#TikTokMadeMeBuyIt: Biz expert says Stanley unleashed 'perfect storm' of viral marketing for Quencher mugs

Published

1 year ago

January 24, 2024

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A major marketing expert claimed that Stanley unleashed a “perfect storm” of viral marketing with social media monolith TikTok to get consumers crazy for its 40 oz. Quencher mugs.

Victor Lee, the president of marketing consulting group Advantage Unified Commerce, recently spoke to Fox News Digital about how the company used the social media platform to snag the attention of millions of Americans and get them to buy its tumbler dubbed the “Stanley Cup” by fans.

The strategy netted the company ten times its usual annual profits in just a short period of time and made legions of consumers ravenous for the product.

The expert called Stanleys entrance into the viral marketing space “brilliant,” especially for being able to take something as innocuous as a water bottle and turn it into a must-have product.

The Stanley Cup craze has been in overdrive in recent months, evidenced in viral videos showing consumers buying up store shelves of the product within minutes, and weeping for joy after getting them for Christmas.

The craze has become so prevalent that headlines have been made aboutparents telling bulliesto lay off their kids for not having an official Stanley tumbler.

Lee began by discussing the current social media landscape and how the tumbler company was able to use it to its advantage.

The expert mentioned how the current way to win the social media race is by doing the best at leveraging the attention of the platform users for the company or influencers benefit.

“Your phone is now saying, if I have five minutes to your attention, where do you want to go? And wherever you tap to, that’s who wins,” he said. “And if they don’t give you enough good stuff to occupy five minutes, you know you’re shutting that app off or that site off, and you’re going to another button, and you’re hitting it. That’s the race.”

He noted, “Who wins the race is what they did with your attention. And I think this is where TikTok fell into” Stanleys plans.

The expert further detailed how TikTok, compared to other social media platforms, is best equipped to trigger audiences into a reaction, including buying products.

Providing an example, he said, “TikTok is very well known for, I’m going to throw a random challenge. Go do it. Go run and jump into that swimming pool. Go hop the fence or do this. And there’s a lot of other controversial stuff.”

He also referenced the growing “#TikTokMadeMeBuyIt” trend thats been sweeping the platform. The hashtag currently boasts 86.6 billion views and counting on all videos related to it. The trend involves users showing off the products theyve bought while scrolling the app, which seems to drive more marketing and sales for the products depicted.

This almost compulsive virality combined with product placement means “now there’s real business implications” for these social media platforms, Lee said, before adding that Stanley taking advantage of this dynamic “was the perfect storm.”

“I would say they absolutely defined a moment of time and succeeded in it,” the expert declared.

Explaining how the company did this specifically, Lee noted that Stanley relied on a mixture of factors, including TikToks platform, and Stanleys knowledge of its audience.

He said, “It’s not all luck, its not all strategy. Its a fine mix of it. But it’s also a conviction of knowing where an audience is, in this case social media and TikTok specifically, and then allowing multiple adjacencies.”

Providing examples, he continued, “Like you started innovative with an influencer, if you want to call it innovative, then you went into TikTok. Suddenly it’s like, Well, what’s the other adjacency? Well, is this audience also a Target audience? More Target than probably other retailers? Are they a Starbucks audience? More Starbucks than other coffee? Let’s go there.”

Stanley marketed its cups with both Target and Starbucks. The Target exclusive Stanley Quencher made news after viral video showed customers at a Target in El Paso allegedly buying up the stores entire stock within minutes. Lee said the brand partnership itself was a “traditional” strategy rather than “innovative” on its own, but then combined with the design of cups and TikTok marketing, thats where it become innovative.

He said, “But they struck it where it is innovative. It is the big Stanley Cup, giant one. It is colored. It is exclusive. It is that. So that’s their innovation, which fits.”

Continuing, Lee discussed how social media, particularly TikTok, has been utilized by Stanley and other companies to generate a connection between the consumer and the product they see on their favorite influencers’ channels for example.

Mentioning his experience as the head of Hasbros digital marketing, he said, “During that time the craze in our world was the unboxing of toys. Why would a five-year-old kid watch an hour of YouTube of somebody opening up a toy? And what we found out is there’s a psychological effect of surprise, I have something, and it’s open, and there’s a connection to like, Christmas, of opening something up. And that to them just captured their attention.”

He added that TikTok presents the current form of that. “Now you fast-forward it six, ten years later. What is that? Well, there’s entertainment value TikTok is a massive entertainment value of that.”

Lee added that TikTok is having a “double effect” on users. “Were we interesting? And did you do something? And I think that’s the magic intersection that people aren’t talking a lot about,” he said.

Noting how marketing products benefits from this connection established between users and social media, he said, “Social media was always passive. I get to watch something, I get to engage, I get to feel that if there’s a celebrity involved, that I am closer to them than if I see them in their natural environment, on TV or in a movie. And social allows me a glimpse of their real life. Now, if I happened to start buying something from them, it makes me a tighter connection.”

“Because social feels more intimate and I’m closer to you and if I trust you it’s a perfect storm, is whats happening.”

Entertainment

Tomorrowland: ‘Devastating’ blaze destroys main stage at major festival – two days before it was due to begin

Published

39 mins ago

July 17, 2025

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Tomorrowland: 'Devastating' blaze destroys main stage at major festival - two days before it was due to begin

A huge fire has destroyed the main stage of a major festival in Belgium – two days before it was due to begin.

Tomorrowland is a dance music event as big as Glastonbury – and David Guetta was due to perform.

Footage showed flames and thick plumes of black smoke engulfing the stage and spreading to nearby woodland on Wednesday.

The annual festival in the town of Boom, north of Brussels, is one of the biggest in Europe and attracts about 400,000 people over two consecutive weekends.

It is famous for its immersive and elaborate designs and attracts big names within dance music – including Guetta, best known for tracks When Love Takes Over and Titanium.

Dutch DJs Martin Garrix and Charlotte de Witte were also due to perform, along with the likes of Swedish House Mafia, Eric Prydz and Alok.

The festival’s website described the creative elements which went into the elaborate main stage.

The theme, described as Orbyz, was “set in a magical universe made entirely out of ice” and “full of mythical creatures”.

Organisers said no one was injured in the blaze but confirmed “our beloved main stage has been severely damaged”, adding they were “devastated”.

Spokesperson Debby Wilmsen added: “We received some truly terrible news today. A fire broke out on the Tomorrowland site … and our main stage was essentially destroyed there, which is truly awful.

“That’s a stage that took years to build, with so much love and passion. So I think a lot of people are devastated.”

Despite the fire, Tomorrowland organisers said they were still expecting 38,000 festivalgoers at DreamVille, the event’s campsite.

Politics

PM criticised over ‘appalling’ decision to suspend four Labour MPs

Published

39 mins ago

July 17, 2025

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Starmer suspends four Labour MPs for breaches of party discipline

Sir Keir Starmer has suspended four MPs for repeated breaches of party discipline.

Brian Leishman, Chris Hinchliff, Neil Duncan-Jordan and Rachael Maskell have lost the whip, meaning they are no longer part of Labour’s parliamentary party and will sit as independent MPs.

The suspension is indefinite pending a review.

Three other MPs have had their trade envoy roles removed: Rosena Allin Khan, Bell Ribeiro-Addy and Mohammed Yasin.

Politics latest: Suspended MPs defend their voting record

All seven had voted against the government’s welfare reforms earlier this month. However, it is understood this is not the only reason behind the decision, with sources citing “repeated breaches of party discipline”.

More than 100 MPs had initially rebelled against the plan to cut personal independent payments (PIP). Ultimately, 47 voted against the bill’s third reading, after it was watered down significantly in the face of defeat.

Ms Maskell was one of the lead rebels in the welfare revolt, and has more recently called for a wealth tax to fund the U-turn.

The York Central MP has spoken out against the government on a number of other occasions since the election, including on winter fuel and cuts to overseas aid.

Confirming the suspension, Ms Maskell told Sky News that she “doesn’t see herself as a rebel” but “somebody that is prepared to fulfil (her) role here of holding the executive to account and speaking truth to power”.

She stopped short of criticising the decision, saying: “I hold my hand out to the prime minister and hope he takes that and wants to reach back because I think it’s really important that we work together.”

Ms Maskell was first elected in 2015, while the other suspended MPs were newly elected last year.

Mr Hinchliff, the MP for North East Hertfordshire, has proposed a series of amendments to the flagship planning and infrastructure bill criticising the government’s approach.

Mr Duncan-Jordan, the MP for Poole, led a rebellion against the cut to the winter fuel payments while Alloa and Grangemouth MP Mr Leishman has been critical of the government’s position on Gaza.

Suspended Labour MPs clearly hit a nerve with Starmer

Tamara Cohen

Political correspondent

@tamcohen

After a tricky few weeks for the government, in which backbenchers overturned plans to cut back welfare spending, now a heavy hand to get the party into line.

All four suspended MPs appear to be surprised – and upset.

Three more have lost plum roles as trade envoys – all on the left of the party.

All were active in the rebellion against the government’s welfare reforms, and voted against the changes even after a series of U-turns – but were among 47 Labour MPs who did so.

When MPs were told after the welfare vote that Number 10 was “fully committed to engaging with parliamentarians”, this was not what they were expecting.

We’re told the reasons for these particular suspensions go wider – over “persistent breaches of party discipline” – although most are not high profile.

In the scheme of things, Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell rebelled against the Labour whip hundreds of times under New Labour, without being suspended.

But these MPs’ pointed criticism of the Starmer strategy has clearly hit a nerve.

Read Tamara’s analysis in full here

‘Couldn’t support making people poorer’

Mr Duncan-Jordan told Sky News that he understood speaking out against benefit cuts would “come at a cost” but said he “couldn’t support making disabled people poorer”.

Mr Leishman echoed that sentiment, saying: “I firmly believe that it is not my duty as an MP to make people poorer, especially those that have suffered because of austerity and its dire consequences.”

Both said they remain committed to the Labour Party and its values, suggesting they have no plans to join the new party being set up by former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and ousted MP Zarah Sultana.

Similarly Mr Hinchliff said in a brief statement: “I remain proud to have been elected as a Labour MP and I hope in time to return to the Labour benches.”

The suspensions will be seen as an attempt to restore discipline ahead of the summer recess following a number of rebellions that has forced the government into U-turns.

As well as watering down the welfare bill, some cuts to the winter fuel payment have been reversed, leaving Chancellor Rachel Reeves with a fiscal blackhole to fill.

However, the move risks creating further divisions with a number of Labour MPs criticising the decision.

Starmer ‘rolling out the carpet to Reform’

Ian Byrne, Labour MP for Liverpool West Derby, said he was “appalled” by the suspensions as he and 44 others voted against welfare cuts.

He said this isn’t the first time the Starmer leadership has “punished MPs for standing up for what’s right”, as he and six others were suspended last year for voting against the two-child benefit cap.

“These decisions don’t show strength. They are damaging Labour’s support and risk rolling out the red carpet for Reform,” he added.

Richard Burgon, who was also temporarily suspended in the two-child benefit cap revolt, said he had hoped the leadership would take a different approach to backbenchers.

“Sadly, it isn’t yet doing so. To help stop a Reform government, it really must do so,” he said.

Jon Trickett, Labour MP for Normanton and Hemsworth, said “it’s not a sin to stand up for the poor and disabled”, adding: “Solidarity with the suspended four.”

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