3M’s Post-it Runs Smart Viral UGC Campaign
This viral UGC campaign by 3M’s Post-it I like a lot. Why? Since Post-it not only launched a standalone viral commercial (Super Sticky Man), but also took the strategic decision to build an online brand engagement theater inviting consumers to participate in a user created video competition.
3M Post-it have launched a branded YouTube Contest Page with an infomercial which explains clearly how the video competition works. And Post-it has launched this well designed (great usability) micro website.
Competition participants that upload their own created video to the Post-it website can win the grand prize of $10,000 cash!
Also the winning UGC video may be featured as “America’s #1 Choice” on the Post-it.com website and on the Post-it Notes YouTube channel for three (3) months. Second Prize: $2,500 cash. Third Prize: $1,500 cash.
Ten finalists will be chosen by 3M from all of the video submissions. All 10 finalists will win a laptop computer. During the second phase of the contest, those finalists will be turned over to you, the viewers, to pick the top three (3) prize winners.
Also Post-it has launched a PDF: the One Million and Counting Video Creation Kit to explain users to brief the potential participating people.
3M Post-it has done a good viral job here. It’s much more than a standalone viral commercial; the strategic choice to launch a brand engagement theater is smart. Using YouTube is clever. Using UGC videos to increase consumer engagement and improve viral effect is smart. Offering strong incentives (prizes) also triggers more people to have a look (increase website traffic).
I think one improvement could be made to this campaign as well: the micro site’s URL in the last screen of the viral commercial is communicated very short and not very clear.
And I’m curious to see what natural seeding and paid seeding tactics were used, and how the tracking of the viral commercial’s reach was done.
Please tell our community how you rate this campaign and why…. we can all learn from peer interactions 
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[...] writes and draws a great Pagan comic, The Many Moons of Astra). This is their submission for the Post-it Notes video competition of [...]
Igor,
you might be interested in this blog post.
It explains why 3M’s “smart viral UGC campaign” as you call it, wasn’t really that smart of a move. The company is leveraging a creative asset that previously went viral, steamrolling the creator of that asset, and then asking the very same community that made the asset go viral in the first place to reward 3M for dissing the community.
Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog.
Cheers! Sandra. R.
It think this post-it idea is really cool and engaging!
@Tiffany
Pretty simple but clever