Hall & Oates on Speed Dial: Viral Success Powered by Twilio
Time to read: 5 minutes
December 22, 2011
Written by
Developers use Twilio to create amazing apps every day, from simple hacks to building a business, and sometimes, they create Callin’ Oates. The first Twilio app developed by Michael Selvidge, a new corporate communications manager at
Twilio, became an runaway success spurred from just one tweet. Dial 1-719-26-OATES to listen to your choice of one of four Hall and Oates hit songs on demand. So far, over 385,000 people have called in, showing they aren’t out of touch with the soul-singing duo.
Callin’ Oates is a powerful example of an app that reached hundreds of thousands, built from someone’s very first experience with Twilio’s API. Michael created a basic phone menu allowing callers to choose their favorite Hall and Oates song. After purchasing a number and setting up a hosting solution, he followed the Twilio How To documentation of IVR: The Basics to build out the rest. Michael was preparing his app to share with private eyes to test it out lightly, but no can do as it snowballed into a Hall and Oates fan fest.
Twilio is built for instant scaling and ready to support large voice and SMS initiatives. The Twilio team had no warning before Callin’ Oates dove into mainstream media popularity. We did what any team would do watching a Hall and Oates Twilio app zoom to over 300,000 calls – we dialed 1-719-26-OATES to jam to our favorite tunes.
Watching Callin’ Oates Grow in the Media
Take a look at the tweets, news hits and conversations below. Don’t forget to dial 1-719-26-OATES.
- ABCNews: Callin Oates: Your Emergency Hall and Oates Hotline
- ArtVoice: The Morning Grumpy Highlights
- AtlanticWire: Hall and Oates Hotline: Brilliant Marketing or Public Service?
- AtlanticWire: How One ReTweet from a NY Times Reporter Launched Hall and Oates Meme
- Barstool Sports: Today in Genius: Callin Oates
- BetaBeat: Hall and Oates Hotline
- Billboard: Callin Oates Brings Soul Duo to Your Phone
- Buzzfeed: Callin Oates: The Hall and Oates Hotline
- CollegeHumor: Callin Oates and the Hall and Oates Emergency Hotline
- Examiner: Hall and Oates Hotline Freakin Genius
- Filter: Dial In! Hall and Oates
- G4 Attack of the Show
- Gizmodo: Feeling Down? Dial the Hall and Oates Hotline
- GQ: Callin Oates
- HLN: Music Emergency? Callin Oates
- HyperVocal: Introducing the Hall and Oates Hotline
- Houston Press: Having a Hall and Oates Emergency
- Huffington Post: Calling Oates Hotline
- JackFM Seattle: Hall and Oates Phone App Goes Viral
- Jezebel: Callin Oates
- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Oates Hotelin Now Taking Calls
- MSNBC: Hall and Oates Hotline Build to Show Off Phone Tech
- MSNBC (TV) The Scoop
- NPR (All Things Considered): Callin Oates – The hotline you don’t need but might call anyway
- NY Mag: Callin Oates
- Philebrity: If You’ve Ever Wondered What a Hall and Oates Christmas Would Sound Like
- The Verge: Callin Oates Interview: Hall and Oates Hotline
- Tennesseean: Dial up Hall and Oates Hits on Your Phone with Callin Oates
- Tosh.0 (ComedyCentral): Winter Blues? Try Callin Oates
- The Daily What: Callin Oates
- Tyler Coates (tumblr): Fuck Guys, You Should Call That Number
- SF Gate: Deck the Halls and Oates
- SFist: Morning Link Wrap
- Slate: Callin Oates Hotline Goes Viral
- Washington Post: Callin Hall and Oates
- WPIX New York Morning News
- WTOP (RADIO)
- WXPN: Need a Hall and Oates Fix? Call the Callin Oates Emergency Hotline
- Yahoo News: One ReTweet From NY Times Reporter Launched Hall and Oates
- Yahoo: 70’s Music Duo Hall and Oates Goes Viral
- ZDNet: Callin Oates The Future of Cloud Development in a NutShell
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