Every year, a few brands manage to turn simple concepts into global conversations — not with bigger budgets, but with ideas that catch fire. What made them go viral? And more importantly, how can you replicate their success?
We’ll break down how three brands went viral — and help you learn how to put your brand on the map.
Table of Contents
- Boxed Water: Selling Water as an Eco-Friendly Corporate Statement
- Caroo: How Office Snack Boxes Became a Corporate Wellness Must-Have
- Supreme: How Basic Streetwear Became a Billion-Dollar Hype Machine
- 5 Mistakes Brands Make When Trying To Go Viral
- Brands That Went Viral: Key Takeaways
- Brands That Went Viral: FAQs
1. Boxed Water: Selling Water as an Eco-Friendly Corporate Statement
At its core, Boxed Water sells a product that’s as basic as it gets — water. Yet, in an industry flooded with cheaper alternatives, it has carved out a premium position as the go-to choice for companies and events that want to align with sustainability and social impact.
- How Boxed Water positioned itself as a sustainability icon
- Key results achieved
- What Boxed Water's approach can teach businesses
How Boxed Water Positioned Itself as a Sustainability Icon
Boxed Water didn’t just sell water; they turned a basic necessity into a status symbol for sustainability. Their minimalist carton packaging and #BetterPlanet social media campaign encouraged people to post photos of their Boxed Water in nature, generating massive user-generated content (UGC) that went viral on platforms like Instagram.
They participated in prominent events such as New York Fashion Week, aligning themselves with the fashion industry's sustainability initiatives. For instance, they collaborated with Bovtiqve Fashion Week (BVFW) during shows in SoHo in February 2025, reinforcing their presence in eco-conscious fashion circles.
Boxed Water also engaged in notable B2B collaborations that enhance its eco-friendly brand image.
In May 2021, Boxed Water partnered with Alaska Airlines to replace single-use plastic water bottles on flights with Boxed Water's 92% plant-based cartons. This initiative aimed to remove approximately 7.2 million plastic bottles annually, equivalent to about 98,000 pounds of plastic waste.
They’ve also teamed up with other environmentally conscious companies, such as TOMS, ChicoBag, Nécessaire, and Toad&Co, to promote sustainability initiatives like Coastal Cleanup Month. These strategic partnerships with businesses that prioritize sustainability have amplified Boxed Water's commitment to reducing plastic waste and promoting environmental responsibility.
Key Results Achieved
Boxed Water has effectively utilized innovative marketing strategies to enhance its brand visibility and drive business growth. Here's an overview of their key campaigns and achievements:
- The "In the Name of Trees" campaign, part of Boxed Water's broader environmental efforts, garnered over 13 million impressions, indicating substantial visibility and audience engagement.
- By teaming up with lifestyle giants like Conde Nast and Unsplash, Boxed Water reinforced its reputation as a premium, eco-conscious brand.
- Boxed Water has positioned itself as an industry leader in sustainable water packaging by achieving 92% plant-based cartons—the highest rate in the category.
What Boxed Water's Approach Can Teach Businesses
Boxed Water shows that even the simplest product — water — can command a premium price if tied to the right values. Here’s what executives can take away from their approach:
- Align your brand with larger social values: Even if you sell a basic product, connecting it to a bigger cause like sustainability, diversity, or mental health can dramatically increase its perceived value.
- Make your product a status symbol: Find ways to make customers feel proud to display and share your product. Boxed Water isn’t about the water — it’s about what holding that carton says about the buyer.
- Leverage UGC to fuel virality: Encourage your customers to share photos, reviews, or experiences — tie it to a social cause to motivate action. Boxed Water’s tree-planting initiative created a natural incentive for users to spread the word.
2. Caroo: How Office Snack Boxes Became a Corporate Wellness Must-Have
Caroo, formerly known as SnackNation, has transformed from a simple snack box provider into a leading platform for employee care and corporate gifting. They've managed to reposition snacks and wellness kits as tools for employee engagement, retention, and culture-building.
Caroo serves companies looking for creative ways to connect with teams — especially in a world where remote and hybrid work is the norm. Their shift from a "snack delivery service" to a strategic partner for HR and leadership teams shows how ordinary products can be elevated through brand, positioning, and social impact.
- How Caroo expanded its mission
- Key results achieved
- What can you learn from Caroo’s rebranding journey
How Caroo Expanded Its Mission
Caroo didn’t just rebrand for the sake of a name change — they repositioned themselves to meet new workplace needs. As companies struggled to maintain culture and employee morale in the shift to remote and hybrid work during COVID-19, Caroo recognized an opportunity to turn something as simple as snacks into a corporate wellness tool — and positioned themselves as a partner for HR and leadership teams.
- They rebranded from SnackNation to Caroo, expanding their mission beyond snack boxes to comprehensive employee care, corporate gifting, and wellness solutions.
- Caroo pivoted quickly to support remote and hybrid teams, positioning their care packages as a way for companies to boost employee engagement, retention, and morale — without physical offices.
- To deepen their value proposition, Caroo built a purpose-driven model: for every box delivered, they donate meals through Feeding America, giving companies a way to tie employee perks to social good.
- They also expanded their offerings beyond snacks, introducing customized wellness kits, premium gifts, and branded experiences — elevating their perception from a vendor to a strategic partner for company culture and employee care.
Key Results Achieved
While Caroo may not have gone "viral" in the traditional consumer marketing sense, their targeted account-based marketing (ABM), partnerships, and solutions for HR teams gained significant traction among corporate clients — proving that even ordinary products like snacks can become essential tools for culture-building when positioned correctly.
- Reached 85% of their target accounts through Account-Based Marketing (ABM), focusing on high-value corporate clients.
- Drove $1 million in top-line growth through a partnership with Tremendous, expanding their corporate gifting services.
- Before rebranding, Caroo (as SnackNation) had an estimated $7.8 million in annual revenue and 38 employees. After rebranding, Caroo is estimated to generate between $5 million and $25 million in annual revenue, with 100 to 250 employees.
What Can You Learn From Caroo’s Rebranding Journey
Caroo turned office snacks into a must-have for corporate culture, showing that even the simplest products can pack a big business impact. Here’s what executives should take away from Caroo’s playbook:
- Reframe a basic product as a strategic solution: Even if your product seems ordinary (like snacks), position it as a solution to a bigger business problem — in Caroo’s case, employee wellness, engagement, and retention.
- Pivot with market needs: Caroo quickly evolved from snacks to full wellness and gifting solutions as remote work exploded — a lesson in adapting your offer to stay relevant and valuable.
- Tie products to purpose to deepen appeal: Their partnership with Feeding America added a social impact layer, giving companies a reason beyond the product to buy — social good as a sales driver.
- Use ABM to target high-value clients, even with small products: They didn’t just do mass marketing — they went after top accounts with precision, proving that small products can win big clients if positioned right.
3. Supreme: How Basic Streetwear Became a Billion-Dollar Hype Machine
Supreme started as a small skateboarding brand in New York City, selling basic t-shirts, hoodies, and hats. But through clever branding and a cult-like following, it turned everyday streetwear into one of the most sought-after — and expensive — fashion statements on the planet.
Today, companies and resellers pay top dollar for Supreme products, not because of quality, but because of what the logo represents: exclusivity, status, and cultural relevance.
How Supreme Disrupted Streetwear
Supreme didn’t just rely on selling streetwear to individual customers — they turned their brand into a cultural asset that other companies wanted to align with. They’ve employed innovative strategies that transformed them from a niche skateboarding shop into a global streetwear phenomenon.
- Cultivated brand exclusivity: Supreme's products often sell out within minutes of release, a testament to their strategy of maintaining scarcity to drive demand.
- Strategic collaborations: The brand collaborated with renowned companies such as Louis Vuitton, Nike, and The North Face, blending streetwear with luxury and performance aesthetics.
- B2B retail partnerships: Supreme's collaborations with brands like Dickies resulted in co-branded collections that were distributed through select retail channels, enhancing its market presence.
- Viral marketing: Supreme's collaborations with brands like Nike resulted in iconic sneaker releases that garnered significant attention and resale value.
Key Results Achieved
Supreme’s unique brand collaborations and viral campaigns generated hype and delivered real business impact and measurable demand. Here's what their strategy produced:
- Supreme’s partnership with luxury fashion house Louis Vuitton saw the company’s value soaring. It led to a $500 million investment from The Carlyle Group, valuing the brand at $1 billion.
- Supreme collaborated with The New York Post, featuring their iconic logo on the newspaper's front page. Immediate sell-out of every single copy in NYC by noon on launch day. Newspapers that originally cost $1.50 were resold online for $10, $20, $50, and even up to $85 — showing the market's willingness to pay absurd premiums purely for the brand.
- Resale value surge: Supreme products have achieved remarkable resale values, with items reselling at over 1,200% of their original retail price, highlighting the brand's strong demand and cultural significance.
- Market position: As of 2019, Supreme was recognized by nearly 80% of global consumers as the epitome of streetwear, leading the industry ahead of brands like Nike and Off-White.
Business Lessons From Supreme’s Marketing Book
Supreme’s story is a masterclass in turning basic products into status symbols that people — and companies — will pay a premium for. Here are the lessons for executives looking to elevate their brand:
- Scarcity sells — but only if you’ve built the brand first: Supreme shows that limiting access to a product can drive massive demand — but only if people care about your brand. Focus on brand before gimmicks.
- Co-branding can elevate both brands: Strategic collaborations with big names (like Louis Vuitton, Nike) instantly increase brand value. Pick partners that add credibility and status.
- Make products that people want to be seen with: It’s not about the hoodie — it’s what wearing a Supreme hoodie says. Think about how your product reflects on the buyer’s identity.
- Let your customers do the marketing: Supreme’s loyal base and reseller community create ongoing buzz and value without paid ads — a reminder that building a tribe pays off more than billboards.
5 Mistakes Brands Make When Trying To Go Viral
Going viral can make a brand — but chasing virality without the right strategy can also break it. While companies like Boxed Water, Caroo, and Supreme made their products go viral (and profitable), many brands try to replicate that success and fail in the process.
Here are the most common mistakes executives should avoid when trying to turn an ordinary product into a viral sensation:
- Thinking virality is just about being funny or loud
- Jumping on trends that don’t fit your brand
- Prioritizing attention over business outcomes
- Relying on one big campaign to go viral
- Copying other brands’ tactics without adapting
1. Thinking Virality Is Just About Being Funny or Loud
Too many brands assume that going viral means launching a funny ad or a shock-value stunt. But the most successful viral brands build their campaigns on top of strong, consistent brand values — not random content.
Boxed Water’s campaigns work because they align with their core mission of sustainability — not because they're just clever. Their virality came from meaningful messaging, not gimmicks.
Tip: Ask, “Would this campaign still make sense if it didn’t go viral?” If the answer is no, the foundation isn’t strong enough.
2. Jumping on Trends That Don’t Fit Your Brand
Trying to mimic the latest TikTok challenge or meme can make a brand look desperate if it doesn't align with your identity. Supreme can get away with absurd products because it's part of their DNA — but that doesn’t work for a serious B2B brand overnight.
Stephany Kaufman, Founder and CEO at UPBEAT, says: “The most successful viral campaigns aren't always the ones with the highest engagement — they're the ones that strategically transform campaign engagement into sales and brand loyalty. Ensure viral campaigns align with your brand messaging, business goals, and overarching marketing strategy to convert viral attention into long-term success.”
Tip: Build a trend filter. Only participate in trends that align with your brand’s tone, values, and customer expectations.
3. Prioritizing Attention Over Business Outcomes
Likes, shares, and views mean nothing if they don’t move the needle on sales, partnerships, or long-term brand value. Caroo's success came from tying their brand repositioning directly to what HR and leadership teams needed — not just from getting attention.
Or as Indy Selvarajah, Global CCO at Ketchum, puts it: “Not in terms of coverage or hitting KPI’s, but the difference it made in real people’s lives. It showed us it’s only the beginning of a job that needs to be done.” If your campaign isn’t tied to something real and meaningful, people won’t care — no matter how "viral" it gets.
Tip: Before launching, define what success looks like beyond impressions. Focus on brand equity, conversion, or customer loyalty.
4. Relying on One Big Campaign To "Go Viral"
Virality is often the result of consistent brand building and customer relationships — not a one-off moment. Supreme has built years of loyalty and exclusivity — that’s why even a brick with a logo sells out. Brands without that foundation can't expect similar results from a single campaign.
Kristin Marquet, Founder and Creative Director at Marquet Media, explains: “Virality is short-lived unless a brand turns attention into action. The best way to convert viral success into long-term growth is to have a clear post-viral strategy — once you gain mass attention, direct it toward email sign-ups, product trials, or deeper engagement.”
Tip: Don’t pour your entire budget into one shot. Layer in small, strategic brand plays over time to build credibility and emotional connection.
5. Copying Other Brands’ Tactics Without Adapting
What works for Supreme or Boxed Water may not work for your industry. Executives need to tailor viral strategies to their audience and market — not just copy-and-paste what worked elsewhere.
Tip: Use competitor success as inspiration, not instruction. Ask, “How would this idea translate in our space, with our customers?”
Brands That Went Viral: Key Takeaways
Going viral is about turning ordinary products into something people want to be seen with. The brands that pull this off don’t just have great marketing — they have a clear identity, a message that resonates, and the discipline to say no to tactics that don’t align.
If that’s what you want for your brand, work with people who know how to make it happen.
Brands That Went Viral: FAQs
1. Can B2B brands really go viral, or is that just for consumer products?
Absolutely. Virality isn’t limited to consumer brands — it’s about creating something people want to share because it says something about them or their company. Brands like Caroo and Boxed Water show that even in B2B, a strong message and clever positioning can turn basic products into cultural statements.
2. How do I know if my product is "good enough" to go viral?
It’s less about having a groundbreaking product and more about how you position it. All three brands we covered took basic products — water, snacks, t-shirts — and made them desirable by attaching them to larger ideas like status, culture, or sustainability.
3. Should we aim to go viral, or focus on long-term brand building?
Virality should serve your brand strategy, not replace it. The goal is to create moments that amplify your brand’s core message — not just a flash-in-the-pan stunt. The brands that win are those that use viral moments to deepen their relevance, not distract from it.
