Why Many Viral Campaigns Miss the Mark

When virality happens without strategic grounding, it risks short-term buzz but long-term brand damage. Apple’s 2023 “Crush!” ad was provocative but insensitive, undermining its brand values around creativity. Pepsi’s infamous Kendall Jenner ad attempted to hijack social movements for attention, backfiring with global backlash. In both cases, the campaigns failed to manage the conversation effectively, and first and foremost lacked relevance.

By contrast, Duolingo’s TikTok campaigns and Dove’s “Cost of Beauty” succeeded because they bonded with users around shared values, educated and entertained through authentic storytelling. They also moderated cultural conversations with sensitivity. They didn’t just go viral—they built equity.

Take Elf Beauty’s “So Many Dicks” campaign: cheeky and provocative, but rooted in a cultural insight on boardroom diversity. It sparked meaningful discussion, made people laugh while learning, and invited mass participation across channels.

Key Questions for Brand Teams

• Are we creating content that helps our community express identity or values?

• Does the content spark curiosity, joy, or participation—or just noise?

• Are we prepared to moderate the conversation our content may trigger?

• Does the campaign enhance or dilute our iconic brand positioning?

Final Thought

The real power lies in clarity: knowing which job your brand wants to perform and designing content accordingly. In a landscape where attention is fragmented but meaning is craved, the brands that will truly win are those who go viral with purpose—and stay relevant for the right reasons.

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Source: David Dubois, associate professor at INSEAD, HBR article https://hbr.org/2025/05/a-new-framework-for-going-viral

A brand manifests in countless touchpoints:

• The product that makes someone’s day better

• The packaging that creates a moment of delight

• The message that resonates personally

• The store experience that connects

• The service that turns customers into advocates

And its backed by data

• 95% of purchase decisions happen in the subconscious, influenced by brand familiarity and emotional connection (Harvard Business Review).

• Two-thirds of consumers say their brand loyalty is driven by great customer experiences, not just products (PwC).

Creating a Living, Breathing Brand

Memorable brands build connections through a thoughtful cascade of communication:

Brand Purpose: The foundational “why” that drives everything. It’s the reason your brand exists beyond profit—your contribution to customers’ lives and society at large.

Long-term Campaign: A consistent platform rooted in genuine consumer insight that can live for years. Think of it as your brand’s north star, guiding all communications. The best campaigns tap into deep human truths that remain relevant over time.

Communication: This is where your campaign comes to life across channels. It’s flexible enough to:

• Tell your brand story in fresh, engaging ways

• Tap into cultural moments that matter to your audience

• Introduce new products while maintaining brand consistency

• Create claims that drive purchase decisions

Let’s see how this cascade works:

Take Nike’s “Just Do It.” The campaign platform is built on the insight that everyone has an inner athlete waiting to break free. This powerful truth has sustained the campaign for decades. From this platform flows various communications:

• Inspiring stories of athletes overcoming obstacles

• Cultural moments like supporting Colin Kaepernick’s stand for social justice

• Product launches featuring new running shoe technology

• Performance claims or testimonials that help close the sale

Or consider Dove’s evolution:

• Purpose: Helping women develop a positive relationship with beauty

• Campaign Platform: “Real Beauty,” based on the insight that beauty standards make women feel less confident

• Communications: From documentary-style films to social media movements

• Product Messages: Specific claims about moisturizing benefits that connect back to feeling beautiful in your own skin

The key is maintaining clear connections between these levels:

• Each cultural moment reinforces the campaign platform

• Every product story fits naturally within the brand world

• All claims and benefits ladder up to the bigger brand story

Three questions worth reflecting on:

• Does your brand purpose translate into a campaign platform that connects with human truth or consumer insight?

• Do your communication and claims ladder up to your broader brand story?

• Are you consistent using assets that consumers associate with your brand?

The beauty of modern brand-building lies in this delicate balance:

• Between enduring purpose and cultural relevance

• Between emotional storytelling and practical benefits

• Between consistent campaign platforms and dynamic communications

• Between big brand ideas and specific product claims

Ultimately, a brand isn’t just what we see—it’s what we experience across every touchpoint. It’s about looking and feeling coherent. And it’s not just about what we say—it’s about how we connect what we say to what people care about.

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1. Understand Your Consumer

A successful turnaround starts with deep consumer understanding. Knowing your consumer like a best friend—understanding their wants, needs, challenges, and daily lives—is foundational. For example on OLAY it was critical to understand the anti-ageing benefits women seek to tackle at 30, 40 and 50 years.

Once you understand your consumer, your company and brand’s activity system should be centred around the consumer. The business leader should direct this to enable the team.

2. Define Your Playfield

Clarity on your market, category segmentation, and competition is critical. Sometimes, this means looking beyond direct competitors to understand broader consumer choices. It will enable you to spot market opportunities and influence your brand positioning and offering. At IONIQ Skincare, we recognised that our competition wasn’t limited to body care but extended to beauty device brands.

Once you understand your playfield – take a step back and look at which geographies and channels to focus first. Look at the size of the opportunity, the trend and also effort it takes to unlock it.

3. Position Your Brand Strategically

A turnaround requires a clear brand positioning that meets identified consumer needs, builds an emotional connection and is differentiated from your competition. Your brand’s purpose should resonate with consumers and help to make a positive difference for the broader community, ideally the world. Consistency in visuals and messaging is key to recognizability and trust.

At KIKO Milano, positioning ourselves as an Italian beauty brand proved to be an accelerator.

4. Drive Growth Through Product & Innovation

Your assortment and innovation are often critical growth drivers. Assess whether your assortment meets consumer needs, aligns with market trends and is competitive. Identify hero products and glorify them. Set a clear innovation cadence whether through product launches, communication including influencers, or sales activations. For some brands, like those I’ve worked with, monthly news was necessary to deliver growth.

Ensure your product quality and promise are true and designed against consumer needs and wants.

5. Deliver Consistent Communication

You can’t generate demand without relevant and synchronized communication. Ensure a unified message across all touchpoints, connecting back to your brand. One clear, consistent message at a time is far more effective than fragmented campaigns. This message needs to be relevant to the consumer and start from a consumer insight.

For the Safeguard brand, the key was to use the white hand demo.

6. Nail Go-to-Market Strategies

Examine your pricing—both per unit and per milliliter/gram—to ensure competitiveness and alignment with product quality. Define the role of each channel and assess whether your brand has the tools to win in those spaces, including appropriate packaging, pricing, and promotions. Understand how your product is distributed and its velocity.

Promotions, while often essential to drive growth, should be profitable, brand-building, and consumer-centric. Look at the product combinations, margins, and mechanics (e.g. discount, multi-buy) with the brand’s communication strategy.

At KIKO Milano, we ran a big data analysis that led to promotions including consumer-relevant, and more profitable product combinations.

7. Structure Your Organization for Success

Turnarounds demand an effective organisational structure and cross-functional collaboration. At KIKO Milano, breaking down silos between HQ and markets was crucial.

A learning culture, change management, and the right talents are non-negotiables for success.

Final Thoughts

Every turnaround involves analysis, strategic clarity, and flawless execution. Strategic clarity also means to be clear about the 3 to 5 things that will make the biggest difference to the business.

It’s about aligning your consumer insights, market understanding, and organisational design to unlock growth opportunities. Last but not least cost-control is as essential as tacking opportunities and barriers for growth.

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A strong positioning means little if it’s not backed up by a delightful brand experience. The way a brand executes its service, whether online or in-store, can make the business and brand thrive but if done poorly, it can also lead to customer disappointment and harm the business.

The Role of Brand Experience in Driving Business

A well-executed brand experience builds emotional connections and creates lasting impressions. It ensures that customers not only enjoy the product or service but also feel valued by the brand.

In eCommerce, for example, brand experience manifests in the purchasing process, the unboxing moment, and the after-sales experience.

In the physical retail world, brand experience starts the moment a customer steps into the store. The way they are greeted, the atmosphere created by the layout and design, and the interaction with the staff all shape their perception of the brand. Rituals does this excellently by offering every customer a cup of tea while they browse.

Similarly, SK-II, a luxury skincare brand, delivers a sensory experience by applying their signature ingredient “Pitera” via their hero product the clear lotion on customers’ hands.

On the other hand, if a brand neglects the quality of its experience, it can directly impact its business results. A powerful example of this is Starbucks. The company was renowned for its warm, inviting “third place” environment, a space that wasn’t home or work, but a place for people to relax, talk, and enjoy their coffee. The handwritten notes on cups, the comfy chairs, and the cozy atmosphere were all elements of the Starbucks experience that made it a beloved brand.

However, over the years, Starbucks has moved away from that original promise. The once-comfy chairs have been replaced by harder wooden ones, making the space less inviting for customers to stay. The handwritten notes, sometimes including friendly compliments or pick-me-ups, have been replaced by printed orders—removing a key aspect of the brand’s famed human connection.

Brand-bulding means being clear on your client’s needs and pains, your purpose (why you exist), your benefit and how it differentiates your brand from the competition. It also requires that your stay true to your promise in your execution – the brand and sales experience your brand is offering is a critical part.

Would you like to discuss how this applies to your business?

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