Unintentional Viral Marketing

Sometimes, companies benefit from viral marketing campaigns that they didn't have anything to do with. For example: Target. Recently, you might have found yourself asking what the heck the #alexfromtarget hashtag was about all of social media. Well, this is where it all started....

Yes, that tweet started a storm of people tweeting about Alex from Target. Insane. The kid didn't do anything. He was as confused about it as all of you probably. Soon #alexfromtarget was a trending topic on twitter, and Ellen invited him to be on her show. 

I'm sure Target benefitted from this surprise Alex from Target fandom. You couldn't plan this type of viral marketing. After all of the negative press from Target's credit card hack months ago, it's good that they could gain something positive from this social media storm. I think Target reacted in the best way to the new fame of one of their employees. The most simple tweet that acknowledged what was happening was the perfect way to respond.