World Series victory since 1954. A victorious “We Are the Champions” by a team that’s taken two of the last three MLB trophies will never sound quite as sweet — but that shouldn’t keep thousands upon thousands of commemorative-T-shirt–wearing Giants fans from clicking and reliving the glory of the 2012 World Series all over again.
