WTS? — The ‘Wilmore Funeral Home’ Viral Marketing Stunt

Summary

An advertising agency, BooneOakley, executed a viral marketing stunt for their client StarMED, using a truck with funeral home branding to promote COVID-19 vaccinations, effectively leveraging the global pandemic and vaccine debate to increase local vaccination rates.

Abstract

The 'Wilmore Funeral Home' viral marketing stunt was a strategic campaign by BooneOakley for StarMED, designed to boost local vaccine rates in Charlotte, North Carolina. The campaign utilized a truck with provocative funeral home branding, sparking widespread attention and discussion on social media. The ad agency crafted a narrative that seamlessly integrated real-world experiences with digital engagement, directing individuals to a website that urged them to "get vaccinated or end up here." The campaign's success hinged on its timely and relevant subject matter, the contentious vax/anti-vax discourse, and the creative use of a stunt that played on the absurdity of the situation. The virality was further amplified by the involvement of a woman who had recently become a mother, challenging outdated notions about working mothers, and the earned media from traditional news outlets transitioning into the digital realm.

Opinions

The author expresses admiration for the creativity and effectiveness of the marketing stunt, despite generally disliking gimmicky ad agency tactics.
The campaign's meta-nature, pretending to be edgy guerilla marketing for a funeral home, is seen as a key factor in its virality, particularly within the marketing and advertising industry.
The stunt is praised for its brilliant bridging of real-world and digital experiences, effectively funneling attention to the client's objective.
The use of a global pandemic as a backdrop for the campaign is acknowledged as a significant factor in its ability to penetrate the cultural zeitgeist.
The ad's meme-ability and the discussion it generated on social media platforms are considered crucial to its viral success.
The involvement of a new mother in the campaign's creation is highlighted as an important counterpoint to patriarchal myths about maternal commitment and competence in the workplace.
The author notes the pivot of traditional media outlets towards embracing and covering digital virality, as evidenced by the coverage of the stunt by CNN, Washington Post, and People magazine.

WTS? — The ‘Wilmore Funeral Home’ Viral Marketing Stunt

Image sourced from NowThis via Booneoakley

I am usually against gimmicky ad-agency stunts, but god damn, this was absolutely brilliant.

It seems as the Tweet below was what really kicked off the virality:

To set the scene — the truck in the photo above was thought to belong to a funeral home in Charlotte, North Carolina. It turned out to actually be a stunt by an advertising agency for their client StarMED, who offers the vaccine locally, as a creative way to try and boost local vaccine rates.

The meta-ness of an ad agency pretending to do edgy guerilla marketing for a funeral home to achieve the above-mentioned objective is a big reason why it was amplified by so many accounts and publications within the marketing and advertising niches.

The stunt perfectly blended the real world experience with the digital experience. There was a website on the truck, which was flooded with traffic, and it was a landing page that simply said “get vaccinated or end up here”. It was a brilliant bridge built by the agency to funnel that attention to their client and achieve the ultimate goal of the campaign — increase the local vaccination rate.

Ironically, the key element of virality here is an actual virus. There simply cannot be an event that penetrates the zeitgeist of an era more than a global pandemic, so a photo of this truck was bound to go viral.

One of the creatives behind this ad seems to be the woman who authored the Tweet below:

This team has a superb grasp of meme-ability. They knew the absurdity of the ad, plus the popularity of the vax/anti-vax debate in the cultural discourse, would make it perfect for a screenshot to post to Twitter. People would then use the image to comment their thoughts on vaccination, either directly or indirectly, thus making it go viral.

This ad is a perfect example of how the raw material for memes comes from real-world events. While it may seem our lives have become increasingly digital, the real world is still the oxygen the Internet ecosystem of viral content needs to stay alive.

The cherry-on-top awesomeness of this trending ad is that the person behind it is a woman who recently had a baby, disproving the patriarchal myth that being a mom somehow means you are less committed/ less competent at your job.

Lastly, the earned media from traditional publications and news outlets shows how traditional media outlets have pivoted into having an active relationship with digital virality.

The owner of the agency was on CNN and both Washington Post and People magazine, amongst others, covered the story for the digital arm of their operations.

Why That Slapped: Key Insights

The global pandemic and anything related to the vax/anti-vax debate is the ultimate trending topic, and therefore the ultimate potential for trendjacking.

Trendjacking the pandemic with tact seems impossible but this ad agency had the perfect client to pull it off with. Timing + context + method of delivery are HUGE.

The myth of the working new mom being less competent/committed is, slowly but surely, being erased from the zeitgeist, and this Tweet gave that effort a nudge.

Real world events are the necessary raw material for creating memes.

Traditional media has leaned into their relationship with digital virality

This article belongs to an ongoing content series called ‘Why’d That Slap?’ — examining Twitter virality Tweet by Tweet. Newsletter starts October 6th! It’s free!