3 Viral Social Media Campaigns And Why They Worked

Every marketer wants their social media campaigns to “go viral”, but being viral isn’t just entirely by pure luck. The most effective viral social media campaigns are built on clear strategy: emotional storytelling, smart use of data, user-generated content (UGC), and platform-native creative that people want to share.

At Near, we see this every day in the way standout campaigns blend storytelling with structure whether it’s our work on campaigns, or our guide on trend-jacking that actually fits your brand.

Below, we break down three viral campaigns and unpack why they worked, plus what you can steal for your own campaigns.

1. Spotify Wrapped 

Every December, Spotify Wrapped turns listening data into a personal story: your top artists, songs, and genres, wrapped in bold visuals and built for sharing on Instagram Stories, X, and TikTok.

Marketing breakdown from industry analyses shows why it’s genius:

• It uses data to make each user feel seen, not surveilled.

• It’s visually built for mobile, with snackable slides optimized for screenshots and shares.

• It invites reflection (“this was my year in music form”), which deepens emotional attachment to the platform.

In our Spotify Wrapped 2024 campaign with Near, we leaned into that same principle-making Wrapped feel personal and proudly shareable by working with creators whose content styles mirrored how people naturally talk about their listening habits online.

Why it worked (and what you can copy):Spotify Wrapped shows that data can be delightful when you turn it into a story. Instead of keeping insights in dashboards, they turned them into social currency. For your brand, that might look like: milestone roundups, “year in review” moments, or progress snapshots that help users say, “This is me” and share it.

2. Nike’s “Just Do It”

A slogan that became a movement. Launched in 1988, Nike’s “Just Do It” is one of the most enduring campaign platforms in marketing history. The line is short, forceful, and open-ended enough that anyone—from elite athletes to first-time runners—can project their own story into it.

Case studies highlight a few core reasons it worked so well over decades:

• The slogan is universal but deeply personal; it speaks to fear, self-doubt, and action in three words.

• Nike consistently pairs it with emotionally charged storytelling like “Dream Crazy” and “Dream Crazier,” which spotlight underrepresented athletes and social issues instead of just products.

• Across TV, social, and digital, the creative centers on human struggle and ambition, with the swoosh and product acting as supporting characters, not the main story.

Why it worked (and what you can copy):Nike proves that a clear brand POV + consistent storytelling can outlast any trend. On social, that means your campaign shouldn’t just chase memes; it should reinforce a core belief over and over. When your audience can summarize your brand in one line and it feels emotionally true, you’ve built a narrative people want to join.

3. Jet2’s “Nothing Beats a Jet2 Holiday”

In a travel space flooded with glossy drone shots and picture-perfect beaches, Jet2’s “Nothing Beats a Jet2 Holiday” hit differently. Instead of hyper-polished fantasy, the campaign leaned into real holiday footage: families, couples, and friends laughing, dancing, splashing in pools, and enjoying ordinary-but-special moments.

On TikTok, the catchy “Nothing Beats a Jet2 Holiday” audio became a trend in itself, with users stitching their own clips to the sound, effectively turning everyday travelers into co-creators of the campaign. Coverage notes how Jet2 capitalized on this quickly, embracing the meme energy instead of fighting it, and amplifying UGC rather than just pushing polished ads.

Why it worked (and what you can copy):Jet2 focused on feeling, not fantasy. The campaign reminds us that the most powerful travel ads are about the people you’re with. If you center real humans, real reactions, and real use cases (especially in short-form video), your campaign becomes more relatable and shareable by default.

What These Campaigns Have in Common

Different industries, different formats, but Spotify, Nike, and Jet2 share a few core playbook moves that any brand can adapt:

1. They start with a human truth, not a product brief.Spotify taps into identity and nostalgia. Nike taps into doubt and courage. Jet2 taps into the joy of shared experiences. The product is present, but the feeling leads.

2. They design for participation.Wrapped is built for screenshots and shares. “Just Do It” invites every person to write their own chapter under the same banner. Jet2’s TikToks became a template users could easily copy. 

3. They stay consistent across platforms while playing native.Each campaign translates across channels without losing its core idea. The message stays the same, but the execution matches each platform’s behavior and culture.

Key Takeaways: How to Apply This to Your Next Campaign

If you’re planning your next big social push, here are three actionable ways to borrow from these wins:

1. Turn insights into stories.Don’t let your data sit in a report. Turn it into personalized visuals, “year in review” moments, or community milestones your audience will be proud to share.

2. Lead with a clear, repeatable idea.Before you design a single asset, ask: Can this campaign be summed up in one line like “Just Do It” or “Nothing Beats a Jet2 Holiday”? If not, simplify until it can.

3. Design for co-creation.Build campaigns that welcome UGC, duets, stitches, or reaction content. The most powerful campaigns are the ones your audience helps finish, not just consume.

Want to create social media campaigns that are viral and valuable? Download Near’s Trends Guide to spot what’s shaping creator-led marketing in 2025 and turn those insights into campaigns people remember, not just scroll past.

3 Steps to Effective Influencer Briefs Without Losing Creativity

Your brand has 15 pages of guidelines. Your influencer has 15 seconds to sound authentic. The friction between brand control and creator voice is the central tension of every campaign, and it's why your influencer brief isn't just a document, but the blueprint that either grants creative freedom or guarantees a flop. You’re not just writing instructions, you’re also shaping how your brand shows up through another person’s voice. Yet, this crucial document is often treated like a rigid ad script, forgetting the core of creator-led content: authenticity.

Whether you're building a TikTok-first campaign or working with mid-tier Instagram creators, one thing is clear: authenticity drives results. And that starts with a smarter brief.

Let’s break down the three essential steps to writing an influencer brief that aligns with your brand and plays to a creator’s strengths backed by best practices from the creator economy.

Step 1: Build the foundation and not just the script.

A common pitfall? Over-writing the brief like it’s a TVC. Brands often go overboard with talking points, restrictive do’s and don’ts, and content that reads like a product manual.

Imagine a brief that specifies: "In the 1st second, hold the packaging with your thumb on the logo. From 3-5 seconds, state key benefit 1 ('₱100 OFF on your first order') while pointing at the screen. End the video with a mandated, unskippable call-to-action to click the bio link now, using only our specific link text." Nope, we don’t like that.

Here’s what not to do:

• Force influencers to follow a rigid script

• Prioritize features over stories

• Ignore the creator’s tone and audience

• Over-police visuals, captions, and hooks

Instead, approach the brief like a collaborative blueprint. Provide them with clarity and not with control.

The Essential Brief Foundation Checklist

Instead of over-scripting, focus on providing a clear brand foundation using these five essential elements:

• Brand & campaign overview: What’s the product, purpose, and positioning?

• Audience fit: Who are you speaking to and why is this creator a match?

• Key message pillars: Not full lines, rather just the must-mentions and value props

• Visual direction & sample content: Give examples that match your tone, without boxing them in

• Deliverables & deadlines: Be specific about formats, platforms, and timelines

Your brief must act as the strategic document that channels creative talent toward measurable goals, because, “Creativity without strategy might impress, but it won’t convert. Start with insight, not instinct.” - inBeat

Step 2: Leave room for platform-native creativity

Once your strategic foundation is rock solid, the next step is ensuring that your message translates authentically to the creator’s native environment. Your creators know their platform better than you do, so let them lead the way. Great content is built for the platform it lives on. TikTok needs fast hooks and trending audios. YouTube Shorts might need stronger storytelling flow. Instagram Reels rely on visuals and transitions. And influencers? They’ve already cracked that code.

How to empower influencers through your brief:

1. Set guidelines, not guardrails: Give product details, but let them shape the narrative

2. Match content types to creator strengths: Is it unboxing, POV, testimonial, or transformation?

3. Encourage organic mentions: Ditch the “say this line exactly” rule\

4. Trust their format instincts: Let them use trending audios, native hooks, and caption styles
   

Being intentional means your brief can't be a one-size-fits-all document. It requires you to do your homework and tailor key elements of the request to each individual creator. Take it from Bobabam’s Molly Savage via Superfiliate:

“Be intentional. Personalize the brief for each creator and match the format to what actually performs on their page.”

For example, in our KOL campaign with InLife, creators weren’t handed uniform scripts, they crafted TikToks around their own budgeting hacks and financial experiences. The result? Relatable, real content that made financial literacy feel fresh and not forced.

And remember: brief differently depending on the content’s use. Organic collab? Keep it light. Planning to boost or run it as paid ads? This shifts the entire legal and strategic scope, requiring clarity on two crucial components: Usage Rights (legal permission to use the content in your marketing channels) and Creator Whitelisting (giving the brand permission to run the ad directly from the creator's handle to leverage their social proof and audience targeting).

Step 3: Align expectations, but keep it humanized.

Lastly, the best briefs strike a balance: clear expectations and enough space for the creator to surprise you. Include the practical bits:

• Deliverables (Reels, TikToks, Stories, etc.)

• Posting dates & timelines

• Caption/hashtag requirements

• Key do’s & don’ts (e.g., avoid profanity, no direct competitor tags)
  

But also include:

• Brand tone: Is your brand cheeky, empowering, expert, or minimalist?

• Campaign goals: Are we going for reach, clicks, or community building?

• Compensation terms: Include if it’s paid, gifted, commission-based, or long-term
  

Always remember to encourage feedback, because briefs that invite collaboration build long-term trust both with brands and creators, and eventually… better results.

In our Spotify Daylist campaign, creators were simply prompted to interpret their mood-based playlists. No hard scripts. Just real talk and a meaningful relationship. That flexibility is what sparked viral relatability. Read more about it on our blog about How to Cultivate Meaningful Long-Term Relationships with Influencers.

Key Takeaways: Writing Briefs That Perform

To make your briefs collaborative springboards instead of rigid scripts, focus on these three key takeaways:

• Set Direction, Not Limits:

  • Clarify your brand goals, product positioning, and audience, but avoid scripting every word.

  • Let the creator own the story while aligning with your core message pillars.

• Think Platform-First:

  • Different platforms demand different styles (e.g., TikTok vs. LinkedIn).

  • Brief accordingly by matching the format to the platform's native style for maximum impact.

• Create Clarity through Collaboration:

  • Be specific with deliverables, usage rights, and timelines.

  • Always allow room for the creator’s unique perspective and platform-native creativity.

A great brief is both informative and inspiring. It empowers creators while keeping your brand’s priorities front and center.

Want to co-create briefs that convert? Download our Social Media Trends Guide for actionable tips on staying relevant, authentic, and ROI-ready.

3 Steps for Brand Marketers to  Trend Jacking That Works

When it comes to digital marketing, the question isn’t if you should participate in trends, it’s which ones are worth jumping on. In a creator-led landscape and platforms like TikTok, where culture moves at lightning speed, trend-jacking can either elevate your brand into the spotlight or tank it with one misstep. 

So how do you know what’s worth riding, what’s already stale, and what will actually work for your brand?

This blog will guide you through a smarter, more strategic approach to trend-jacking, one that balances speed with brand alignment, culture with data, and short-term attention with long-term equity. Whether you’re managing a brand’s daily content calendar or shaping seasonal campaigns, trend selection is more than just spotting a viral audio. It’s about building cultural relevance without losing your brand’s focus and voice.

Step 1: Discover and Evaluate Potential Trends

Trends can be powerful tools for connection but only if they align with your audience and brand DNA. Here's how to spot them early and evaluate if they’re worth the ride. Trend-jacking only works if it’s both timely and relevant and that “too late” can often mean “too noisy.”

Monitor smarter:

• Use social listening tools like Sprout Social or TikTok Creative Center to spot rising formats, hashtags, and creator movements before they peak.

• Tap into cultural calendars! Think album drops like Taylor Swift’s “The Life of a Showgirl”, award shows like the Oscars or MMFF, and sporting events like the Olympics or NBA Finals that can spark niche conversations tied to your brand. Don’t forget recurring moments like International Coffee Day (October 1), Pride Month (June), or 11.11 Sales. These trends are goldmines for moment marketing!

• Go beyond the “what” and ask “why” a trend resonates. For example, the viral Girl Dinner moment, it wasn’t just about food but it also reflected burnout, autonomy, and anti-perfectionism narratives that many brands could’ve built on.
  

Use a trend filter by answering these questions before acting:

1. Relevance: Is this connected to our brand’s mission or is it a random grab for attention?

2. Timing: Are we early enough for our version to feel fresh and not fatigued?Audience: Does this speak to our core demographic, or is it outside their bubble?

3. Risk: Are we stepping into a sensitive topic? Are we prepared to stand by our message?
   

Step 2: Plan Your Trend Integration 

Once you’ve vetted a trend, the next move is not to copy-paste what everyone else is doing… but to remix it with your brand’s voice. Here are some tips to do that:

Define your POV.

The same trend can hit differently when filtered through the right tone. What matters is how you show up in the conversation. Take the “deinfluencing” trend, where creators called out overhyped products. A luxury skincare brand might lean in by spotlighting minimalist routines and promoting science-backed transparency: “Not everything belongs in your shelfie.” Meanwhile, the “girl math” trend, originally about humorous justifications for spending, became fertile ground for financial brands. A fintech app could ride the trend with cheeky skits showing how “investing P500 today is basically free money in 5 years,” turning humour into a teachable moment. Even the “Hot Girl Walk” trend was reinterpreted by different brands: from beverage brands promoting hydration must-haves to podcast channels encouraging intentional movement as self-care.

Choose your platform and timing wisely.

Not every trend belongs everywhere. A meme-heavy trend might live best on TikTok, while a stat-backed commentary is better suited for LinkedIn. Use platform-native behavior to inform your content angle and don’t just wait for trends to land on your feed. Set a regular trend-spotting schedule, like weekly or bi-weekly check-ins, to proactively find emerging moments and plan ahead instead of reacting late.

Empower creators, don’t restrict them.

Trend-jacking works best when brands let creators interpret trends their way. Not every video needs your logo in the first second. Trust creators to keep it real, that’s why their audiences trust them in the first place. Take our work with Spotify’s Daylist campaign, where we tapped into the trend of hyper-personalized content through KOL TikTok videos showing oddly specific moods or routines. People then joined the trend by sharing their own mood-based playlists in relatable formats with no hard scripts. 

Or look at InLife’s Campaign, which trend-jacked the POV storytelling format popular among Gen Z. Creators used skits and casual monologues to give financial advice making insurance and money matters feel fresh and relevant.

“The most effective trend-jacking comes from understanding platform language and creator culture, because audiences can tell if you’re a tourist.”

Step 3: Execute Fast and Measure Smarter

Trend-jacking requires us to be fast but you should put in mind that success measurement shouldn’t be shallow. A great example of a campaign that mixes both? See how Spotify partnered with creators to drive platform-native, full-funnel campaigns that worked across TikTok and YouTube. By loosening the grip, brands gain traction that feels earned, not engineered.

Don’t just track impressions, in terms of metrics, track the impact.

• Did people share it organically?

• Did it drive profile visits, clicks, or conversions?

• Did it shift brand sentiment or spark meaningful conversation?
  

Check for emotional signals.It’s easy to get caught in views and likes. Through meaningful reactions such as DMs, stitches, shares with captions, these tell you whether your brand message landed because of the trend. Tools like sentiment analysis and UTM tracking will help you map attention to action.

Balance the reactive with the evergreen.Trends might win the moment, but your brand still needs consistency. Use trend content to spark discovery, and evergreen content to sustain loyalty.

Key Takeaway: Don’t cloutchase, trend smarter!

Here’s your 3-step takeaway to help you trend-jack with purpose:

1. Stay ready, not reactive. Set up listening tools and keep a bank of trends and content angles that resonates with your brand. Certain trends may also need tweaking based on your brand’s tone guidelines.
   

2. Be bold and on-brand. If it doesn’t align with your audience or values, skip it. One ‘right-fit’ trend is more valuable than five random ones.
   

3. Partner with influencers wisely. Let KOLs translate trends in their voice, not yours. You are aiming to earn engagement, not eye rolls! Trust the KOLs and know the right fit to do these trends for your brand.

Want your next campaign to ride the trend waves instead of drown in it? Download Near’s Influencer Trends Guide to spot trends that actually fit your brand and build influencer campaigns that convert.

Category: Social Media