What the best viral campaigns on social media have in common
Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2025 5:51 am
Although emotion fuels virality, it’s not solely canada business email list about the feels. Marketers have goals in mind when shaping social campaigns. For “Breaking Up with Spring Break,” promoting public safety was the main objective. Berthier shared in previous years there was widespread violence during spring break season, including several shooting casualties.
Following a commission directive from Miami Beach elected officials, City of Miami Beach partnered with the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau and VML, its agency on record, to ideate a campaign.
“It’s hard to make your goal to go viral because you never know how people are going to react to things. In [our campaign video], at first you don’t really know what you’re watching. It’s not dialogue you’re used to seeing from a city government. Normally, they’re saying to visit, but in this case, we’re saying we only want you to come if you’re going to follow our rules,” Brown says.
Brown shared that she opened a social listening query in Sprout the Monday after the campaign went viral. She says she saw a large volume of messages coming in and media mentions from local, national and global publications. The “Breaking Up with Spring Break” campaign got 20 billion earned media and social media impressions. The campaign was also later shortlisted in three categories for Cannes Lions.
“The virality was unexpected to an extent. I don’t think we were expecting to get the number of impressions and eyeballs that it ended up getting. We were happy that the message went out and people heard it. Thankfully, we had a safe spring break and there was a drastic difference between this year and previous years. The message was received, and that was the goal of the campaign,” she says.
Quote callout from Madison Brown.
Whether it’s a singular social media viral video or a series of static posts, viral campaigns have commonalities. Here are four components that the best viral social media campaigns encompass.
Following a commission directive from Miami Beach elected officials, City of Miami Beach partnered with the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau and VML, its agency on record, to ideate a campaign.
“It’s hard to make your goal to go viral because you never know how people are going to react to things. In [our campaign video], at first you don’t really know what you’re watching. It’s not dialogue you’re used to seeing from a city government. Normally, they’re saying to visit, but in this case, we’re saying we only want you to come if you’re going to follow our rules,” Brown says.
Brown shared that she opened a social listening query in Sprout the Monday after the campaign went viral. She says she saw a large volume of messages coming in and media mentions from local, national and global publications. The “Breaking Up with Spring Break” campaign got 20 billion earned media and social media impressions. The campaign was also later shortlisted in three categories for Cannes Lions.
“The virality was unexpected to an extent. I don’t think we were expecting to get the number of impressions and eyeballs that it ended up getting. We were happy that the message went out and people heard it. Thankfully, we had a safe spring break and there was a drastic difference between this year and previous years. The message was received, and that was the goal of the campaign,” she says.
Quote callout from Madison Brown.
Whether it’s a singular social media viral video or a series of static posts, viral campaigns have commonalities. Here are four components that the best viral social media campaigns encompass.