From a $250 budget video to a Super Bowl ad spot, viral marketing is funny, memorable and completely unexpected. Our favorite campaigns, like these four below, raised brand awareness as they spread like wildfire across social media.
What is Viral Marketing?
Viral marketing is a term that describes a strategy to encourage individuals to pass on a message to others, amplifying its exposure and influence. The most successful campaigns rapidly increase buzz as they are passed along from person-to-person.
Our 4 Favorite Viral Marketing Campaigns
The Guy Who Cut Everything in Half
The German Bar Association’s campaign to educate young people about prenuptial agreements is proof that it’s possible to go viral on a limited budget.
In order to raise awareness, they created videos of a man who as revenge to his wife cut the couple’s possessions down the middle and listed his half for sale on eBay. One image featured a car cut in half.
The creative story line went viral, spreading all over the world in a few days. The content, which was shared by the likes of Aston Kutcher and Lil Wayne, started conversations — on television, in newspapers and across social media — about divorce and prenuptial arrangements.
Mountain Dew’s PuppyMonkeyBaby
Mountain Dew’s promotion of its new Kickstart drink showed us that there are a lot of ways to go viral.
The campaign, which literally featured a combination puppy/monkey/baby, was so out of the ordinary people couldn’t stop talking about it. Whether people liked it or disliked it, they couldn’t forget it.
Although it was introduced on Super Bowl Sunday, the most competitive day of the year for advertising, the dancing PuppyMonkeyBaby quickly went viral.
Disney’s #ShareYourEars
This year, Disney created a social media marketing campaign that aimed to raise money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Disney encouraged fans to share photos of themselves wearing Mickey Mouse Ears, using the hashtag #ShareYourEars. For each picture posted, Disney pledged to donate $5 to Make-A-Wish.
The campaign became so successful, with more than 200 million photos posted on Instagram alone, that Disney doubled their donation to the charity.
Kids Read Mean Tweets
Kids Read Mean Tweets, a parody on the popular “Jimmy Kimmel Live” sketch, was another viral marketing winner this year.
The Canadian Safe School Network ran the campaign to raise awareness for cyber-bullying. With a budget of just $250, they used humor to remind the world that the issue is not a joke.
On video, regular kids read tweets about mean things people said to them online.
The results were staggering. More than 200 million global media impressions and an 8,000 percent increase in web traffic to CanadianSafeSchools.com.
What were your favorite viral marketing campaigns of the year?
