In Spring 2008, musician Dave Carroll took a United Airlines flight heading toward Nebraska for a 1-week tour.  Due to carry-on bag restrictions, he had to check his $3,500 Taylor guitar.  While sitting on the tarmac, another passenger brought everyone’s attention to the United Airlines baggage handlers who were throwing Carroll’s guitar (among other things) into the plane in a manner that left little hope for survival.  After 9 months of phone calls and discussions with a myriad of United Airlines employees, Carroll was finally told that United Airlines would not compensate him for his loss.  You can read the full story here.

So what did Carroll do?  He turned to the power of the social web, namely YouTube, to share his story — and it worked!

Carroll wrote a song and filmed a video called “United Breaks Guitars” (which is very funny) and uploaded it to YouTube on July 9, 2009.  You can view it below (or watch it here).  As of today, not even two months since it’s release, the video has been viewed over 5.3 million times.

Word got out and the video became a big enough viral sensation that United had to respond.  They contacted Carroll and offered to compensate him for the damages done to his guitar, but Carroll declined the money and asked United to donate it to charity.  He uploaded a new video on July 10th in which he describes his discussion with United, which you can watch below (or view it here on YouTube).

On August 17, 2009, Carroll uploaded the second song and video in his 3-part United song series.  As of today, just two weeks later, already nearly 300,000 people have watched the video, shown below (or view it here).

Carroll is now writing the third and final song in his United series, which will be released on YouTube with a corresponding video soon.

There are two things marketers must learn from this story.  First, the social Web is a powerful tool with the potential to make or break a brand.  Make it work for you, not against you.  Second, United breaks guitars.

Anyway, I put together a viral marketing theory pyramid with the 5 phases of the best viral marketing campaigns.  In my mind, the best viral marketing campaigns are not just campaigns that spread across the Internet, but rather the ones that people become emotionally involved in and speak out loud and vehemently about.  Take a look at my pyramid below, and then leave a comment and let me know your thoughts.  Do you see anything missing?  What would you add or change?

Click here to see a larger version of the image

Check out the Evolution of Dance below.  It’s hilarious and nostalgic at the same time.  In fact, I think just about everyone (at least in the U.S.) who lived at some point between 1950 to the present will enjoy this video.  No wonder it’s so popular.

I will post my two favorite viral videos from Truveo’s top 10 list here though, because there is a reason why they went viral and were viewed by so many people – they’re great.

Both videos are amusing and borderline inappropriate for PG audiences.  I suppose you could say the same thing about most Axe commercials, too.

Check out two of the Axe webisodes below, and you’ll see why they’re still popular online.  A mix of humor and shock value along with content that is still relevant two years later make these videos somewhat timeless.  Truth be told, they could have been made today or five years ago.  Since content lives online for a very long time, creating timeless viral videos can impact your brand and your business for many years to come.

Warning: the first Axe video gets a bit distasteful toward the end, but is otherwise fairly harmless.

Warning: the second Axe video is a bit more crude in parts, but overall, only mildly distasteful.

Beware of the Doghouse- Hilarious! – Watch more free videos 

What do you think?

Now it’s your turn to fill in the blank.  Leave a comment with your response to …

“You know a customer really loves your product when ___________.”

Don’t be shy, but do keep it clean.

Hat tip to SciFi.com for this story.