Viral tech marketing: Controversy

Cases
41
Median Spread Score
44
Most started on
App stores37%
First post to peak
18 days

By mechanic

All71Controversy41Shareable output33Pairing16Maker origin15Newsjacking13Dupe economy9Response chain7Creator relay7Underdog6Visible in use6Real-world spectacle6

ChatGPT

73
Current official ChatGPT iOS screenshot from OpenAI’s Apple App Store listing.

100M users

Colossal's Dire Wolf Announcement

69
SOUND ON. You’re hearing the first howl of a dire wolf in over 10,000 years. Meet Romulus and Remus—the world’s first de-extinct animals, born on October 1, 2024. The dire wolf has been extinct for…

120B impressions

Houseparty

61
The Houseparty screen for connecting a Fortnite account.

28M downloads a month

Apple Three Minutes

58
An iPhone X-shot film about a train attendant’s brief Chinese New Year reunion with her son.

40M views

DeepSeek AI Assistant

58
Official DeepSeek app screenshot from its app announcement.

23M downloads a month

Anthropic (Claude): A Time and a Place

55
Ads are coming to AI. But not to Claude. Keep thinking.

8.3B impressions

Clubhouse

55
Andreessen Horowitz Wins VC Sweepstakes To Back Clubhouse, Voice App Still In Beta, At $100 Million Valuation

9.6M downloads a month

EPIK AI Yearbook

53
How I wish this was my college yearbook creative photos 😅 #photodumps #yearbookAIphotos #AI #epikapp #yearbooktrend #fyp #viral

Peaked at #1

Locket Widget

52
Official Locket graphic showing friends’ photos inside the home-screen widget

10M downloads a month

Vibe Coding

52
Pieter Levels’ documented flight simulator experiment.

7.3M impressions

FaceApp aging challenge

50
‎فهد العليوة‎ on Instagram: "challenge accepted! 😅 #agechallenge"

180K derivatives

Orange: WoMen's Football

50
Vous avez aimé cette vidéo ? Et bien surprise surprise, c'est du football féminin. Regardez et attendez la 45e seconde : contre-pied parfait, allez les Bleues !

2B impressions

Nano Banana

49
Google’s examples of Nano Banana figurines, retro portraits and other image trends.

Peaked at #1

iOS 14 home-screen customization

46
Reply to @an.elementopqrs #ios14 #ios14update #iphonetricks #iphonehack #ios14homescreen #learnontiktok

6.2M impressions

Lovable

46
Current Lovable dashboard with the prompt field and project cards, from the official documentation

$600M revenue

Character.AI mobile app

45
Official launch graphic showing the Character.AI mobile interface and app-store badges.

22M users

Reface

45
The Viral Reface App Could Make Our Deepfake Problem Worse

20M users

Lensa Magic Avatars

44
We've launched something really cool! 🚀 Now you can generate mind-blowing personal avatars with Stable diffusion + Dream booth in a few taps in our app Lensa. It also costs just $2.99 per pack!😃…

$29.3M revenue

Remove the new Snapchat Update

44
1,248,801 people signed and won this petition

Samsung: UnCrush

44
Creativity cannot be crushed | Samsung

61M impressions

Sarahah

44
The app has become popular with users of Snapchat

Peaked at #1

Back Market: Hack Market

43
Back Market - Hack Market (ENG)

100M impressions

Cluely launch

43
Cluely is out. cheat on everything.

ROC by Ronaldo: Cristiano Ronaldo in Disguise

43
51M views · 523 reactions | People are going to think that I’m crazy! #LIVELIFELOUD Click here to check out my new brand at ebay.com/roc | Cristiano Ronaldo

Peaked at #1

Android: Friends Furever

42
An animal-friendship montage set to Roger Miller’s Oo-De-Lally from Robin Hood.

Peaked at #1

Apple Welcome Home

42
A HomePod film in which FKA twigs danced through an expanding apartment to Anderson .Paak.

Peaked at #1

Kim Kardashian: Meet My New Friend

42
meet my new friend 🦾🤖 @Tesla

11.8M views

Poparazzi

42
Poparazzi camera, photo feed and friends-created profile, supplied in the Luciq customer case study.

4M users

NewProfilePic

41
Post by @BeardedGenius on X

Peaked at #1

MapQuest's Lake Ontario stance

40
We’re not changing it.

Peaked at #1

Rabbit R1

40
Introducing r1

40M impressions

Peach

39
Official Peach App Store screenshot showing the social app interface.

Peaked at #9

Bondee

38
スマホ向けメタバースSNS『Bondee ボンディー』 日本で初めてのPOP UP！ 4/24～5/7までのイベント開催レポート

Peaked at #1

Deep Nostalgia

38
MyHeritage’s official Deep Nostalgia animation demonstration.

Peaked at #1

Arc Browser

35
Goodbye, waitlist. Hello, Arc 1.0. Download now: 🔗 in bio

250K impressions

Humane AI Pin

35
I love AI, but I won't be buying the Humane AI pin for $699. The laser display doesn't look great and the camera quality is subpar. I don't want to walk around with it on my chest all the time. It…

$9M revenue

NGL app

34
Official NGL App Store screenshot showing a question card shared over an Instagram Story.

125M users

Friend pendant subway campaign

33
vandalized friend ad, totally saw that one coming

25.9M impressions

Lapse (2023 relaunch)

29
Lapse social photo-journal screens supplied with its funding announcement.

$0 revenue

Samsung Galaxy S5 Ice Bucket Challenge

18

4M views

Avatarify

0
马云、马斯克齐唱“蚂蚁呀嘿”，这股风潮你跟上了吗？

Peaked at #1

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Controversy in every industry