A Lesson in Viral Marketing
Apparel marketers should pay heed to the story of Three Wolf Moon, which is quickly becoming Internet legend and a keen example of how effective viral marketing can be.
It got started a few weeks ago when Rutgers University student Brian Govern was searching for a book on Amazon.com. Amazon’s business intelligence software hiccupped and, instead of spewing back book titles, recommended a somewhat tacky T-shirt featuring a print of three timberwolves howling at the moon. Govern laughed and left a comment on Amazon’s feedback system, writing that the shirt “fits my girthy frame, has wolves on it and attracts women.”
The snippy comment garnered a few laughs and eventually caught fire as others followed up with their own satirical remarks. It eventually reached the crew at collegehumor.com, whose followers added close to 1,000 more comments such as “You don’t put this shirt on your torso. You put it on your soul” and "This shirt cures cancer."
Meanwhile, the producer of the shirt, Keeny, N.H.-based The Mountain, is laughing all the way to the bank as the shirt became the top-selling apparel item on Amazon, with sales peaking at 100 per hour.
A Brooklyn, N.Y., comedy troupe produced a parody here on YouTube.com and the story has also become a hit on Twitter and Facebook. The latest addenum comes via a book deal.
