Silly bands: A Lesson in Viral Videos

Silly bands are ridiculous. If you don’t have a kid under 10 years old, you might not know what these are. So, let me describe these silly bands. Picture a rubber band. Got it? It’s round and rubbery. Now, instead of round picture one in the shape of a giraffe. Thats it! That’s a silly band.

Now, these bands come in packs for 20 for $6. If you go to Staples, you can buy 2500 rubber bands for $4.50 – but Silly Bands – they command a premium. Similar to Talking Elmo and Cabbage Patch Kids, every kid has to have 20 of these bands on their wrist at all times.

So how do you translate this Silly Bands phenomenon into your next viral marketing strategy? You can’t. There’s no lesson to make this one of the great viral marketing examples. Why these rubber bands have gone completely viral among kids is beyond me. It’s beyond everyone actually.

If you’re the guy that created Silly Bands, please tell us what kind of revenue you projected to make when you came up with the idea. I doubt it was 1/100th of what you’re making now. If there’s a reason these things have gone completely nutty – please let us know.

It can’t possibly be marketing. First there was the pet rock. Then there was the hula hoop. And now – Silly Bands. I may just go outside and glue grass to kiwi – maybe that will sell.

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This Post Has 3 Comments

  1. sillybandzboy

    silly bands are awesome but do not wear tooooooo many on your wrists or your kids wrists.

  2. Linda Barnby

    I love Silly bands and I’m XXXXX years old!! Anything silly makes me smile!

    Hope to meet up with you again at NAMS4!

  3. BakkeChaos

    Interesting. I bought these bands for my sister to use in her classroom (the alphabet set). I didn’t know how she would use them – letter recognition, fun way to learn to spell, etc. I didn’t not think about kids wearing them! These are not viral in Iowa but we are know to be a bit behind the style curve. Good stuff, my friend. Cameron is looking like such a little man now! See ya!

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