What it takes to go viral: How internet stars like Bogg Bag capitalized on TikTok fame

Bags were all over social media last year. One video was posted in May where mom packing a Bogg Bag with everyday essentials got 1.7 million likes. The post was in collaboration with Bloom Nutrition, a health supplement company, but mentioned Bogg in the caption. Another post containing healthcare worker sports Bogg Bag it garnered more than 378,000 likes in January. in June another sister who replenished the bag received almost 98,000 likes in a non-sponsored post.

Bogg Bag has gifted influencers in the past and provided free products in exchange for exposure on the influencer’s platform. But it wasn’t until last July that the brand started working with TikTok creators, who are paid a commission on sales. Then in November, Bogg partnered with influencer agency Mominfluencer to continue their influencer marketing efforts. This means that after organic viral success, Bogg Bag integrates influencer marketing into the strategy and supports it with paid media dollars. Last year, influencers made up just 0.6% of the marketing and creative budget. That number is expected to be closer to 5% soon, according to Vaccarella.

Still, Vaccarella says the brand’s virality was more luck of the draw than anything else. The brand, which started in 2008, didn’t begin spending on marketing until late 2023, budgeting $4 million for 2024 for paid ads in light of its newfound success.

Before, the social media strategy was simple, relegated to Instagram and Facebook posts. “A lot of it was inexperience. The only way I knew how to talk to our customers – both of our DTCs [direct to consumer] customers and our retail partners – they were the talk of social media,” she said.

There was no science to it. For a long time, Vaccarella added, Bogg didn’t even have a proper photo shoot. Things began to take off after Hurricane Sandy hit the Northeast in 2012, and Vaccarella donated a cosmetically flawed back as part of a storm-hit care package. Bogg’s rise in popularity continued through the pandemic. Nurses and healthcare workers started talking about the brand on social media and adopted it more virally last year.

Marketers have long said that going viral isn’t a strategy, but that hasn’t stopped brands from looking to TikTok and influencers in hopes of striking gold on the algorithm platform and reaching huge audiences.

Bogg’s success follows a similar pattern to viral Stanley cups, Starbucks cups, The Pink Stuff detergent, Dyson Airwrap, Bissell’s Little Green portable carpet cleaner, Hatch alarm clock, Poppi soda brand, and the list goes on. The brand exists, the influencers discover the brand and talk about it until it becomes cult. The operative word was discovered. Going viral is less often dumb luck than a well-oiled marketing machine capitalizing on trends and shopper behavior, as was Stanley’s case. (The virality of the beverage brand is said to have sparked partnership with The Buy Guide, an affiliate marketing site.)

The trend of viral success stories like Bogg Bag’s has raised the question: Is virality the product of the stars converging, a well-executed strategy, or both? Should virality be sought in an increasingly fragmented social landscape, with TikTok (famous for its viral algorithm) potentially banned this month?

“[Bogg’s] “The ‘sudden’ success of the last few years was not a viral fluke, but a combination of right place and right time (selling antimicrobial, washable accessories during a pandemic),” said Rachael Kay Albers, founder and creative director of RKA Ink, a. branding and marketing agency, in an email to Digiday. She added that there is often a misunderstanding that virality is just a game of “whack a mole” until something takes off.

Notably, the spread of the virus isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be, strategists say. Remember the Solo saga, the outdoor stove brand DTC’s marketing campaign with Snoop Dogg. To make a long story short, Solo Stove linked up with Snoop, threw in the idea that he was “quitting smoke” or quitting weed to get the buzz going and later revealed that the smoke was referring to Solo Stove’s fire pit. The campaign was met with mixed reactions, with some people feeling misled.

“As a brand strategist, I’d rather shoot strong points, singles and doubles than just hit a home run and then attack for the rest of the game,” said Nicholas Love, CEO of challenger agency Kulur Group and founder and executive director of the nonprofit Dope Thinkers. In other words, a consistent, methodical approach to social strategy is a better bet than one-off virality, especially if it doesn’t lead to steady sales and steady revenue growth.

As a result of his 15 minutes of viral fame, Bogg is increasing its spend on influencer marketing to maintain social capital, up from 0.6% of its marketing and creative budget in 2024, with plans to spend nearly 5% of that budget in the coming year. year, according to Vaccarello. Going forward, the plan is to continue to lean on social media and influencers in hopes of re-emerging viral gold, she added.

Even as the fragmentation of social media obscures the idea of ​​monocultural moments and a TikTok ban looms closer than ever, Bogg has taken a similar stance to other marketers: Resignation.

“Right now, we’re not thinking about removing TikTok.” We’re just thinking about using TikTok while it’s still around and how we can do it the best we can,” Vaccarella told Digiday, adding, “I don’t know what else to do.”

This year, Vaccarella says Bogg will likely double its $4 million budget for 2024 to spend $8 million across all channels, including email marketing, in-store product signage and social media like TikTok. In December, Bogg expanded into Target stores. (Vaccarella did not offer a specific breakdown of the marketing budget.)

In contrast to the pursuit of social media virality, the marketing strategy going forward uses email marketing, social shopping, in-store product branding and public relations in hopes of moving the brand onto the national stage.