By When Chris Godfrey found out in early January that celebrities like Kylie Jenner had the “like” and “comment” record on their Instagram post, he took it as a challenge. She thought: “Could something as simple and universal as an egg be big enough to break the like record?”
It turned out it might! Only nine days after that idea, the record was broken! Chris had beaten Kylie’s publication about her newborn daughter with a simple photo of an egg.
How the egg Instagram account idea started?
The original egg publication now has more than 52 million likes! (its publication is around 19 million) and the “Egg” count now has more than 10 million Instagram followers.
Why an egg? He explained: “An egg has no gender, race or religion. An egg is an egg; it is universal.”
Chris Godfrey, a 29-year-old advertising expert working at the “& partnership” in London and the two companions he has recruited to help with the account have now turned in their second act. It’s a commercial designed with and distributed on Hulu’s streaming service, programmed to take advantage of the Super Bowl’s annual ad extravaganza. In it, the egg tells a story about how being viral has influenced your mental health.
“The pressure of social networks is reaching me,” shows the egg in the commercial, after introducing himself. “If you’re also fighting, talk to someone.”
The ad then leads viewers to The website for the non-profit organization Mental Health America. The creators say that mental health is the first of many causes that the egg, what they and their fans call Eugene, will come to defend.
“People have fallen in love with this egg, and Eugene, the egg, wants to continue spreading positive messages,” said Alissa Khan-Whelan, 26-years-old, one of the people who work with Godfrey.
After the birth of the egg on January, Godfrey remained unidentified. But he, Ms. Khan-Whelan and C. J. Brown, agreed to speak with The New York Times to explain their story and describe their intentions.
“We felt it was the right time to leave,” said Khan-Whelan. “We can put any speculation to bed.”
There has been much confusion about how the picture of an egg created an Instagram rage. Some thought that the creator of the account had paid influencers to spread the message. Or he took credit for growing the egg audience.
Chris says that such claims are not true and that the growth of the account was “completely organic.” No one helped the egg’s popularity rise, and no account or group of accounts backed it explode.
They took note of a demographic group that contained the egg immediately.
“I think it was perhaps the younger generation,” said Godfrey. “In schools and those things, it began to spread. It spread through the playgrounds. ” He realized that interactions with young people would reach their maximum between 3 and 4 in the afternoon, “when the school was out.”
Ms. Khan-Whelan remembered seeing “amazing videos of children in her class” Miss, miss, did you like the egg? “
The vendors admitted that youth had been key to egg success. (Technically, Instagram requires users to be 13 years old to sign up on the platform, but that rule is often not taken into account). Margaret Johnson, productive director of the agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners, only realized Egg’s account after knowing that her 12-year-old son had liked the picture. Then he searched for more information about it.
“What a great thing for them to do any kidnap the Super Bowl through social networks, and hammer out a responsible message,” he said.
The Egg’s audience was also increased by Godfrey’s decision to share user-generated content into Instagram account stories that expire after 24 hours. Its primary source remained free and mysterious, while he shouted followers in his stories, helping to affect his growing audience with a sense of team spirit.
“In his childhood, it was one of those ridiculous things, like, & # 39; Oh, we’re trying to break this world record just to like this random image,” said Sam Shepherd, executive creative director of the 360i digital agency.
That agency he won praise from the industry in 2013 when he worked with Oreo to immediately tweet “You can still get into the dark” during an unexpected blackout in the Super Bowl. Mr. Shepherd explained the next egg act as the 2019 version of that trick.
The team behind the egg refused to talk about the money that was offered to it or the big names with whom it has been in contact, preferring to keep the focus on Eugene.
Though, it is true that producing an entity (in reality, a platform on a platform) that reaches millions of audience brings financial bonuses. The egg team is being paid for by Hulu. He said that Nick Tran, the vice president of marketing at Hulu, grabbed the opportunity and that he was presented through The Times, a new agency in Chicago created by Instagram enthusiast Jason Peterson. It wouldn’t reveal what was paid.
