Hot Pockets Hacks Its Way Onto the Viral Video Chart

How does a brand create a viral video? Hot Pockets seems to have found the answer: pay the people who make viral videos to make one for you. The microwaveable snack maker topped the viral video chart last fall with its spots featuring YouTube super-duo Smosh, and this year it's recruited the manically energetic Toby "Tobuscus" Turner to market its "limited edition" line of frozen snacks on the web. Mr. Turner is wildly popular on YouTube, with 1.8 million subscribers and more than 153 million video views, and he's leveraged that popularity into work with guy-focused brands like Ubisoft and GameStop before. The main spot in Hot Pockets' new "Cool Down" campaign (titled "Hot Hot Hot Pockets") is three minutes of infomercial-spoofing slapstick, playing on Mr. Turner's comic strengths and (as it did with the Smosh spots) aiming square at its market of hungry teenage males who love explosive, absurdist comedy. Meanwhile, Nike tops the chart in a big way this week with its visually arresting "Summer of Football" campaign, whose primary three-minute spot drove most of its impressive 9.1 million views in it's first week out.

Hot Pockets Hacks Its Way Onto the Viral Video Chart

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