Viral marketing examples
The campaigns that spread, what the brand did, why people shared it, and the formats you can copy. Start with a category, or the 50 most significant below. From the team of PRpackage.com and dtcs.co
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Open the full libraryThe 50 most significant viral marketing examples
Picked because they have a stated result, people still search for them by name, or they’re the best example of their format.
Our Blades Are F***ing Great
Founder Michael Dubin starred in a low-budget launch video, walking through the warehouse pitching $1 razors.
Result About 12,000 orders in the first 48 hours. Unilever bought the company for $1B in 2016.
Ice Bucket Challenge
People filmed themselves getting doused with ice water, then nominated three friends to do it or donate.
Result The ALS Association reported $115M raised in about eight weeks.
Spotify Wrapped
Every December, users get a personal recap of their listening, formatted as shareable story cards.
Whopper Detour
The BK app unlocked a 1-cent Whopper, but only if you ordered while standing near a McDonald's.
Result The BK app climbed to the top of the App Store charts.
The Epic Split
Jean-Claude Van Damme did the splits between two reversing Volvo trucks to show how precisely they steer.
Result Passed 59 million YouTube views within about a month.
Michael CeraVe
CeraVe spent a month seeding a fake rumour, with paparazzi shots and influencers, that Michael Cera had founded the brand, then paid it off with a Super Bowl ad.
Result 9 billion earned impressions before kick-off.
The KitKat Heist
When a truck carrying 12 tonnes of KitKats was stolen a week before Easter, KitKat publicised the theft and asked the public to help find it.
Result Won the PR Grand Prix at Cannes Lions.
#NuggsForCarter
A teen asked how many retweets he needed for a year of free nuggets. Wendy's replied: 18 million.
Result Became the most-retweeted tweet at the time, passing the Ellen Oscars selfie.
The death of Duo
Duolingo announced its owl mascot had died, leaned into the memes for weeks, then brought him back.
The Man on the Moon
A girl sees a lonely old man on the moon through her telescope and finds a way to send him a gift.
Result Passed 6 million YouTube views soon after release.
The Travis Scott Meal
McDonald's sold Travis Scott's usual order as a named meal, promoted to his fanbase.
Result Demand was high enough that some restaurants ran short of Quarter Pounder ingredients.
The mascara buses
A CGI video of London transport wearing giant false lashes being brushed with mascara.
Dunk in the Dark
When the power cut out during the Super Bowl, Oreo posted a dimly lit cookie with a line about dunking in the dark.
The share grid
A daily word game let players share a spoiler-free grid of coloured squares.
Result The New York Times bought it in early 2022.
The car-fire Quencher
A creator posted her burnt-out car with her Stanley cup intact and ice still inside. Stanley's president replied offering to replace her car.
FCK
During a UK chicken shortage that shut hundreds of stores, KFC ran a full-page apology with its bucket letters rearranged to FCK.
Christmas Miracle
Passengers told a video Santa what they wanted for Christmas before their flight. WestJet staff bought the gifts and had them on the baggage carousel when they landed.
Result Earned the airline millions of dollars' worth of free advertising, per Forbes.
The Charli
Dunkin' put Charli D'Amelio's usual cold brew order on the menu as "The Charli".
Result Sold hundreds of thousands of drinks and app downloads spiked 57% on launch.
Free space for referrals
Users earned extra free storage for each friend who signed up, and the friend got bonus space too.
Best Job in the World
A job ad for an island caretaker on the Great Barrier Reef, with applicants submitting videos.
Result Over 34,000 video applications.
Stratos
Felix Baumgartner jumped from the edge of space, streamed live.
Result Around 8 million concurrent live viewers on YouTube.
The Bambino bag cars
Videos showed Jacquemus's Bambino bags as tiny cars driving through the streets of Paris.
Result 48.8 million views.
The edible mascot
At the first Pop-Tarts Bowl, the mascot climbed into a giant toaster and came out as a giant Pop-Tart that the winning team ate.
Result 4x more engagement than all other bowl game sponsors combined.
The Farmers' Choir
A choir of 34 working farmers, first assembled for a beer ad designed to be banned, entered Britain's Got Talent.
Result Became the first choir ever to win Britain's Got Talent, with the final watched live by 4.1 million.
Not Just a Cadbury Ad
For Diwali, Cadbury used AI to generate versions of a Shah Rukh Khan ad that named small local shops, which the shop owners could use as their own ads.
Result Won India's first Titanium Lion at Cannes.
Did You Mean MailChimp?
Mailchimp leaned into people mispronouncing its name, launching spoof brands and products built on the misheard versions, like MailShrimp.
Result Won a Cyber Grand Prix at Cannes Lions 2017.
The Man Your Man Could Smell Like
A one-take ad with Isaiah Mustafa talking straight to camera, followed by rapid-fire personalised video replies to people commenting online.
Real Beauty Sketches
A forensic sketch artist drew women from their own description, then from a stranger's. The stranger's version was kinder.
Result Became one of the most-watched online ads of its time.
Share a Coke
Coca-Cola swapped its logo for popular first names on bottles, starting in Australia.
Dumb Ways to Die
A cute, dark animated song about silly ways to die, ending on a rail-safety message.
The email signature
Every email sent from Hotmail carried a line inviting the recipient to get a free account.
Result Millions of users within about a year and a half. Microsoft bought it in 1997.
Will It Blend?
The founder blended things like marbles and an iPhone in short videos.
Chicken sandwich wars
After Chick-fil-A tweeted about its sandwich, Popeyes replied with a short jab and the internet picked sides.
Result The sandwich sold out in about two weeks.
#GuacDance
For National Avocado Day, Chipotle launched a TikTok dance challenge set to a song about guacamole, with free guac as the hook.
Result Chipotle reported a record day for guacamole orders.
The Dreams skateboard video
A man skateboarded to work sipping Ocean Spray to Fleetwood Mac. The brand gifted him a truck.
Grimace Shake
A purple birthday shake for Grimace sparked a TikTok trend of mock-horror clips.
Mexican Pizza: The Musical
After fans campaigned for its return, Taco Bell brought back the Mexican Pizza, announced by Doja Cat at Coachella and promoted with a TikTok musical starring her and Dolly Parton.
Result It sold out, and Taco Bell made it a permanent menu item.
The mochi TikTok trend
A TikTok trend of people buying and trying Little Moons mochi snowballed in early 2021.
Result Sales rose 700% at Tesco.
#heimkommen
An elderly man fakes his own death so his busy family will finally come home for Christmas.
Result City AM named it the early winner over that year's John Lewis and Sainsbury's ads.
Singles' Day
Alibaba turned 11 November, an informal day for single people in China, into a shopping festival.
Result Grew into what TechCrunch called China's $25 billion shopping festival.
#OptOutside
REI closed all its stores on Black Friday and paid employees to spend the day outside.
Result REI later made Black Friday closing permanent.
The Haven platform
An insurer gave every one of Australia's 11 million homes a free risk report, told in the home's own voice, using its own data.
Result Won the Titanium Grand Prix at Cannes Lions 2026.
Free watches for Instagrammers
Daniel Wellington gifted watches to Instagram creators of all sizes, each with their own discount code to share.
Baseline
When a creator's video accidentally calling it "Baseline" became a meme, Vaseline mock-rebranded as Baseline and named her CEO.
Result Built on a creator video that passed 2 million views.
Draw Ketchup
Heinz asked people to draw ketchup. Nearly everyone drew a Heinz bottle, and those drawings became the ad.
Murder your thirst
Canned water sold with heavy-metal branding.
Don't Buy This Jacket
On Black Friday, Patagonia ran a full-page New York Times ad showing its best-selling jacket with the headline "Don't Buy This Jacket", asking people to buy less and repair more.
Invite-only Gmail
Gmail launched on April Fools' Day with 1GB of storage, but only to about 1,000 people, who could each invite a few friends.
Result Invites sold on eBay for $150 and more, per TIME.
Million Dollar Whopper
Fans designed their own Whopper with a generative AI tool that made an image and a personal jingle. Three finalists went on menus and the winner got $1 million.
Result More than a million submissions, per Burger King.
Jen AI
Virgin Voyages let people create personalised cruise invitations from an AI version of Jennifer Lopez to send to friends.
Result More than 1,000 bookings in the first month, per CNBC.
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Viral marketing examples: FAQ
What is viral marketing?
Viral marketing is when a campaign spreads mainly because people share it, not because the brand paid to show it to them. The brand makes the first push; the audience does most of the distribution.
What are some examples of viral marketing?
Well-known examples include the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, Dollar Shave Club's launch video, Spotify Wrapped, Burger King's Whopper Detour, Volvo Trucks' Epic Split and CeraVe's Michael Cera campaign.
What makes a marketing campaign go viral?
Most campaigns here share at least one of these: people get something out of sharing it (a brag, an identity, a laugh), the format is easy to copy, it lands on a moment people are already watching, or sharing is built into the product.
How can I use these examples?
Pick a category, find a format that fits your budget, and use the one-line "Copy this" version and template for your own brand. There are 1041 examples in the full library.
Know a campaign we should add, or spot a mistake? Email team@odim.co.