Successful Creative Marketing Strategies That Went Viral

Marketing strategies that went Viral

Whether you’re a small business or a mega-corporation, knowing the latest marketing trends is vital to keeping your venture afloat in today’s digital world. For sure, maintaining a company blog asset and using the best social media graphic design ideas are important.

However, it pays to ensure that your efforts go beyond what people expect.

For instance, if you look at the biggest disruptions in advertising, you’ll see how important it is to develop marketing tactics that cut through the noise. If you haven’t tried viral marketing strategies before, it’s time that you do!

Viral marketing is basically a technique that aims to get the material to spread from one person to another. This strategy helps a venture get wider exposure to boost brand awareness.

Research says various emotions make material go viral. These include awe, laughter, amusement, and joy. That said, it’s crucial to take note of these emotions as you craft your viral marketing tactic.

For more inspiration for your next viral campaign, here are a few great examples. Please take note, though, that it’s crucial to align your campaign to tailor-fit your audience. That said, make sure that the unique strategy would amuse and entertain them. Otherwise, your tactic might backfire and result in negative publicity.

#CrockPotIsInnocent (Crock-Pot)

If you’re familiar with NBC’s hit TV drama, This Is Us; then you might be familiar with this campaign. The plot hinted that Jack Pearson, a fictional character in the series, died because of a slow cooker. Thousands of fans took to social media to express their feelings and thoughts about the story twist, mentioning Crock-Pot along the way.

The industry giant took the opportunity and launched the #CrockPotIsInnocent campaign. Getting help from influencers, including the cast of This Is Us, Crock-Pot hit the jackpot. In fact, it earned the brand 4 billion media impressions in less than three weeks.

In addition to that, the campaign also won a Silver Cannes Lion Award in the Digital & Social Media, Real-time Response category.

IHOb (IHOP)

What do you get when you flip the P? You’ll get a b. That’s where IHOP anchored its viral campaign in 2018, just before it launched its new menu line. The international pancake chain temporarily switched its name to IHOb and left people guessing about what it could mean. 

A few days later, the brand revealed that “b” stands for a burger, just in time for them to introduce their beef patty line-up. According to IHOP’s executive director of communications, Stephanie Peterson, they wanted people to know that they take their burgers seriously as their pancakes. That said, their decision to “beef up” their marketing strategy surely helped get people’s attention.

Prongles (Cards Against Humanity)

If you’re looking for an elaborate tactic, take a cue from Cards Against Humanity. In 2017, a new line of potato chips called Original Pringles lined the shelves of Target. The chips came in cans that looked a lot like Pringles and donned the tagline, “Once you pop, that’s great.”

The brand later revealed the stunt as a Black Friday joke. With the card game banking on embracing the wrong and the weird, using Pringle’s knockoffs as a campaign certainly worked for them.

Real Beauty Sketches (Dove)

Many users know Dove focuses their content marketing writing efforts and campaigns on empowering women. In 2013, the brand came up with a short film that showed an FBI-trained sketch artist creating two sketch versions. 

The first one followed the subject’s description of themselves and the other one followed strangers’ perception. The short film showed how different the perspectives were when the sketches sat side-by-side. And to pounce on that message, the ad copy said, “You are more beautiful than you think.”

Crib Discount (IKEA)

Here’s one of those advertising design examples that are just so bizarre; they actually worked! In 2018, IKEA launched an ad that says, “Peeing on this ad may change your life.” Since the page had a pregnancy test tech, it gave the reader a crib discount if they were pregnant. Talk about redefining engagement! This campaign was so unique that it’s not surprising how it made the rounds on social media.

The Takeaway

Don’t get me wrong – more common marketing strategies sure do enhance brand awareness. For instance, using the best email marketing ideas and making the most out of social media to drive traffic to your blog are awesome tactics. However, those can’t equal the vast potential of viral marketing – both in terms of scope and time. 

So, go ahead and get that 99designs logo made or ask a Design Pickle alternative service provider to create a magazine ad design for you. But don’t be afraid to experiment with viral marketing. Otherwise, you’ll be missing out on a huge opportunity to grow your band.

Image source: Freepik Premium

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