Viral Marketing Examples: Seven Campaigns and Why They Spread

Sooner or later someone in the business asks for a campaign that "goes viral". It is a fair hope. A campaign that people pass on reaches far more people than the media budget pays for, and it can change how a brand is seen within weeks.

It is also hard to plan. Nobody can order an audience to share something. What a marketing team can control is how easy and rewarding a campaign is to share, how well it fits the brand, and how ready the company is when something takes off.

This guide looks at seven campaigns that people shared on a large scale, checked against the companies' own reports where they exist. It explains why each one spread, what the evidence says about why people share, and how to plan and measure a campaign that has a chance.

DisclosureJake Jorgovan is a partner in Fieldtrip, a group of marketing agencies, which is mentioned in this article.

What makes people share a campaign?

Two Wharton researchers, Jonah Berger and Katherine Milkman, studied the question directly. They analyzed nearly 7,000 New York Times articles (opens in a new tab) over a three-month period to see which ones readers emailed most, then tested their findings in experiments. Positive content was shared more than negative content. Emotion mattered most when it was arousing: content that evoked awe, anger or anxiety was more viral, and content that evoked sadness was less so. Content that was surprising, interesting or practically useful was also shared more.

The study looked at news articles, not ads, so it does not promise that an emotional ad will spread. It does fit the campaigns below. They gave people something to react to, and most gave them a reason to share that said something about themselves: their name on a can, their year in music, a joke they were in on.

Three approaches to planning recur across the seven, and a campaign can use more than one:

• Build the share into the product. Share a Coke and Spotify Wrapped made something personal that people wanted to show.
• Start it with creators. CeraVe enlisted creators to start a rumor and let the internet run with it, and Coca-Cola seeded Share a Coke with opinion leaders and influencers at launch.
• Respond as attention grows. Popeyes answered a competitor's post with two words, and Candy Funhouse's founder credits a fan's review with the company's first viral moment.

Seven viral marketing examples

Share a Coke: names on the bottle (2011)

Coca-Cola's Australian team had a 151-word creative brief (opens in a new tab) and a problem: its research found that many Australian teens and young adults felt the brand was not talking to them "at eye level." In 2011 it replaced the Coke logo on bottles and cans with the 150 most popular first names in the country, and seeded the campaign with opinion leaders and influencers. That summer, the company says, it sold more than 250 million named bottles and cans in a nation of just under 23 million people.

Two details from the team's own account are useful for planning. The 150 names reached only 42 percent of the population, so the team made the message about giving a Coke to someone else. And before it let people text names to a large digital sign in Sydney, it prepared filters and a block list of more than 5,000 words. More than half of the texts turned out to be rude words the filter stopped. Interest from other countries grew after the campaign won seven awards at the 2012 Cannes Lions festival, and Coca-Cola brought it back in 2025 (opens in a new tab) for a rolling launch planned for more than 120 countries, with influencer partners and a digital hub reached through on-pack QR codes.

Dove Real Beauty Sketches: a film people wanted to pass on (2013)

Dove asked women to describe themselves to an FBI-trained forensic artist, Gil Zamora, who drew them from behind a curtain. A stranger then described the same woman to him. In Dove's account (opens in a new tab), the portrait from the stranger's description was "more beautiful, happier and more accurate." More than 50 million people viewed the film within 12 days of release.

Guinness World Records (opens in a new tab) listed it as the most viewed online video advertisement, with 124,875,719 views in 25 languages and 4,211,815 shares as of November 2, 2013, from data collected by Unruly. The film carries the emotional pull the Berger and Milkman study describes, and it was tied directly to the brand's message that women are more beautiful than they think.

Spotify Wrapped: personal data made to post (every December)

Spotify ran the first version of Wrapped in 2015, as "Year in Music," and renamed it Wrapped in 2016 (opens in a new tab). By Spotify's count, a record 227 million monthly active users engaged with it in 2023. Eligible users get a personal summary of their listening, designed to be shared, and the 2024 edition (opens in a new tab) added a direct way to post results to TikTok.

Wrapped is the clearest case of virality designed into a product. It is an annual year-end occasion, uses listening data the company already has, and gives eligible users something about themselves to share. Spotify describes it as the work of hundreds of team members each year: a repeatable shareable moment takes product investment.

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An original comparison of the Share a Coke and Spotify Wrapped examples in the article. Campaign results and source links remain in the surrounding text.

Popeyes chicken sandwich: a two-word reply that took over a launch (2019)

Popeyes launched its chicken sandwich nationally on August 12, 2019. A week later, in Popeyes' own account (opens in a new tab), a competitor's tweet read as a dig at the sandwich, and Popeyes replied: "... y'all good?" Attention built on social media, news outlets ran taste tests against other chains' chicken sandwiches, and restaurants began running out. Forbes reported (opens in a new tab) that Apex Marketing Group estimated $65 million in equivalent media value over the first 15 days, which Apex defines as what the attention would have cost to buy. By then Popeyes had sold the sandwiches it expected to last through the end of September, and announced it would be sold out in US restaurants by the end of that week.

The parent company, Restaurant Brands International, later reported US comparable sales growth of 10.2% (opens in a new tab) for Popeyes in the third quarter of 2019, one of its best quarters in nearly two decades. The release does not say how much of that came from the sandwich. The case shows why a fast social response needs operations behind it: attention grew faster than the sandwich supply. Popeyes also says its team spent nearly three years developing the sandwich before that week.

Candy Funhouse: a small store found by its fans (2020 onward)

Candy Funhouse is a Canadian candy store. Shopify's June 2022 profile (opens in a new tab) says it took its business online in December 2020 and that its first viral TikTok video, of a customer's order being packed, brought it 30,000 followers. The profile also quotes founder Jamal Hejazi describing the company's first viral moment: "The first time we went viral as a company was through a fan's user-generated content doing a review on our company."

He said the team at first could not tell where the new visitors were coming from. It then built on the attention by watching what its audience responded to. Shopify reported 2.7 million followers on its account and said its most popular candies tended to be the ones that went viral on the app. For a large brand the lesson is about readiness: the moment came from someone else's post, and the value came from noticing it and keeping up.

Michael CeraVe: a rumor seeded with creators (2024)

Before the 2024 Super Bowl, CeraVe and its agency, Ogilvy, spread the idea (opens in a new tab) that the actor Michael Cera had created the skincare brand. Creators, press stories and Cera's own mock commercial kept it going, until the Super Bowl ad had a boardroom of CeraVe dermatologists debunk him. The point of the joke was the product message: CeraVe is developed with dermatologists.

The agency's award entry (opens in a new tab) says it began with 450 influencers fueling the speculation. Ogilvy's case page lists a Cannes Lions Grand Prix among its awards, and D&AD's October 2024 write-up (opens in a new tab) reports a 25% increase in sales without naming the market or period. This is the planned version of "organic": it looked like the internet's idea, and it was scripted and seeded across paid, earned and owned channels.

Dead Duo: years of persona, then a stunt (2025)

In February 2025 Duolingo announced that its owl mascot, Duo, had died, and turned it into a mystery over who did it. In its Q1 2025 shareholder letter (opens in a new tab) the company described it as one of its most successful marketing campaigns, run at almost no cost. It reported 1.7 billion organic impressions and a meaningful lift in new and returning users.

Meltwater's social listening data (opens in a new tab) showed average daily mentions of Duolingo rising from about 11,000 in the five days before the launch to more than 59,900 in the five days after, and #ripduo used more than 45,000 times over the two weeks it measured. Meltwater credits several years of Duo's "unhinged" antics, which had given fans a character to follow. The same shareholder letter pairs the stunt with product work: brand moments like this one drive user growth, while the company's A/B testing aims to make the product itself "a durable growth engine."

What the seven have in common

Each campaign above gave people a feeling and a reason to pass it on. The planned ones also fit what the brand already stood for: a dead mascot from a brand whose owl was already known for "unhinged" posts, a name on a can for a campaign about sharing, a film built on Dove's message that women are more beautiful than they think.

Case studies are written about the campaigns that worked, and they usually start the story at the stunt. In 2019 I called my own headline misleading: it made a business look like a six-month success when it rested on 15 years of work before it. Campaigns are the same. Duolingo's stunt rested on years of building a character, and Popeyes says its sandwich took nearly three years to develop. Read a viral case for its conditions before you copy its mechanics.

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An original synthesis of the seven campaign examples discussed in the article. It describes recurring choices, not a formula that guarantees virality.

How to plan a campaign that could spread

You cannot guarantee that a campaign spreads, but you can give it a better chance and make sure the business is ready if it does.

1. 1

   Decide what the campaign must do for the business

   Name the result that matters (new users, trial, sales in a launch window, consideration in a segment) before anyone pitches a stunt. Duolingo reported its campaign in users, not only in impressions.

2. 2

   Build the reason to share into the work

   Ask what a person gets from passing it on. A name, a personal statistic or a joke they are in on gives them something to say about themselves. Use formats the audience already shares, such as memes, challenges or clips people can reply to. Without one, few people will pass it on.

3. 3

   Fit the brand people already know

   The planned campaigns above matched a voice or position their audiences already knew. A stunt that the brand's audience would not expect from it tends to read as borrowed.

4. 4

   Choose how to start it, and disclose creator relationships

   Pick the first audience that fits the work: owned channels, paid media, PR or creators. CeraVe used creators to start its rumor, and Coca-Cola seeded Share a Coke with opinion leaders. When a creator has a material connection to the brand, including payment or free products, the FTC expects a clear disclosure (opens in a new tab) with the endorsement, in plain words such as "ad" or "sponsored."

5. 5

   Prepare for it to work

   Agree in advance who can approve a fast response, how much stock or capacity exists, and how user submissions will be moderated. Popeyes ran out of sandwiches; Coca-Cola needed a block list of more than 5,000 words.

6. 6

   Agree the measure before launch

   Media value, impressions and sales answer different questions. Popeyes' media-value figure estimated what the attention would have cost to buy, and the sales result its owner reported did not separate out the sandwich. Decide which number will count as success, and how you will see it, before the campaign goes out.

Viral in B2B: be the best resource on one topic

Most enterprise buyers will never put a name on a can. In B2B, the version of "going viral" I have seen work is a resource good enough that people pass it on.

I wrote about a lead magnet that spread for my company at the time, Lead Cookie, in January 2019. Its lead magnets had brought 2,083 email sign-ups in the previous 18 months without any advertising spend. I did not plan where the main piece went: as far as I could tell, someone had posted it in a Facebook group or a Reddit thread, and inquiries arrived. The principle I took from it was to make the piece the best resource on the internet for its topic, so specific and complete that people want to share it, and then to promote it anyway: link to it from other posts and mention it on podcasts and webinars. For most B2B companies, that is a more realistic aim than a stunt.

Checks before launch

Before launch, ask:

• Does the idea fit the brand's voice?
• Will the cultural moment still be relevant when the campaign appears?
• Does the work give people a reason to share it?
• Have we defined the business result beyond reach?

Frequently asked questions

What is viral marketing?

Viral marketing is a campaign that spreads mainly because people choose to share it, so its reach grows well beyond what the brand paid to distribute. Paid media, creators and PR often help start or extend that spread.

Can you plan for a campaign to go viral?

You can plan for the conditions: a reason to share, a fit with the brand, seeding, and readiness to respond. You cannot plan the outcome. Spotify Wrapped shows how far design can take it, and Popeyes shows how far the audience and the press can carry a launch once a brand gives them something to repeat.

How do you measure a viral campaign?

Agree on the business measure before launch, and keep attention measures (impressions, mentions, media value) separate from business results (users, trial, sales). Duolingo reported both: 1.7 billion organic impressions and a lift in new and returning users.

How quickly does a viral campaign spread?

The cases here moved within days or weeks. Dove reached more than 50 million viewers within 12 days. About two weeks after launch, Popeyes announced that its US restaurants would sell out of the sandwich by the end of that week. In the five days after Dead Duo began, Meltwater measured average daily Duolingo mentions at more than five times the average of the five days before. Plan the response for that speed.

Can a small business create a viral campaign?

Yes. Candy Funhouse, a Canadian online candy store, first went viral through a fan's review, its founder says. The work that followed was noticing it and building on it.