Viral marketing campaigns are an amazing way to generate a huge amount of buzz and brand awareness whether they are carried out online or offline.
In this post we have honored the best viral marketing campaigns of all time, both online and offline.
If you know of a campaign that deserves to be on the list why not write about it in the comments.
Ronaldinho: Touch of Gold (Nike)
Without doubt my favourite video on the list is this masterpiece from Nike. Watch as Ronaldinho takes delivery of a new pair of boots and spends over two minutes demonstrating the most amazing football skills the internet has ever seen.
My Heart Will Go On (Free Macbook Air)
The genius of this video isn’t in the song (that’s just been copied from the Titanic video) it’s in the fact that the user uploaded the video just to promote an affiliate deal.
How many of the 21.9 million users who viewed this clip clicked on the affiliate link I wonder?
Guitar (GuitarMasterPro.net)
This video shows viral marketing in its simplest form. Upload an amazing video clip of a guy playing the guitar, write a quick note saying that he learnt to play the guitar at GuitarMasterPro.net and hope some of the 45 million viewers want to learn to play too.
Dynamite Surfing (Quicksilver)
With a reputed 10 million page views in the first few months of launch this viral advert for Quicksilver took the web by storm and did more to promote the brand than all their other advertising combined.
Of course we know the footage was staged and the surfers were really actors but this didn’t stop the video spreading virally around the web.
Do The Test (Transport for London)
This video has made the list purely because it has seen so many page views in a very short time. In just 3 months over 3.7 million people have viewed the video making it one of the top campaigns of 200.
Stolen Nascar (TaxBrain.com)
Promoting a website about tax is pretty difficult so the marketers behind this stunt decided to get creative.
They staged the theft of a Nascar with their website address on the site and managed to get over $1 million woth of TV exposure totally free within just a few days.
Subservient Chicken (Burger King)
Launched in 2004 and racking up an amazing 46 million views in the first week Subservient Chicken is deserving of a place on any viral marketing list.