Going viral

In our modern, wifi world internet exposure is everything. We talk about “personal branding” and make sure that we can make ourselves searchable on Google, but every once in a while something blows up. We’ve all seen it before, one day a friend tells you about a funny video on YouTube and then suddenly it’s everywhere.

Even M.I.A. got in on the action putting the YouTube play bar on the front of her album. Unfortunately naming it "^^^Y^" made it beyond un-Google searchable.

Frequently the media has a lot to do with something going viral. America’s latest cyberspace sweetheart Antoine Dodson got his start as the secondary source in a piece on WAFF-TV in Huntsville, Alabama. He is now a brand, with shirts and a hit single.

Obviously it wasn’t long until the marketing world wanted a way in. With the advent of TiVo finding ways to get people to want to watch commercials is an extremely lucrative measure and several have been pretty successful at doing so. Toyota had a hit with the “Swagger Wagon,” Dove had a hit too with its real beauty campaign.

"#Eatem like you didn't make the cheerleading squad."

Which leads me to my favorite new viral marketing campaign. Carrot farmers, led by Bolthouse Farms, are set to launch a full fledged attack on junk with a new ad campaign. The first step is a Twitter account (and a hilarious one at that). The next is an iTunes app (coming soon). There will also be television commercials, in the style of junk food ads. What I love about the baby carrots campaign is that it’s just kitschy enough to be funny. Yeah, sure, it’s an advertisement, but it’s also really random and weird. The ads are set for a test roll out in Syracuse and Cincinnati, I can’t wait to see them.

Have you seen any other baby carrot marketing techniques? Let me know!

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