What The Heck is Going On? The Mystery Of The World Record Egg – 10 Yetis Insight Blog

For those of you who must have been living under a rock, a mystery account made a stock image of an egg the most liked photo on Instagram!

It’s the Instagram account that no one can egg-nor (I couldn’t help myself)! The @world_record_egg has taken the online world by storm, smashing the World Record for the most-liked post on Instagram and knocking Kylie Jenner’s first baby momma post with her daughter Stormi off the top spot. But the problem is, no one knew who was behind it and why he or she decided to do it. Many questions were left after seeing the account blow up in such a short time, but now after the Super Bowl and the infamous partnership with Hulu, all is being revealed!

Now, we should probably look at the creators of this account first to get a real understanding of what exactly went through their heads to pull off such a cracking (get used to it) campaign. While many rotten eggs tried to take credit for this, many reports have shown that the account was created by an advertising creative from The & Partnership in London, Chris Godfrey. Now all of us marketers can take a big sigh of relief knowing that the page wasn’t created by some teenager for a bit of fun (our jobs are safe for now)!

But why an egg? While some may think it was an odd choice, it was actually a pretty genius move. Godfrey told the New York Times that the egg worked as it was universal and he chose it because “an egg has no gender, race or religion”. Anyone could relate to it, and, he’s right; you can’t refrain from joining in (unless you have a serious issue or dislike towards eggs… then maybe you should just sit down anyway!). There is literally no reason not to like the post, unless you’re a really big Kylie Jenner fan, but even then, it’s still pretty funny!

The Egg, from the very start, was different and stood out for not only the goal it had set, but for its innate disregard for what is popular on Instagram. It begs the question; did Godfrey take inspiration from Fyre Festival’s all-orange Instagram takeover posts? Because, let’s face it, in an explore page filled with luxury photo shoots on exotic beaches, one thing that is going to stand out is an egg on a plain white background.

But the big question is, how did he manage to turn this side project into a partnership with Hulu? Well, once you have the most engaged post in history, a lot of doors start opening up for you. So, let’s explore how the egg got so many likes and gained 10 million followers in what seemed like the blink of an eye. To be honest, it’s simple; it doesn’t exactly look like a piece of branded content.

It’s marketing genius. If we didn’t know any better, we would say the account was one owned by a group of teens looking to troll a celebrity. We can’t deny that in this day and age we jump at the opportunity to knock celebrities down a few pegs and what’s better than letting the celeb world know that a Shutterstock image of an egg would garner more than any of their perfectly poised snaps?

The distinct lack of branding is what allowed the page to really blow up. Being part of #EggGang was an opportunity for users to get involved in something really funny without being sucked into a marketing ploy by “the man”. But it’s also the illusiveness of the page that really brought in the wider audience’s attention, and, we have to admit it, we all got sucked in!

The egg was everywhere. Everyone wanted to know why it was there, who owned the account and what the #EggGang was all about. I’ll give £5 to anyone who didn’t search the @world_record_egg or like the post (please don’t call my bluff). The mystery behind the account created a need-to-know-more FOMO-style reaction. Like they say, less is more and in this case it really was. Working out who was behind such a prolific account became seemingly the internet’s number one priority, with not only the average user talking about it, but celebrities and even national newspapers covering the story (and we all know what that means... more likes and engagements).

But the fun doesn’t stop there! When an account builds up so much interest and is on everyone’s radar, the next move is very important. This transpired into a partnership with Hulu and a message about mental health all to be revealed on Super Bowl Sunday. So something that seemingly had no purpose had one of the strongest messages on the agenda hidden within it.

The final post by @world_record_egg was certainly one that had a varied reaction. This tied together the final saga for the Egg nicely; even when all was revealed people couldn’t help but talk about it. I personally love the message and am very jealous of the well-used pun, but many felt it was a little anti-climactic. Let’s be honest though it’s hard to top getting the most-liked post ever to be an egg.

From start to finish the #EggGang worked perfectly to create such a huge campaign. Not only did they break a world record, tie in one of the biggest sporting events of the year and land a partnership with Hulu, they did this all while promoting a positive message while keeping all of us hooked throughout! Kudos Godfrey!