In 2013 a global soft drink manufacturer launched its new Mini Bottles in Israel. The company teamed up with the innovation agency Gefen Team and set up a pop-up 3-D printing lab in its main bottling plant in Israel. Regular users were required to download a special free app, log in and create a small, virtual character of themselves. Afterwards, each one of the participants had to take care of their ‘mini me’ in an online game by keeping their virtual person happy and healthy by picking out clothes and shopping for food.
Those who got the highest score in the app (reviewed by the community) were invited to the bottling factory, where they were scanned and subsequently received a 3-D print of themselves – a ‘mini-me’. More than 100,000 users downloaded the app during the first week and the app became the number 1 in Israel’s webstores. The company received massive press and social media coverage, both from Israel but also from abroad. Most important, sales of Mini bottles reached the whole year’s sales target in Israel within two months.
Why did the innovative digital marketing strategy adopted by the company go viral and succeed?
