#viral-marketing

#viral-marketing

In a year saturated with viral denim moments - like Sydney Sweeney for American Eagle, Addison Rae for Lucky Brand, and Beyoncé for Levi's - the global girl group's jeans ad rose to the top, gaining more than 400 million views across platforms in just three days. After it went live, streams on Kelis' 2003 bop "Milkshake" - which was the soundtrack to the commercial - more than doubled and thousands of people made TikToks featuring Robbie Blue's choreography.

Zoë Schiffer: Welcome to WIRED's Uncanny Valley. I'm Zoë Schiffer, WIRED's Director of Business and Industry. Today on the show, we want to share with you one of the best conversations that happened during our big interview event in San Francisco last week. Our senior culture editor, Manisha Krishnan sat down with Jon Chu, the director of Wicked, to discuss what made the film franchise such a success. Even if you're not a fan of musicals, it's a fascinating conversation about the power of viral marketing and how forward-looking filmmakers like Chu are trying to navigate the AI era without compromising their creative vision and their execution.

Going viral has always been a risky marketing strategy. In many ways, the bump a company gets from becoming a social media sensation works like the sales impact of appearing on "Shark Tank." Even companies that don't make a deal to a piece of their brand, usually see a short-term spike in interest and orders because of the television exposure. That can help with exposure and acquiring customers, but it does not last forever.

At WIRED's Big Interview event in San Francisco, the onetime YouTuber and Crazy Rich Asians director said that working with acts like Justin Bieber taught him the value of connecting with fans online during the creation process. While directing Bieber's concert film, Never Say Never, in the late aughts, Chu said the then-14-year-old star used Twitter to introduce him to fans.

American Eagle's marketing campaigns are giving the company a meaningful boost. The retailer has launched a number of campaigns this year that have been at the center of viral moments online. It looks like they're paying off financially. Its stock has been up this year, and its total revenue was $1.4 billion for the third quarter that ended November 1, roughly 6% higher year-over-year.

In the days leading up to Black Friday, brands like Tower 28, JVN Hair and Material Kitchen have taken to social media to ask followers for forgiveness and to say "sorry." The catch: They're apologizing for their products being too good. "To everyone who started using Meltdown and suddenly stopped cancelling plans because of a breakout - we owe you an apology," Blume Skincare wrote on Instagram earlier this month.

Someone in my workshop spied the chart below from our recent mega-analysis of global campaigns submitted to Effie, noting the steady decline in the industry's ability to create brand effects (awareness, differentiation, distinctiveness, trust, salience, etc.) as well as a drop off in how emotional ads are. I think it is safe to say that these factors are correlated. In fact, I've previously bet my new house upon it: Feel or fail. Why emotional ads will always beat persuasive ones

While Roy Lee, the founder of Cluely, argues that startups should be thinking harder about social media virality, he also admits that brand awareness alone won't lead to sustained growth. "I can't say if it's a mistake, but maybe we launched too early," Lee said on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 last week. "The whole idea [was] let's launch something that barely works, and if we can get enough initial users, they will find out the use cases for us."

The game's name had been localized to Kuso Dungeon, which translates (in the tamest language) to "Crap Dungeon." While kuso is a term that, throughout Asia at least, can broadly denote campiness or parody--making its usage here incredibly appropriate--it can also be misinterpreted to mean any number of Japanese curse words. You see where this is going now.

Cluely's AI assistant grew famous this April with a viral claim that its undetectable windows could "help you cheat on anything" - a claim that was quickly disproven when a string of proctoring services showed they could, in fact, detect use of the AI assistant. But in a matter of months, the company had raised $15 million from Andreessen Horowitz, becoming one of the most visible products in the crowded AI assistant space.

We all just collectively decided that Group Seven were the cool people, the 'It' people, the baddies,

"As consumer attention shifts more and more towards digital media, we believe that experiential marketing is one of the few traditional marketing channels that brands can still use to create unique and memorable moments that actually reach consumers," says Reed Duchscher, Night's founder & CEO. "Marketing leaders tell us that in today's media landscape it's important that those experiential investments also translate into digital success and drive earned media virality online. That's why we're so excited to welcome Jasen and team to Night."

Brand partnerships used to mean a co-branded sneaker drop or a limited-edition snack flavor. Now, they're getting stranger-and more viral. Soda-and-cookie mashups, beer-infused soups, and hot honey beans have all hit store shelves in recent months, sparking a mix of curiosity, confusion, and clicks. At first glance, these collaborations might feel like stunts with little connection between the products. But marketing experts and brand leaders argue they serve a bigger purpose: keeping legacy names relevant in a crowded, attention-driven marketplace.

If you've never heard the term, ragebait marketing is simple: a brand does something polarizing or controversial - sometimes accidentally but often intentionally - with the goal of going viral by wreaking havoc in the comments and inspiring think pieces and millions of dollars in free publicity. And the truth is, it works - at least on the surface, if you measure the success of a campaign in views.

When NFL coaches started holding up laminated menus to hide their play-calling, nobody expected it to become the internet's favorite football meme. But this fall, one unlikely object has completely taken over football culture: the humble laminated menu. And now, Denny's is turning this viral moment into marketing gold with a campaign that's as brilliant as it is absurd. From Playbooks to Pop Culture: How Laminated Menus Became Football's Hottest Accessory The phenomenon started innocuously enough.

Gap unveiled a new marketing collaboration starring Katseye, a girl group composed of members from the Philippines, South Korea, Switzerland, and the United States, last week, including a 90-second video of the group dancing to "Milkshake" by Kelis clad in Gap denim. The group's diverse background, and Gap's statement the ad highlights "cultural diversity" and "individuality," have prompted some comparisons online to Sydney Sweeney's controversial American Eagle ad, which was championed by conservatives after some criticized it for appearing to promote eugenics.

Consider the recent excitement around Labubu dolls as a prime example. These bug-eyed elves, designed for the sole purpose of being attached to a bag or clothing, helped their parent company, Pop Mart, triple its profits in 2024 to a total of $920 million. The fever is still raging, with fans clambering to buy new colors and styles-and even potentially dangerous knockoffs.

The American Eagle advertising campaign featuring Sydney Sweeney led to a stock price increase of over 15%, boosting the company’s market valuation by approximately $310 million.

Mark Barrocas emphasized how SharkNinja's rise in marketing success is attributed to the effective utilization of social media, which is now their primary tool for outreach.

Liquid Death has redefined the perception of water packaging by using humorous, edgy marketing tactics that resonate deeply with millennials and Gen Z consumers.

The combination of chocolate and pistachio, rooted in Dubai's dessert scene, has captivated a wide audience, elevating its presence in global markets.

We decided to turn the campaign itself into the ultimate test, by trying to make someone completely unknown famous.

Saratoga Spring Water became a sensation after influencer Ashton Hall's unique morning routine went viral, dominating the Milken conference with its presence.