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The best viral marketing campaigns (when a marketer intends to make something viral) are one of those things that you have to see to recognize, so here are a few of my favorite viral marketing examples:
Hotmail
When Hotmail launched, much of its early success was due to the virality of the sigline that it attached to every outgoing email inviting the recipient to join. One of the earliest examples of viral marketing on the internet.
Subservient Chicken
One of my favorite viral marketing examples on this list, the creepy webcam site made for a Burger King campaign allowed people to control a guy in a chicken suit. It went viral almost instantly and for a few weeks was everywhere.
Will it Blend
One of the most recent best viral marketing campaign examples, Blendtec’s will it blend video series shows scientists testing if various household items will blend in their super-powerful blender. This campaign leveraged the popularity of online video sharing sites.
One Red Paperclip
This was a blog where the author started with a single red paperclip and traded his way up to a house, documenting his steps along the way.
Million Dollar Homepage
Perhaps the most famous viral marketing “why didn’t I think of that” example, this site sold pixels on its homepage and eventually made over a million dollars.
Simpsonsize Yourself
Created for the Simpsons movie, this site allowed visitors to create an avatar of themselves as a character from the cartoon.
Mentos/Diet Coke
Another wacky scientist schtick, these guys got famous by making art out of the explosions caused by mixing diet coke and mentos. Mentos handled it beautifully, Coke did not.
Dove Evolution Video
Part of a campaign by Dove, this video showed how models’ beauty is often artificial, and really struck a chord with its intended audience of female viewers.
Tea Partay
A beverage company created this video as a parody of rap videos and used preppy white kids.
Youtube Embedable Videos
Youtube’s meteoric rise is due in large part to the embeddable videos the company introduced, allowing bloggers to put videos directly into posts.
Lonelygirl15
This fake reality show featured an aspiring actress, playing strange storyline. It generated lots of views and eventually the creators were unmasked.
Bob Dylan Facebook App
This application allows users to make their own version of Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues video. This is an viral marketing campaign example consisting entirely of “brand” interaction for the purpose of entertainment. Beautiful.
The USB Absinthe Spoon
Something I did, this was what I based my Spoon model on.
August 21st, 2008 at 10:43 pm
[...] Viral Marketing Lives On… and marketing executives everywhere will forever be in pursuit of those crazy ideas such as the One Red Paper Clip, the Milliondollar Homepage, Mentos & Diet Coke! Dan’s has a pretty good list of viral campaigns here to read upon: http://danzarrella.com/examples-of-viral-marketing-campaigns.html [...]
September 16th, 2008 at 8:14 am
[...] Thinking of the most successful viral campaigns, Hotmail stands out as a clear winner, but closely following it is the million dollar homepage case. For some more examples, you may look into http://danzarrella.com/examples-of-viral-marketing-campaigns.html. [...]
February 4th, 2009 at 12:43 am
All of the examples you have given are video examples.
Is it that content is not as effective?
February 4th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Funny you should mention LonelyGirl15 I know the producer.
March 18th, 2009 at 10:58 pm
I have become a big fan on viral marketing through relationships. There are some really great ways to do this through incentive. Provide a greater incentive to the person that is forwarding their information onto their friends/colleagues and be assure to track the email data and reward them for their efforts. I have found one website that doing a great job at this… http://www.forwardmyflyer.com. It’s a pretty cool idea to spark this viral marketing through relationships.
April 13th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
Well I am in the prelimary stages of creating a campaign for my sales department in promoting and selling Guardian generators. One thing i do realize about marketing though, is you have to back it up! Remember the DHL comercial where a Fedex truck pulled up to a train track and UPS did as well; and just about that time the two co.’s waived; DHL came thru the two on a train!! Awesome idea! but DHL was not able to keep up with level of business that came with that much influenced marketing campaign.
April 14th, 2009 at 7:13 pm
Viral Marketing is key in any start up company.
April 16th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
Why do I feel that this whole Susan Boyle craze (Britains Got Talent 2009) is some form I feel good, watch the show, viral marketing campaign…She sings like an angel, she’s not your typical famous good-looking singer, see we are different, and she sings about a dream while living one thing! Wow, am I just cold-hearted or am I being manipulated again?