The marketing industry is in a back to the future phase, believe it or not. Sure, brand citation distribution/density, media coverage, and social virility have always been coveted by savvy marketers. However, now that beat-the-algo bingo is at least partially obsolete with the evolution from SEO to whatever we call it now (AEO works fine), brands serving up awesomeness that earns propogation wins even more than ever.
Mythogenesis is the creation of modern myths, how stories, people, and brands become legendary. In marketing, it’s at the core of earned media and social virility, the point where authentic acts and cultural resonance turn visibility into belief. Persistent brand escalation is a key component of organic visibility in generative AI and search engine AI driven results. Brands have to have it.
During my recent SMX Advanced Berlin keynote, I shared a technique to ideate earned media strategies and have since received a steady stream of success stories along with, “Thanks Marty.” This article demonstrates an easy method to train AI with 100 generic earned media and social propagation ideas and prompt to help your company strategize possible campaigns.
“Viral” and “Earned” Means Doing Great, Undeniable Deeds + PR: Fabulous ideas, focused strategy and execution rule.
Campaign strategies can range from wild to mild. On the wild side, in 2013, Oakley teamed up with famed golfer Bubba Watson who showed up on the links in a full-on hovercraft golf cart. Mainstream media went nuts, appearing on major news networks, morning shows, and newspapers all over the world. There were reports the hovercraft cost ~$40,ooo, a relatively small price to pay for the massive media the stunt earned. It was big budget, short-lived campaign with a huge footprint.
Contrast that to The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, a campaign built largely on a fantastic idea and the actions of a few people. It grew from a non-charity related ritual and become an global phenomenon associated with ALS.
Training AI to Support Earned Media Campaigns Ideation
Let’s get busy. Start with generic ideas, campaign “seeds” that may have little to do with your particular marketing assignment or the products and services you aim to promote. We’ll use the seeds as training data for generating specific campaign strategy ideas for your specific business and/or mission
These training seeds fall into overlapping categories of corporate social innovation including community engagement, employee activism, sustainability, and creative protest. Many emphasize hands-on community service, like hosting free bike repair days, donating VR headsets to hospitals, or opening coworking spaces for nonprofits. Others push employee-centered activism, such as paying staff to mentor at-risk youth during work hours. There’s also a strong thread of sustainability and ethical production, from transforming packaging into educational games to staging art installations using a brand’s own waste footprint. Finally, some concepts lean into symbolic disruption designed for earned media, i.e. canceling a profitable product to prove a values point, turning Black Friday into Give Back Friday, or publicly replacing a company logo with cause symbols. Together, these categories surface a generic blueprint ideal for AI customization, great for brands looking to create real-world impact while earning attention through authentic, unconventional acts.
Remember, the seeds are generic on purpose, created as training for the AI strategic ideation fire we’re about to light. Screen capture these prompts and upload them to ChatGPT, Claude, or whatever generative AI tool you like best for marketing strategy.
After uploading, the seeds, prompt as follows. Customize where it says, “Door County, Wi” to be the type of business you help market. This works for B2B, even geeky stuff. Also golden for B2C, physical and multi-locations, ecommerce, services, Government, IT, destination marketing, etc. Really, almost anything. Upload a PDF that holds 10 key pages from your websites, mission statements, brand ethics and copy guidelines, describe the brand in your own words, and include any additional training materials you deem important.
PROMPT
“Based on ideas in the 100 generic examples, please create 10 ranked viral marketing campaign concepts for a marketing Door County, Wisconsin that can drive earned media, social engagement, and word-of-mouth buzz.
Start with low-cost, guaranteed local winners and escalate to world-class, headline-grabbing creative stunts. Present results in a clean table with columns for: Rank, Campaign Name, Style (Mild/Medium/Wild), and Why It Works.
The ideas fall into overlapping categories of corporate social innovation: community engagement, employee activism, sustainability, and creative protest. Many emphasize hands-on community service. Expand the categories of ideas as you see fit. Be very creative.
Consider both expensive attempts to hit huge homeruns with a high percentage of success (like when Bubba Watson and Oakley built, “Hover,” a flying golf cart that crushed earned media) and low cost ideas that win on the idea and great execution. Anything you create that would be an easy pitch for a local or national morning show appearance will be golden. Make your ideas all INGENIOUS.”
AI OUTPUT
“Here’s a ranked list of ingenious earned-media campaigns crafted for Door County, Wisconsin, escalating from guaranteed local hits to globally viral showstoppers. Each balances community engagement, creative activism, eco-tourism, and earned PR potential.
Earned Media Marketing Campaign Concepts for Door County, Wisconsin
| Rank | Campaign Name | Style | Why It Works |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | “Kindness Checkouts” | Mild | Local shops partner so every purchase triggers a random act of kindness (e.g., free coffee for next customer, donation to a local cause). Simple, repeatable, and photogenic, great for regional news and “feel-good” morning show segments. |
| 2 | “Lighthouse Lunch Breaks” | Mild | Restaurants deliver free boxed lunches to lighthouse keepers, park staff, and ferry workers one day per year. Charming and human, reinforcing Door County’s heritage of hospitality. Excellent for social storytelling. |
| 3 | “The Great Cherry Tree Trade” | Medium | Locals “trade” unwanted items for cherry saplings, each trade tagged on social with #CherryTrade. Combines sustainability, local agriculture, and visual novelty. Easy local TV coverage. |
| 4 | “Harbor for Heroes Day” | Medium | Businesses and hotels donate one day of profits to fund lake cleanups and mental health retreats for veterans. Emotional resonance meets civic pride; local and state press magnet. |
| 5 | “Doorstep Concerts” | Medium | Musicians perform mini pop-up concerts on residents’ porches (with pre-approval), streamed live. Promotes arts tourism and Door County’s creative vibe while generating viral clips. |
| 6 | “Frozen for a Cause” | Wild | Brave locals and tourists freeze a “moment in time” on the ice for a drone-shot tableau vivant—raising money per participant for local shelters. Combines art, endurance, and visual spectacle, potentially viral social reel. |
| 7 | “The Great Door County Power-Down” | Wild | A coordinated blackout night where businesses go dark for one hour while towns glow only by candlelight and fire pits. Gorgeous imagery + environmental message = massive share potential. |
| 8 | “1000 Hands for the Lake” | Wild | Giant community mural made with handprints in eco-paint on a lakeside barrier. Each handprint = 1 pound of trash pledged to be removed from beaches. Schoolchildren + tourists + drones = national press opportunity. |
| 9 | “The Cherry-Drone Drop” | Wild | With FAA pre-approval, a drone releases thousands of biodegradable cherry confetti pieces over a festival crowd, revealing hidden eco-vouchers and local experiences. Combines spectacle, tourism marketing, and sustainability, great live content. |
| 10 | “The World’s Longest Table on Water” | World-Class | A 2,000-foot floating dinner table across Sturgeon Bay featuring local chefs, live broadcast, and zero-waste dining. A logistical feat with guaranteed national attention from Good Morning America, Today, and travel media—positioning Door County as the world’s most community-centric culinary destination.” |
Here’s the same prompt run for a local boating, fishing, bait, tackle, marine electronics store
Earned Media Marketing Campaign Concepts for a Fishing + Marine Store
| “Rank | Campaign Name | Style | Why It Works |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hooks for Heroes | Mild | Donate one lure for every sale to local veterans’ fishing therapy programs (like Project Healing Waters). Simple, emotional, and shareable, veterans, families, and local news love it. |
| 2 | Minnesota Bait Amnesty Day | Mild | Invite anglers to drop off old or lead-based tackle for safe recycling. Reward them with eco-friendly replacements. Visuals of “piles of banned lead” get press and environmental praise. |
| 3 | Teach a Kid to Fish Week | Mild | Partner with schools and local DNR staff to host free kids’ fishing lessons. Staff become community mentors. Parents film it, local media covers it, and it reinforces multi-generational loyalty. |
| 4 | Hook, Line & Litter Cleanup Derby | Medium | Competitive shoreline cleanup: every bucket of trash earns raffle tickets for rods and sonar tech. Combines gamification, conservation, and strong Instagram visuals of “trash to tackle.” |
| 5 | Night on the Ice: Portable Sonar Demo Party | Medium | Turn a local frozen lake into a “tech tailgate.” Demo sonar, underwater drones, and heated tents with snacks. Creates nighttime spectacle and natural YouTube/Instagram bait (pun intended). |
| 6 | The Great Fish Story Exchange | Medium | Trade-in program: bring your most unbelievable fish story (recorded on video) to earn store credit. Staff vote for the winner live on TikTok. Generates hysterical, shareable storytelling content. |
| 7 | Float the Future: Build-a-Boat Challenge | Wild | Local high school teams build small boats using recycled materials. Sponsor the event and host races at Lake Nokomis. Combines STEM, sustainability, and community pride. Media gold. |
| 8 | Minnesota Ice-Fishing Marathon | Wild | Store staff attempt a 72-hour continuous ice-fishing livestream while raising money for habitat restoration. Viewers donate per hour fished. Excellent winter PR stunt with endurance hook. |
| 9 | The World’s Largest Tackle Box | Wild | Construct a giant, functioning tackle box (big enough to walk through) featuring local brands and conservation displays. Perfect for viral selfies, drone shots, and tourism crossover. |
| 10 | Catch the Future: The First AI Fishing Guide | World-Class | For specific lakes, build and deploy an AI-powered fishing assistant (integrating absolute and inputed via proxies: water temperature gradient, barometric pressure trend, dissolved oxygen stratification, moon overhead/underfoot times, turbidity flux, photoperiod transitions, prey species spawning cycles, wind-driven current breaks, electroconductivity variance, competitive pressure index). Prove it and brand as “Minnesota’s Smartest Angler.” likely coverage in tech and outdoors media.” |
Dig in and ask for modified output by saying, I like this, don’t include that, tile it more towards, x,y, but not z. Add additional clarification like limited staff, costs too much, or say what’s feasible or not. No matter what, it’s likely you’ll gain some at least some strategic ideas that have viral legs.
Of course, you’ll need PR support, internally or with an agency, to let the world know about the fabulous campaigns. Paid ads can be a good PR proxy in channels like Reddit where well constructed, community appropriate, thoughtful ads and take off- continuing after the ads are discontinued.
Happy ideation and we look forward to hearing about your successful strategic initiatives.
