An Egg Broke The Internet And Then What?

On January 4th 2019, @world_record_egg posted an image of an egg on Instagram and sought out to be the most liked picture on Instagram, surpassing Kylie Jenner. The egg did just that with a fleeting 53,144,255 likes (to date 2/28/19). This kind of thing doesn’t happen every day. There was a lot of chance with this, but it was so successful because an egg is universal. An egg has no race, religion, or gender, making it a commonality that everyone can get behind. Part of the mystery was that nobody knew who posted the egg and everyone wanted to stick around to see who it was and what they were going to do next. This is key. Once you have your audience (9.9 million followers), what do you do with it and how do you keep their attention?

Once you have an audience, you must engage with it.

Today, your brand is more than what you’re selling; it’s who you are, what you stand behind, and how you engage with your audience. A large part of this is shown through your social media. The World Record Egg knew what they were doing.

These are some ways they kept their audience on its toes after the most liked image on social media.

  1. They created multiple hashtags with purpose. #EggGang #EggSoldiers #LikeTheEgg. #LikeTheEgg got the message around faster to get likes as fast as possible. While #EggGang and #EggSoldiers made the audience feel like they were a part of the movement and conversation.
  2. Their content was majority user-generated content. They used stories in a strategic way. People likely posted about them more because they knew it had the opportunity to get reposted onto the World Record Egg’s story. The use of user-generated content created a conversation among millions of people.
  3. They updated their page frequently. Every day they had different merchandise. Because the merchandise expired within 24 hours, it generated a sense of urgency for people to buy it right away before they lost the chance.
  4. They gave back. Through merchandise sales, they gave back part of their proceeds to charities. This gave them credibility as a brand you could trust and want to stand behind. Yes, it is fun to have an “egg gang” t-shirt and to be a part of a conversation, but to have the t-shirt and give back to mental illness awareness is even better.
  5. They had a plan. One of the reasons this campaign was so successful was because people were waiting to see if this was random or if there was a plan/campaign behind it. Along with the story content, the posts were creating a storyboard leading to the main post. The final post showed the egg cracking and expressed, “Recently, I’ve started to crack. The pressure of social media is getting to me. If you’re struggling too, talk to someone. We got this. For more info visit talkingegg.info.” The link brings you to a page with resources for countries across the world where you can find help. This post was simple yet so impactful.

How can you use this in your own brand?

These strategies can be used on all scales, whether you have 100 or 9.9 million followers. Your audience wants to stay updated, to be a part of the conversation, and to see that you care about them.

This campaign will be studied and set as an example for a long time. What will their next campaign be?

 

Fun Fact: Here at Brasco ///, we were not only excited to follow along and watch the campaign unfold, but we were especially excited to see the love for eggs all over the world. One of our long-time clients is the North Carolina Egg Association. NC Egg Association promotes the egg and poultry industry within the state. Check out our case study on them and their website.