#TeamCoco Takes Over the People of Earth...Social Media Style

The year was 2010. The month was January. The People of Earth were taking sides. You were either Team Coco or Team…Leno (which was pretty much non-existent). Team Coco banded together to exclaim “I’m with Coco” in anyway they could, mostly on the Internet. The battle for the NBC Late Night TV airwaves was something that any Conan fan, young or old, newbie or diehard, was emotionally invested in. To say it bluntly, NBC was screwing Conan. He had the coveted host of The Tonight Show spot for less than 7 months and now NBC was turning around and taking that away from him. Actually, worse than that, they wanted to move The Tonight Show to Midnight to make room for Jay Leno’s lameness at 11:30.  But let’s not dwell on the horribleness that is NBC and focus on the good that came out of a pretty horrible situation. Enter Team Coco as a social media phenomenon. People of Earth, behold the stages of the Team Coco evolution!

1. Birth of Team Coco.

While NBC and Conan were duking it out, on Twitter something incredible was happening. Whether it was #TeamCoco or #ImWithCoco, Conan fans were coming out of the woodwork on the Twitter streams expressing their love for Conan through these hashtags and many more. But what wasn’t so obvious then as it is now, #TeamCoco was much more than just a hashtag. It was a social media revolution in the making. As any Coco fan would know, there was even an image to go along with the uprising. Fans made this image their Facebook profile pic (I did), their Twitter avatar (I did), and even made t-shirts (I should have). Creator Mike Mitchell created the icon for what would become the Team Coco revolution. (See left.)

2. Conan joins Twitter! (And follows one person…@LovelyButton)

A few weeks after Conan made the announcement that we would be parting ways with NBC ($33 million richer), he joined Twitter and created @ConanOBrien. Conan joining Twitter was a revolution in itself…in just 24 hours he gained 300,000 followers. Coco would tweet on a daily basis, mostly about how he was spending his time now that he was unemployed. More importantly though, Conan used his Twitter to make two major announcements to Team Coco: 1. The Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour announced on March 11^th; 2. His return to TV would be on November 8^th on TBS.  Enter excitement across the nation from Team Coco fans.

3. The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour.

So as you may or may not know, part of Conan’s settlement with NBC was that he would not be allowed to have a comedy show on television until after September 1^st.  He did appear on television in a 60 Minutes special on May 2^nd where we got a behind the scenes look at how Conan was spending his life after NBC but that was by no means the Conan any of us were used to.  The tour was exactly what the Team Coco fans needed and wanted, a chance to see the man live and in their hometowns. As soon as Coco announced the tour in one of his tweets, tickets started selling out in minutes. Naturally, I was able to snatch up some of these tickets myself to see Conan live in Connecticut at Mohegan Sun. Okay so Conan announces the tour on Twitter and tickets sell out, but is that the only role that social media plays in this? Absolutely not. At every Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour show, a hashtag was displayed on the big screens so that people at the show could tweet about it AND use the unique hashtag. For example, the hashtag for my show in CT was #conanecticut. Brilliant. Not to mention flipping awesome.

4. At last, teamcoco.com!

In conjunction with the live tour, teamcoco.com was created and started off as basically just a blog where all things regarding Conan were posted.  Teamcoco.com was in addition to the twitter account (@TeamCoco) and the Facebook page that were created as a home base for the Team Coco masses. Teamcoco.com really exploded more recently though which leads us to…

5. September 2010 = TBS HYPE!

Here’s where the masterminds behind Team Coco (the brand) got smart…all you social media junkies get ready because here comes the Team Coco climax…

BOOM!

The Conan Blimp! complete with Foursquare check in capabilities AND a snazzy badge.

BANG!

The #LiveCocoCam! 24 hours worth of streaming live footage from the Team Coco Headquarters featuring a dancing taco, 80’s aerobics, and a staring contest.

WOOSH!

Fan of the Week every Friday! On Thursdays, one fan was randomly chosen from the hundreds that would comment on a post on the Team Coco Facebook fan page. And for those of us who aren't lucky enough to be chosen, we all have equal chance of being on the teamcoco.com Fan Wall!

ZING!

FREE CONAN T-SHIRTS! In the 10 days leading up to Conan’s premiere on TBS, Team Coco gave out 1,000 free shirts per day to the first 1,000 people who entered a code that was posted on the @TeamCoco Twitter and Facebook page into the free tshirt portion of Teamcoco.com. (These bad boys were gone in a matter of seconds every day...but I managed to get one! Anyone else?)

BAM!

#ConanShowZero! One week before the TBS debut, Team Coco presented a livestream of what is hopefully the fabulous late night on TBS genius that is to come.

So as I sit here about 24 hours before the premiere of Conan on TBS I receive a mobile Twitter message on my iPhone from from @TeamCoco that reads: “Well those nine months just FLEW BY, didn't they? Conan on TBS. Monday @ 11/10c. #conanreturns.”

Actually (for me at least), it’s been a LONG 9 months without Conan on my TV screen every night, HOWEVER…with the help of the social media presence from Team Coco I’ve most certainly been able to get by.

socialmedia (& #TEAMCOCO!) #FTW!!!


-M

My “Conan on TBS premiere” expectations include the following: a kickass theme song; THE BEARD! (please Conan, don’t shave your beard!); LOTS of string dancing; awkward moments with Andy Richter; a shout out to #TeamCoco?; Conan's guitar playing; tons and tons and TONS of awesomeness (obviously). Please comment on my blog with likes/dislikes, agreements/disagreements, and your favorite part of Team Coco in the social media world and stay tuned for another Conan blog at the end of this week! I myself am a semi-long time Conan O'Brien fan...you can check out my previous "social media" tributes to him here and here. Enjoy :)