Eric Siu breaks down three marketing campaigns that went viral: Red Bull's guerrilla "Empty Can" stunt, a billboard using people with celebrity names, and Spotify Wrapped's shareable year-end reports.
3 creative ways to market a product. Back in the '90s, Red Bull was broke and unknown. They didn't have money for any marketing, so they came up with a genius idea. They placed empty cans in trash bins near college campuses and busy areas in London. Students saw the cans everywhere and assumed it was already popular, so they started buying it themselves. This is known as the Empty Can Campaign. Another campaign I love did this instead. They ran billboards using real people who happened to have celebrity names like Dwayne Johnson, Serena Williams, and Michael Jordan, and it turned a tiny media buy into a viral joke people couldn't ignore. Third, Spotify Wrapped, another genius way to set a trend. They turned user listening data into shareable year-end reports. People love numbers and they are snoopy. They want to know what's on each other's playlist. This way, users distribute free ads. People not on Spotify would download it to be a part of the trend. Follow for more marketing campaigns that prove creativity can beat budget.
