Myspace cool again? New site sees 31M unique visitors in first 2 weeks

Clawing its way out of the grave, Myspace said Thursday that its refurbished social network is off to a good start, attracting 31 million unique visitors in the two weeks since it started a massive $20 million advertising campaign to craft its image as a cool place for creatives and music fans.

Earlier this month, after more than two years of development, Myspace took the beta label off its re-imagined streaming-music service and network for creatives. The company also simultaneously released an iPhone appfor radio play and animated GIF creation.

The new Myspace, the product of Justin Timberlake and associates, is not to be confused with the old place for friends, which is why the property also kicked off an expensive marketing strategy to promote the new experience. Idiosyncratic ads featuring pop stars and celebrities, like the one embedded at the end of this article, have been littered across broadcast networks and digital properties in the hopes of grabbing the attention of today's youth.

The strategy, according to Myspace, is working. In the first 14 days since removing the beta label, Myspace has attracted 31 million unique visitors, with 34 percent of traffic coming from mobile. The company's iPhone application was downloaded or updated 995,000 times in the same two-week period.

New Myspace also seems to be a regular topic of conversation on Twitter. Myspace was a worldwide trending topic on Twitter on June 12, 13, 15, and 20, the company said, and brand sentiment has been about 80 percent positive. A Myspace commercial that aired during the premiere of MTV's "Catfish" spawned 54,000 Twitter mentions of Myspace during the spot and drove an hour-over-hour tripling of app downloads and signups, Myspace said in a press release.

The service's initial traction could mean that the Myspace brand isn't forever tarnished. But the company's $20 million media blitz is an unsustainable strategy that won't buy cool forever.