What it takes to go viral: How internet stars like Bogg Bag capitalized on TikTok fame

Last year, the bags were everywhere on social media. One video was posted back in May where a mom packing a Bogg Bag with daily essentials got 1.7 million likes. The post was in partnership with Bloom Nutrition, health supplement company, but mentioned Bogg in the caption. Another post featuring a healthcare worker sporting a Bogg Bag racked up more than 378,000 likes in January. In June, another nurse who accessorized the bag in an unsponsored post got nearly 98,000 likes.

Bogg Bag has gifted influencers in the past, providing free products in exchange for exposure on the influencer’s platform. But it wasn’t until last July that the brand started working with TikTok creators, who are paid a commission on sales. Then, in November, Bogg partnered with an influencer agency, Mominfluencer, to continue influencer marketing efforts. Meaning, after organic viral success, Bogg Bag is integrating influencer marketing into the strategy and backing it with paid media dollars. Last year, influencers made up just .6% of the marketing and creative budget. That figure is soon expected to be closer to 5%, according to Vaccarella.

Yet, Vaccarella says the brand’s virality was more luck of the draw than anything else. The brand, which started back in 2008, only started spending on marketing at the tail end of 2023, budgeting $4 million for paid ads in 2024 in light of its newfound success. 

Before that, the social media strategy was grassroots, relegated to posts on Instagram and Facebook. “A lot of it was inexperience. The only way that I knew to speak to our customers — both our DTC [direct to consumer] customers and our retail partners — was to talk about them on social,” she said. 

There wasn’t a science to it. For a long while, Vaccarella added, Bogg hadn’t even had a proper photoshoot. Things started to take off after Hurricane Sandy in 2012 hit the Northeast and Vaccarella donated cosmetically defective backs as part of a care package impacted by the storm. Bogg’s uptick in popularity continued into the pandemic. Nurses and healthcare workers started talking about the brand on social, taking it more viral last year. 

Marketers have long said that going viral isn’t a strategy, but that hasn’t stopped brands from looking to TikTok and influencers in hopes of striking gold on the algorithm’s platform and reach a massive audience. 

Bogg’s success follows a similar pattern to that of the viral Stanley cups, Starbucks cups, The Pink Stuff cleaning product, Dyson Airwrap, Bissell’s Little Green portable carpet cleaner, Hatch alarm clock, Poppi soda brand, and the list goes on. The brand exists, influencers discover the brand and talk about it until it becomes a cult favorite. The operative word being discovered. Going viral is less often dumb luck than it is a well-oiled marketing machine capitalizing on trends and shopper behavior, as was the case with Stanley. (The drink ware brand’s virality reportedly sparked from a partnership with The Buy Guide, an affiliate marketing site.)

The trend of viral success stories like Bogg Bag’s has raised the question: Is going viral a product of the stars aligning, a well-executed strategy or both? Should virality be sought after in an increasingly fragmented social landscape where TikTok (known for its viral algorithm) is set to be potentially be banned this month? 

“[Bogg’s] ‘sudden’ success in the last few years wasn’t a viral fluke, but the combination of right place, right time (selling antimicrobial, washable accessories during a pandemic),” said Rachael Kay Albers, founder and creative director RKA Ink, a branding and marketing agency, in an email to Digiday. She added that there’s often a misunderstanding that virality is merely a game of “whack-a-mole” until something takes off. 

Notably, going viral isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be, strategists say. Recall the Solo saga, the DTC outdoor stove brand’s marketing campaign with Snoop Dogg. To make a long story short, Solo Stove partnered with Snoop, flicking at the idea he was “giving up smoke” or quitting cannabis to generate buzz and later revealing the smoke was referring to Solo Stove’s fire pits. The campaign was met with mixed reactions, where some people felt misled.

“As a brand strategist, I would rather hit strong body shots, singles and doubles than just hit a home run and then strike out for the rest of the game,” said Nicholas Love, CEO of Kulur Group challenger brand agency, and founder and executive director of Dope Thinkers nonprofit. In other words, a consistent, methodical approach to social strategy is a better bet than one-time virality, especially if it doesn’t lead to consistent sales and steady revenue growth.

As a result of its 15 minutes of viral fame, Bogg is stretching its influencer marketing spend to maintain social capital, up from .6% of the marketing and creative budget in 2024 with plans to spend closer to 5% of that budget in the coming year, per Vaccarella. Going forward, the plan is to continue to lean into social media and influencers in hopes to strike viral gold again, she added.

Even as social media fragmentations muddies the idea of monocultural moments and the TikTok ban looms closer than ever, Bogg has taken an attitude similar to other marketers: Resignation.

“We’re not really rethinking removing TikTok right now. We’re just thinking about using TikTok while it still exists and, and how we can do that the best we can,” Vaccarella told Digiday, adding “I don’t know what else to do.” 

This year, Vaccarella says Bogg will likely double the $4 million budget of 2024 to spend $8 million across all channels, including email marketing, in-store product signage, and social media, like TikTok. In December, Bogg expanded into Target stores. (Vaccarella did not offer a specific marketing budget breakdown.)

As opposed to pursuing social media virality, the marketing strategy going forward leverages email marketing, social media buys, in-store product signage and public relations in hopes to take the brand to a national stage.