Friday, January 18, 2019

Talk about Egg-travagant.

Earlier this week, I was stunned to learn that a good old-fashioned egg had broken the world record for 'likes' on Instagram. In the three seconds it took me to Google The Egg, I learned that an attempt to dethrone Kylie Jenner's prior world record breaking post had been successful - and Kardashian frenemies everywhere were delighted.

I'm not exactly sure how something so ridiculous captivated our society for 3 days, but I've captured my reflections below:

1) Social media is powerful. A simple, anonymous request from a London-based Instagram account challenged loyal users everywhere to usurp the crown from Kylie and place it squarely on The Egg's head for safekeeping. The Egg, which went viral in mere hours, quickly triggered various hashtag # references, including #EggGang , #LikeTheEgg and others,  and became the subject of water cooler talk. Within a day, Amazon and Etsy had both filled their sites with various Egg-related merchandise. Talk about Egg-travagant!

2) Kylie Jenner's popularity - and followership on Instagram - probably benefited considerably from the egg-tra noise. Was that really necessary?

3) Speed to market matters. In marketing (and in life), timing matters. And so does speed when you're pushing products because something went viral. Although The Egg gear may lose steam over the next few days, there were many who profited considerably.

Ultimately, The Egg brought to light the importance of how easily influenced popular culture is by social media. Until next time...#TheEgg2020

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