What is this red bathing suit and why did it go viral?

Unless you live under a rock, you have probably seen or heard about this red bathing suit. For those who haven't, let me catch you up....

Is it just a red bathing suit? Yes

Why is it so special? Because it went viral

Why did it go viral? I will explain in this article

Why do you care so much about it? Because I’ve been busting my ass for 2 years trying to grow our brand, and I have only grown it to about 50k followers on Instagram. These fucking college kids went from 5k to 786k in less than 24 hours and built a huge customer base.

Are they smart or lucky? They are geniuses.

I first caught onto this phenomenon on Wednesday afternoon. I saw a girl share the picture, and honestly thought it was her and didn’t think much of it. Then I saw another girl post it, who was in the same friend group of the first girl, and I thought it was kind of bizarre, but still didn’t catch my attention. Once I saw another girl post it, who had no relationship with the first girl, my curiosity was peaked.

@SunnyCoClothing posted this on Instagram, promising people a free bathing suit if they reposted the picture. Why did it work?

1) It was ballsy and innovative to ask for a repost on Instagram.

Instagram is the by far the most curated social platform. People put a lot of time and effort into their posts, and care about what they put on their profile. Companies know better than to ask people to repost a picture on Instagram, because they know no one will do it and the campaign would get no traction and it would be embarrassing. Companies give away free shit and ask for shares on Facebook, or Retweets on Twitter, but never on Instagram. It was a truly innovative/risky move to ask for reposts on Instagram.

2) It started with hot chicks at The University of Arizona.

Sounds superficial and wrong, but it is important. It started at the University of Arizona, the school with arguably the hottest girls in the nation (Based on what I have heard…). Once these “hot/cool girls” shared the post, it made it socially acceptable for others to. “(Insert girls name here) shared it and she is cool, so I can share it”, is the thought process. Now it was viral with girls at the University of Arizona, but then it started to branch out to their high school friends- “(Insert girls name here) shared it and she is goes to Arizona with cool/hot girls, so I can share it”. Start with the coolest/hottest people to make it socially acceptable, then no one has an excuse not to share it.

3) It hit critical mass.

Once it hits, you win the internet, and the phenomenon starts self-propelling at the most exponential rate. Now people feel left out if they aren’t sharing it, it isn’t socially acceptable to not take part in it. Now dudes are sharing this because it is funny, and memes are being made (You know you win the internet when memes are being made).

What this all means for the company-

A) They went from under 10k to almost 1M Instagram followers. These are targeted potential customers that they can now reach at the click of a button for free. These are potential customers for life, that will spends hundreds or thousands of dollars with the company. Sure, a lot of people won’t spend anything, so that will skew it down, but lets say it is an average of $1/user. Value: $1,000,000

B) They made the bathing suit free but charged $12 for shipping and handling. At these quantities, they could make that bathing suit for under $5 each. They are under a pound in weight so they can ship them to anywhere in the US for under $3 each. At most, it will cost them $8 each, and they are charging $12, conservatively making $4 each. While I have no idea how many they sold, let's say about 100,000. Value: $400,000

C) They drove millions of visitors to their site, and are now sold out of every product. They are selling the bathing suits at an average of $35/each, and the cost at these volumes should be under $5/each. Let's say they had 10,000 units of inventory, making $30/unit. Value: $300,000

D) They are a meme. This is the hottest bathing suit of the summer. This will be a halloween costume 5 months from now. They are viral. They won the internet. Salt Bae, Cash me Outside How Bout Dat, Red Bathing Suit. The Red Bathing Suit is now famous. Value: Priceless

As soon as I caught on the trend I posted a similar picture by the pool and offered free socks for shares. My photo got shared thousands of times, not millions. We gained about 3k Instagram followers, not 800k. It led to an increase of about $10k in sales, not $1M.

Help me make this article go viral! Like, comment and share it! Be sure and go to @FEATSocks Instagram and share our picture to claim your free pair of socks!