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Going viral: The results you want versus the results you don’t want

Writer's picture: Vu PhanVu Phan

It is without a doubt that having your brand go viral can be a big boon for the business, especially when the marketing campaign has been carefully curated, executed and performing as intended. Sometimes though, social media takes it in a completely different direction. Andreas Kaplan & Michael Haenlein formulated the four outcomes of a social media viral marketing campaign, what are they you may ask?




Triumphs: The Epic Split


Outcome: Positive. Initiator: Company


The perfect scenario: you engage with an advertising company, give them a budget and they come up with a marketing campaign that take the world by storm showcasing your brand and your message in a positive manner. The viral video ‘The Epic Split’ reached 25 million viewers within a week, then almost doubled after the following week. With a production budget of approximately USD $3-5 million, it raked in an estimated USD $170 million in revenue, along with various awards and parodies sprouting up. In other words, it is a ‘triumph’ for the marketing team and the business.



Stroke of luck: Mentos and Diet Coke experiment


Outcome: Positive. Initiator: Customers


There’s a good chance you’ve heard about the Mentos and Diet Coke experiment or you may have even tried the experiment yourself too as did I when it first came to light back in my high school days! Stephen Voltz and Fritz Grobe performed the experiment which resulted in millions of views worldwide with many performing a test of their own. It was simply a ‘stroke of luck’ for the companies involved that their product was used; interestingly enough, each company took a different approach to the virality. Mentos’ parent company embraced the phenomenon and launch marketing campaigns to capitalise on the hype; meanwhile, Coca-Cola Co. took a ‘better than thou’ approach.



Homemade issues: New GAP logo


Outcome: Negative. Initiator: Company


For a brief period in 2010, GAP launched a new logo in a rebranding attempt to draw in the younger crowd, with a spokeswoman for GAP stating that the re-design was meant to be “modern, sexy, cool”. It was neither modern, sexy or cool. The new logo was mostly negative and within the week, they were back to their old logo. The ‘Gapgate’, as it has been referred to, became a negative experience for the company and forever become a case study for future marketing students to learn about.  


 

Nightmares: The Tide Pod Challenge


Outcome: Negative. Initiator: Customers


What started out as mere jokes poking fun at the idea of consuming colourful laundry detergent pods turned into a full blown nightmare for Procter & Gamble when their Tide Pods became the centre of what is called “The Tide Pod Challenge” where teens were intentionally ingesting the Tide Pods. Procter & Gamble did all the right things to stem the fallout on their brand but the damage is done.


 


The outcome of any viral market campaign always fall under one of these four groups. So I ask you, the readers, this – what was the last marketing campaign you can recall that has gone viral? Which group did it fall under?

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6 Comments


Guy Podmore
Guy Podmore
Aug 03, 2024

Hi Phan. That was a solid explanation of the framework to analyse virality in social media marketing context, linkining the academic thinking around it to specific cases. It helped me contextualise other cases that come to mind (I'm thinking the 'Tide Pod challenge' from 2018 which saw teenagers eating colourful laundry detergent capsules, unintentioanal virality that boosted sales, and one that I created for the NSW Treasurer in 2021 which was a mostly-successful attempt to go viral: https://x.com/Dom_Perrottet/status/1406022690977189897) I was curious as to how Coke handled and received the issue relative to the maker of Mentos, which embraced the virality. It's a shame you didn't link to Coke's response or coveage of it, as that would have been cool to read…

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vanessa.l.locampo
Jul 25, 2024

Hi Vu,


I really enjoyed this blog post. Your exploration of "the four outcomes of a social media viral marketing campaign" was a great complement to my learning because the examples you provided allowed me to cement those ideas and see the theory playing out in the real world. These were all really interesting examples too, and you've prompted me to research them more in my own time! I know you were limited by the word count, but the only thing I would add is maybe going into more detail with the GAP campaign in particular, and explaining why exactly the new brand logo didn't work.


But overall, this was a great blog post and helped to consolidate my learning…


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vanessa.l.locampo
Aug 01, 2024
Replying to

Thanks so much for the feedback! And I completely relate to the word count! I'm finding the hardest part of these blog posts is cutting things out!

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Akeel Kamaldeen
Akeel Kamaldeen
Jul 23, 2024

This was a great read,

I liked how you linked in a lot of theory in your blogpost with very specific examples. Great mix of imagery and videos.

I did a blog post on going Viral about how Heinz responded to a viral Taylor Swift image. Based on  Andreas Kaplan & Michael Haenlein four outcomes of a social media viral marketing theory mentioned above I believe Heinz would fall under Triumphs. Let me know what you think ? https://akam0033.wixsite.com/the-marketing-digest/post/seemingly-ranch-or-seemingly-impressive-marketing-by-heinz

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Vu Phan
Vu Phan
Jul 26, 2024
Replying to

Hi Akeel, yes you're right, your example does fall under Triumphs. Heinz was on the ball and jumped at a great opportunity which paid dividends! Whoever does their marketing needs a pay rise haha

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