Pink Glove Dance was a Viral Success

This week, our readings centered around viral marketing. Each of our texts touched on different aspects of this relatively new marketing technique. During class, we spent some time viewing both successful and unsuccessful viral videos. This sparked an interest in me to dive deeper into other campaigns that implemented the use of videos that went viral. After researching, I came across this Pink Glove Dance Video which proved to be a viral success:

This video was lauched in 2009 by Medline, the nation's largest manufacturer of medical supplies, to increase breast cancer awareness. Medline created the pink colored gloves and committed to donating $1 to the National Breast Cancer Foundation to help fund mammorgrams for women who could not afford them. The company wanted to add a unique element to the campaign that would get people talking about breast cancer. According to an article posted on WowElle , "the idea to combine the gloves and dancing was sparked by Emily Somers, a product Medline manager who had a dance background".  This idea took off, and Somers was able to recruit over 200 employees of Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, OR to participate by putting on a pair of pink latex gloves and dance around the hospital to Jay Sean's song "Down". The video instantly went viral, proving to be a gigantic success.

According to the PinkGloveDance website, "over 11 million people across the globe have viewed the video." Other hospitals, sports teams and universities have used this idea to create other Pink Glove dances. In fact, the Penn State women's basketball team joined with a local hospital, Mount Nittany Medical Center, and made their own Pink Glove dance. Take a look:

The website also stated that, "the YouTube video phenomenon has been featured on CNN, ABC World News with Charles Gibson, Fox & Friends - Fox News Network’s national morning show, and literally more than 100 local TV newscasts across the country." In fact, due to the successful campaign, Medline decided to launch a sequel that features 4,000 people including cancer survivors and hosptial employees from 14 healthcare facilities. The sequel was launched on YouTube on September 16, 2010 and currently has 323,516 views. Check it out:.

Medline was able to take a campaign centered around a sensitive subject and make it fun and entertaining. The people dancing in the videos were laughing and smiling, which as a viewer, was contagious. Medline also selected songs that were positive, upbeat and related well to the subject matter. Overall, Medline created an out of the ordinary video as a tactic for a campaign centered around a somewhat common subject. This campaign reached out to a large number of people because a video went viral. After this week, I have an increased appreciation for videos that go viral because just like this one, most of them are fun, entertaining and unique.