Born out of a larger social program designed to humor smart’s haters, ‘Poop Tweet’ was created in response to @adtothebone’s tweet, “Saw a bird had crapped on a Smart Car. Totaled it.”

Knowing smart’s safety cell can withstand over 9,000 lbs. of force, we calculated that it wouldn't take just one bird’s poop to dent a smart, but rather 4.5 million pigeons, 360,000 turkeys, or 45,000 emus. (We even called turkey and emu farmers who weighed their buckets of excrement to help our cause). We put our findings into an infographic and sent our reply.

Rather than spending money on a media buy, we turned social media into our mouthpiece. We knew that @adtothebone had a high level of social influence, and that he was likely to share creative content. So we built a humorous response that also educated about smart’s safety – and sent it his way. He blogged about it; his blog got picked up, and within three days, it was spreading across the world.

“The Poop Tweet” generated 25 million global impressions, increased our Twitter mentions by 2,200%, made global headlines and was even featured on CNN’s morning show. All with a single tweet, and at a $0.57 CPM.

By going above-and-beyond in our response to a single person’s tweet, we showed that we’re listening to the conversation, and we’re not afraid to play along. And while other brands may use social to release content for the masses in the hopes it could connect with individuals – in true smart fashion, we went the other way around.

The smart brand prides itself on doing things differently. So while others may have taken a serious approach to safety, we stayed true to what we stand for: creativity and fun. We also showed that behind the brand are real people with a sense of humor. And we created a complex piece of content for one person that had appeal for the masses, instead of the other way around.

Since our response was crafted for Twitter, we employed several devices that commonly appear in things that go viral: eccentric humor, data visualization, and, of course, animals.

In just three days, and without spending a single media dollar, Poop Tweet generated 22+ million impressions, and our Twitter mentions increased 2,200%. We hit #1 on Reddit twice, winning the admiration of its hard-to-impress users. We also changed online brand sentiment, with positive sentiment increasing by 27% and negative sentiment dropping by 13%.

Most importantly, Poop Tweet accomplished a major goal for the brand. After years of being a punch line for a perceived lack of safety, a single tweet helped millions become aware of smart’s tridion safety cell. In fact, organic searches for 'tridion safety' cell spiked 333%.